radio collars for hunting dogs

[Big Lew]

Within the thread, "Compensation for cougars hunters, the legal way?", "stoneguide" encourages the use of tracking collars on the dogs, and although I don't hunt with hounds, I strongly agree. While out treking in the mountianous regions between Pitt Lake and Harrison Lake I have come upon someone's hound (without a tracking collar) lost, or stuck on a rock ridge whimpering while waiting for his owner. I don't interfere with the situation, but report the hound's location to the CO's office as soon as I am out. On the last one, the hound was stuck amonst some rock rubble against a steep face when I passed by quite early in the morning. It probably was there over night. It was still there when I came out (near Olive Lake) in the late afternoon. I could hear someone blowing a horn down and across the valley, so I blew a whistle and pounded on a dry log every once and awhile until the fellows crossed over and came up close enough that I knew they could hear their hound. I then had to hurry out before dark to get to my truck. I'm sure a tracking collar would have helped them.

[dana]

Seems many houndsmen nowadays like to hunt dogs instead of lions. They drive around till they hit a track. Don't matter how old the track is, could be 2, 3 or 4 days old. They turn out with their fingers crossed hoping a bunch of mutts will do the work for them and figure it out. They then drive or sled around with their tracking devices trying to find to closest road to the dogs. Some of the dogs trash out and others just give up. The houndsmen collects up the dogs he can and then spends 3 or 4 days trying to find the others. Happens all winter long, again and again. The amount of lions treed goes up with the amount of beer being drunk afterwards. :-D

[Big Lew]

I would tend to agree with "Dana", but I've chanced upon 4 dogs that were likely being used by houndsmen over the years. Everyone of them were in remote areas far from driveable roads. As I reported in an earlier post many months ago, one of the dogs actually wasn't lost, but was tied to a small bush, out in the hot, unshaded sun, too far from any water. It had an Oregon tag on it's collar, and was up the east side of Stave Lake. Some fellow forum members suggested it was likely being used illegally in our Province. When I asked the local CO, he said they could say they were only running coyotes, and there wasn't much he could do about it unless he caught them actually hunting bears or cats.