Yep, I would have been begging for a ticket. LOL. At least I would be able to sit the next day. Glad it worked out the way it did. And I would like to personally thank you for being level headed & not shooting the dogs.

Nice to see you kept a coolheaded through it and had more common sense than being legalistic or vengeful. Hopefully your problems are resolved.

I don't have to worry about dogs on the property since I keep out M-44's for coyote control and signs are up as well as adjacent landowners know I do coyote control with cyanide. If a dog happens on the property, there's nothing I can do to save it and it shouldn't be there anyway since it was trespassing due to irresponsible owner's.

the last I checked, a dog couldn't read a no trespassing sign, and I've never seen a dog that was trained not to cross a fence, so how is the owners supposed to keep this from happening?

I would think that if these hunters actually cared about the safety of their dogs they wouldn't turn them lose to run on property they are trespassing on.

When I turn my dogs loose it is on my land, public woods, or land I have permission on, and about one out of every five times they cross on to someone elses land. Now how am I supposed to keep them from doing this?

Wow. That attitude is exactly why it wouldn't bother me if that style of hunting just disappeared. If you can't control your dogs, then you shouldn't be running them where they have any chance of getting on to private property and ruining things for others.

Had the same problem the weekend before opening day of deer season,,,contacted my GW,,,he said " SHOOT AWAY MY FRIEND, SHOOT AWAY " Dogs shouldnt have been on our place,,,sorry ! We spend way too much money on this sport, and with the high prices of everything involved,,,crazy to have it wasted with some numnutz loose dogs.

Probably most dog men work to keep it from happening but there are those that have the don't give a darn attitude that make it difficult for the rest.

Well this type of hunting isn't going anywhere. And my dogs don't disturb deer hunters seeing that I hunt at night and if you are hog hunting at night and they accidently get on your place, they aren't disturbing you because they won't run h

We have problems with strays occasionally. We also have several hog hunters that have dogs that get on our property due to the fact that a hog and dog can run across a 3000 acre peice of property in less than 10 minutes. They call and ask permission and are allowed to get their dogs and the hog if they take it out dead. We have a rule of thumb in our area that no hunting dogs are turned loose one month before the beginning of archery season. This gives things time to calm down and seems to work for everyone. I'm thankful I don't share borders with landowners with these attitudes. I'd hate to know I shared a border with a person that knowingly keeps out poison that could kill someones very expensive dog that may have just broke his chain or inadvertantly got off his chain. You would have a difficult time around here.

I'm sure my FIL who's lost dozens of head of sheep to coyotes and stray dogs would love to have you for a neighbor...

Everyone talks about the law concerning shooting a dog. If you read the same law, it will tell you that it is the OWNERS responsibility to control their dog and keep it restricted.

I say both sides follow the law. One doesn't shoot the dog and the other controls theirs...no issue. And if you follow the law, you don't have to worry about someone putting poison out for coyotes and varmints...which is perfectly legal.

It's obvious that not many people on here have ever coon or hog hunted with dogs. So I will explain how it works. You cut your dogs loose and they take off as fast as they can away from you and go wherever. Now if you think you would be able to keep up with them to make sure they don't cross over on somebody elses land, your wrong. It's not the dogs fault for crossing over. They are doing what they do. And there is nothing the owners can do about it, except retrieve the dogs and get off the persons property. Now if your dog is just a pet and leaves the house and does this, then yes the owner is responsible. But I'm speaking out for all the coon and hog hunters out there. There is nothing we can do to keep a dog from crossing a fence, and there never will be anything we can do. And idk how a hog hunter would feel about it, but a lot of coon dogs are expensive. I know a guy that had 25000 offered for his, so if you ever decide to shoot one, you could be asking for trouble.

You are absolutely right, it's not the dogs fault, it's yours. They're your dogs and you, and you alone are responsible for them.
All the excuses in the world will not change the fact that, dogs or humans, once they cross that fence line, it's defined as trespassing. If you can't control them, then don't let them loose knowing what could happen to them.

@Smith: I understand how hog and coon dogs work and I do not condone shooting a dog just because it is on my property. The dog attacks livestock or shows aggression to a human, and all bets are off. I don't care if the dog is worth 1 million dollars.

My other issue is the complete lack of responsibility that the owners of said dogs have for the dogs and for other property owners. I agree 100% that the dog is not at fault and wouldn't blame the dog one bit.

If you know that your dogs are not going to stay on your property then you are intentionally breaking the law. If you know that your dogs are not going to stay on your property, I would highly recommend contacting neighboring ranches to find out if they have bait stations or cyanide bombs on their place, for the sake of the dogs.

Just because someone hog hunts or coon hunts with dogs does not give them the right to go where they please. Also, crossing fences with firearms will raise the penalty of simple trespassing.

I personally have no issue with hog/coon hunting with dogs and have enjoyed the experience myself. It is the lack of respect some show that bothers me. Many I have dealt with are great folks and respectful of their animals and other places...but a few can ruin it for many.

It's not the landowner's fault or his/her problem if a dog runs onto his land and dies from a cyanide bomb. It's your fault for not controlling and taking care of your dogs.

Are you seriously insinuating that a landowner shouldn't be allowed to do what he sees fit with his OWN land?

What I'm saying is people shouldn't get bent out of shape for a dog crossing a fence. And toolman, since you seem to be an expert, come show me how to train my dogs from crossing a fence that they aren't supposed to. And if my dogs do cross on and eat poison and it kills them, then it's my loss, I know not to hunt there anymore. As far as shooting a dog for threatening the health of a person or running cattle, if the landowner doesn't shoot them, I probably will. Ive had to shoot my own dogs for the same reason. Also, any time somebody cuts a dog loose to go hunt, they are always taking the risk of his/her dog crossing a property boundary no matter where it's at, or atleast that's the case where I live. But the truth of the matter is, this type of hunting isn't going anywhere. So that means that coon and hog dogs are going to keep crossing property boundaries from time to time, and there is nothing the owners of the dogs can do about it, so that means no matter how much yall want to gripe and moan about it and give your two cents on the issue, it is still going to happen.

I'm not saying I like to hunt places where my dogs could cross a property boundary, and most of the time they don't. I don't even cross a fence that isn't mine unless they get treed. I sit and hope that they come back, but if they get treed then I don't have a choice because they aren't going anywhere. But it's actually not as easy as you may think to find a place with enough land to not have to worry about it. I'm just saying that when they do, there is nothing that I can do to stop it, and that goes for all the other coon hunters, and especially hog hunters. When I do have to cross a property boundary, I don't treat it like it's my own. I respect it, go to the tree normally to get my dog, and don't shoot the coon out, then I leave. I don't know what other people do, but this is what I do.

I shot my nieghbors breeder pit in my nieghborhood because she went off on me for raking my front yard. After she decided to her attention to some kids across the street I was able to grab my .38 from the truck. She came charging across the street and I was able to get out of her way long enough to put a hollow point in her head.

Called police immediately, took 2.5 hours for the most horrible cop to show up, on top of that I was questioned immediately why I was doing yard work with a handgun.
The owners tried to sue but had no case, they have 4 pits and at the time they had no fence. The dog was aggressive, charging, and had no tags. Only reason I didn't get drug through the mud and into court. A lot of times, its just not worth it. I'm the hero to all my nieghbors but I'm the dog killer to them...they yell it every time they see me.

So you are saying that you're hog dogs don't run off hogs?

Classic.

DRAMA

I have respect for every type of hunting . My only problem is with disrespectful hunter. Now days especially if you want to hunt wether with dogs or anything else it takes more work and research. Thankfully I am alowed to hunt many properties for free and I feel it is my job to try and locate and talk to all property owners around these properties( yes it takes a lot of work and research sometimes especially with the smaller properties)but its the right thing to do. On all of the smaller properties I call and let neighbors and owners know when I will be coming out and when I will be leaving, and I always have a plan on what I will do should I have to go on someone else's property. Unless you are hunting a huge property where crossing fence lines is not an issue I think every hunter should do the same and pass that respect down to their children. For any hunter to go out and hunt ( or release dogs) on a small tract knowing that boundaries will probably be crossed without notifying the neighbors and putting a plan in place is very disrespectful!! And that is why it is getting so hard to find a place to hunt to many disrespectful hunters that think that it is their right to hunt and not caring what problems they cause other hunters and land owners. If you release dogs on fifty acres and know that the probability of those dogs crossing on to other properties is very likely and don't have the courtesy to call neighboring property owners then you are willingly trespassing!!!! When I was young I could walk out my back door and hunt for miles we respected the land and if we saw something that needed to be fixed we fixed it if it needed to be cleaned we cleaned it if there was a problem with live stock we made sure to let the landowner know if it couldn't be fixed by us alone. I absolutely hate that it is not like that anymore!!! I make sure my children are learning to be respectful responsible hunters and I also try to get as many children in the neighbor hood outdoors and teach them the same respect. The work to hunt gets harder every year and it gets harder to find places to hunt I have children lined up to go hunting with just not enough resources to take them all because of disrespectful hunters through the years. Sorry about the going on it is just something that gets stuck in my craw I I could go on for hours about it!!!!
So to all of you out hunting today good luck to you be safe and please be respectful to others our hunting future depends on it!!

Where did you see that it says I have hog dogs? For some reason it didn't show the full comment.

Just thought 'h' was for hogs. My bad

It was for hogs but I don't have hog dogs I have coon dogs. The reason this topic aggravates me so bad is because one time a couple of my dogs crossed over on a guys place about a quarter mile from his house. I drove to where they were at and stopped at the fence and tried to call them back, because there was a clear no trespassing sign. Sure enough here comes the owner who met me in the middle of the road cussing and threatening to shoot not only my dogs but me as well, when I never crossed on to his place. He never even gave me time to go up to his house and ask if I could retrieve them before he showed up. Long story short though, they came back and we went on our way.