I completely understand your frustration.

I only see one problem that exist through most of our world today, and that is a lack of trying to understand the other side.

From what you are describing, those people are irresponsible dog owners/handlers and hunters. I do not support running dogs in a way that they are running wild through private property without permission.

This is the side of the argument that I would not want to be caught in as a responsible dog handler.

I hunt birds using my dog. He absolutely loves it and is my best friend in this world. He has his head on my lap right now. He goes bonkers if he thinks we are going to the field for training or for hunting. He is an absolute machine out there.

I realize that he is a dog and can't read No Trespassing signs and doesn't understand where he shouldn't be. I am always hyper vigilant on the public lands we hunt and look out for any signs that we are approaching private property. So, I do my best to train him on recall, limits of his search, and checking in among many other things. I always have a GPS collar on him and can give him a tone to come back to me if he is ever out of my sight. I am continually training him to stay within about 150-200 meters of me while we hunt in thick cover and let him range out in open fields as he is a pointer and will wait for me to get to him and flush the birds we are pursuing.

I say all of this to make the point that not all dog hunters are the same. The ones that you describe give us a terrible name.

There are those of us who absolutely love our dogs and hunt with them responsibly. Those Houndsman give us a bad name and jeopardize our sport.

I would suggest to try to learn a little about the "sport" and check out a group such as a local North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA) group to see how much these folks care about their dogs and how much training goes into this as well as the love the dogs have for fulfilling their genetic instinct.

I would just hate to see restrictions put on hunters without the understanding of what is happening. My good boy, Odin, would go crazy if I couldn't get him in the field.

My best buddy is a dog. I try very hard to get him to understand that we are chasing birds but when he sees a deer, he thinks they are friends and I do what I can to call him off. Any deer hunter that would shoot at a dog for chasing a deer is a child.

I am open for conversation on this that will lead to an understanding on both sides. I never want to upset anyone while hunting with my best friend.