This is some of the crew. The other bloke is Shannon and he runs the red dog and the black and white boof headed thing he's holding.

Looks like everyone but the pig is having a good time.

Good pics. Which one of those is the strike dog? I'm assuming its not one in a vest due to the heat. Is it that little white one with the red face. The red dog with the dark muzzle looks like my dogs.

Also, can you find out where they get those vests?

The vests are made from old fire hose/leather. Most saddlery shops in the north make them.

What do you mean by strike dog?

Try some of these sites.

www.tomstarps.com.au

A site of interest.

www.animalfirstaidproducts.com

and a Aussie pig hunting site.

Boar dogs

Rattlesnaker is the expert here, but I believe that a strike dog in the one that initially picks up the scent/trail. Some dogs supposedly can ride on the hood of the truck and strike a hot trail from there. Or is that just urban legend?

hell Charles, if it's fresh and strong even I can strike trail

CHelm is mainly correct. Many guys will throw a strike dog on the hood of a truck and let them smell a hog from there while driving slowly around fields. We do something similar but we don't actually put them on the hood like most guys do, just on top of the dog box or in the dog box. Some can probably pick up a hot track but most dogs will just wind hogs out in an open field. When the wind is right good winding dogs can smell hogs almost a mile away. When the dog either barks or starts moving around the driver will stop and let him jump off and go find the hog.

But a hood dog (sounds like someone from 5th ward in houston) is only one form of a strike dog. I consider a strike dog to be any dog that goes out and finds hogs by scent and then bays them up until other dogs get there to help catch the hog. I'm probably just using different terminology than what you're used to.

Bakes - thanks for the links, I'll check them out.

quote:

Originally posted by kweber:
hell Charles, if it's fresh and strong even I can strike trail

I know what you mean. The first one I killed with my kids I smelled before it got there. They thought I was kidding when I told them I smelled a hog but in just a few minutes he stepped out.

But I am pretty sure that a dog will do a better job than me at following the trial through the brush!

quote:

Originally posted by Rattlesnaker:

But a hood dog (sounds like someone from 5th ward in houston) is only one form of a strike dog. I consider a strike dog to be any dog that goes out and finds hogs by scent and then bays them up until other dogs get there to help catch the hog.

That is also what I understand by the term -- I had just heard that some dogs were good enough to find place with a fresh trail without being on the ground, while others have to range through the brush to find a fresh trail. But what you say about smelling them in the fields makes a lot of sense.

There are guys that hunt like that here, with the dogs finding off the back of the ute. Gary and Matts method is to walk the creek lines and bump into the pigs. The little jack russle is a bundle of energy. He ranges out and finds a lot of them. Mind you the other dogs find their share as well.