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Our Competition
By Jerry Moll
12/29/2007 3:17:25 PM
By: Jerry Moll
Four handlers and a judge stood silently, only katydids and the occasional whippoorwill broke the tranquility of the early morning hillside. The handlers nervously shuffled their feet on the forest floor as they repeatedly cupped their ears in the expectation of hearing that first bark. One of the handlers requested, “Can we tighten up a little”? “We can tighten up just as soon as we have something to tighten up toward, I have no idea where the dogs are”, came the response of the card carrier. Just then a roar was heard in a far off hollow, neither the judge nor the handlers could distinguish which dogs were and were not opening. Three handlers screamed their strike calls in succession, followed by the forth sheepishly contributing, “Strike me too I guess”. Within a split second the tree calls came in the same order and the same fervor, with the judge repeating each call. The scores were written down and as the card was folded away the cast headed toward the hounds with much anticipation and trepidation. None of the five men honestly knew for sure what they would find at or in the tree upon their arrival, all had just made a competitive gamble just as they did when they plunked down their hard earned money on the entry table. This ambiguity put some adrenalin in their bloodstreams and kicked their heart rates up a little as they prepared to witness the results.
Humans are very competitive and challenge driven by nature and hunters are even more so that way, in my opinion. Even the introverted hunter who escapes to the woods and fields for solitude is competing with his chosen quarry and with Old Mother Nature herself. We as Houndsmen add in another dimension of complexity with our thinking, living and breathing canine companions. Our Treedogs compete with one another in terms of supremacy, speed, accuracy, endurance and many other aspects of the chase regardless if they are cast with others on a pleasure hunt or in Nite Hunt competition. The competitive spirit in our hounds is an extension of ourselves as we attempt to bond into a cohesive team. This solid team effort is required to thoroughly enjoy the pleasure hunting experience or to succeed in reaching significant achievement in the Nite Hunt competition arena.
Unfortunately in this day and age we as sportsmen are given no choice but to compete with the evolutionary changes within our modern society. The cities and suburbs of yesteryear are being vacated in favor of the “little piece of heaven in the country” idea and the suburbanites are coming out in droves. These urban raised folks don’t really understand hunting and/or hounds and most don’t really have a desire to. Not that these are bad people, they just don’t understand and are thus fearful of such things as lights shining and hounds baying in the darkness of night. Due to this urban sprawl of both residential and commercial property buyouts, the available private hunting grounds large enough to cast hounds are few and far between. Farm land and timber ranges have been chopped up and sectioned off to the point that county plat books have become indecipherable. The public lands managed at the federal and state levels are vast and accessible in some states while sparse and heavily restricted in other states, such as Indiana. Over the last decade this lack of available hunting territory has created a booming market for hunting leases with the price per acre skyrocketing year after year. All of these issues have combined to create a huge deficiency in hunting ground with many types of hunters competing for the same piece of property to hunt on.
On another front there are many well funded anti-hunting organizations waging war with us on a daily basis. Simply put, their goals include eliminating our rights to hunt, to own and breed dogs and to keep and bear our firearms. The U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance estimates over $300 million dollars will have been raised by the top anti-hunting groups in 2007. You can check out these details on the web at http://www.ussportsmen.org/. The five largest of these groups from a monetary standpoint include the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Fund for Animals and the Friends of Animals, Inc. Not to sound as an alarmist, but we as Tree Dog Enthusiasts are dramatically outnumbered and significantly out funded. To put this into perspective, how easy do you think it would be to organize and motivate the nation’s Tree Dog Enthusiasts to the point we could raise $1 million dollars in a single year? Wouldn’t that be a phenomenal effort toward competing against the antis? Yes, absolutely it certainly would, but we would still be a mere $299 million dollars behind them! Think about that!
Regrettably there are also a few misguided “sporting groups” in every state that would like to eliminate our rights to free cast these hounds. I know it seems unthinkable, but either by way of cloudy perceptions, irrational emotionalism or borderline fanaticism these groups want to end or at the very least heavily restrict our sport. It seems they desire to divide the hunting sports by classes and elevate theirs up on a pedestal as righteous and principled while characterizing our hound sports as unrefined or even unethical. The lucrative commercialization of equipment for these higher and mightier hunting sports in dedicated magazines and on the many cable hunting programs has contributed to this elitist philosophy as well. A large percentage of the “hunters’ with this frightening attitude only pursue one type of game, so they rationalize that they are doing THE right thing, so everything else must be wrong. Contrary to this mindset, most hound people I know hunt and trap many different species of game animals in and outside of their own state and look at other sportsmen in a much more positive light. This entire hunter against hunter movement makes no good, logical sense and therein lies the dilemma; it is extremely difficult to discuss facts and logic with those harboring fanatical viewpoints.
Yes, the competition out there in the woods for two hours on any given weekend is tough and sometimes our competitive natures get the best of us. Other times it seems the handlers step back and let the hounds do all of the talking and it beco0mes much more enjoyable. Either way when defeated, as strong willed Houndsmen we seem to bounce right back with same dog readjusted or a new one we think is better. We as Tree Dog Enthusiasts are a hearty group, we tend to roll with the punches and keep getting back up no matter what the odds. This “new” competition is something we are all going to need to learn to compete with and win. We must organize and fight the antis on every front with all brothers and sisters within the hunting community. We have the right to hunt, to breed our dogs of choice and to keep and bear arms, let’s keep it that way. We need to educate the non-hunting public, especially landowners about what we do and why we do it to eliminate fear and misunderstanding. We must invite members from other hunting organizations to come with us and our hounds, to learn about the joys of our sport. Our state legislators and DNR officials need to hear from us, we have been silent way too long. This new year, please join and participate in your state’s Houndsmen organization. There is strength in numbers and we as tax payers and voters must let it be known we expect our Grandchildren, Great Grandchildren and Great, Great Grandchildren to be following these Tree Dogs for many years to come. Never take NO for an answer!
“Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves just that much harder. Quitters take bad breaks and use them as reasons to give up.”- Nancy Lopez
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Last Updated by: Jerry Moll
12/29/2007 3:20:36 PM
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2009 Youth Hunt
On January 3rd HTDA members teamed up with DNR officials to host the first annual Youth Squirrel Hunt at Crosley Fish and Wildlife area. Twenty three kids, both girls and boys hunted with 13 members of the HTDA and their squirrel dogs. Most of the youth hunters had some hunting experience, almost none of them had ever been hunting with squirrel dogs. They had a blast.
HTDA President Chris Powell was contacted by Crosley Fish and Wildlife Area assistant property manager Steve Mund to coordinate the event. Mund learned of the HTDA from local member Steve Reinholt. Reinholt saw an opportunity to get the HTDA involved with a worthy cause in his community. This is what the HTDA is all about; “ preserving our heritage”. One look at these faces and it is safe to say they will never forget this experience.
As for the impression the HTDA made on the DNR, “This is beyond all expectations” Steve Mund stated. The HTDA coordinated hunters with dogs, paid for food and worked with Crosley staff to ensure that dogs had plenty of space for a safe hunt.
... more
Our Competition
By: Jerry Moll
Four handlers and a judge stood silently, only katydids and the occasional whippoorwill broke the tranquility of the early morning hillside. The handlers nervously shuffled their feet on the forest floor as they repeatedly cupped their ears in the expectation of hearing that first bark. One of the handlers requested, “Can we tighten up a little”? “We can tighten up just as soon as we have something to tighten up toward, I have no idea where the dogs are”, came the response of the card carrier. Just then a roar was heard in a far off hollow, neither the judge nor the handlers could distinguish which dogs were and were not opening. Three handlers screamed their strike calls in succession, followed by the forth sheepishly contributing, “Strike me too I guess”. Within a split second the tree calls came in the same order and the same fervor, with the judge repeating each call. The scores were written down and as the card was folded away the cast headed toward the hounds with much anticipation and trepidation. None of the five men honestly knew for sure what they would find at or in the tree upon their arrival, all had just made a competitive gamble just as they did when they plunked down their hard earned money on the entry table. This ambiguity put some adrenalin in their bloodstreams and kicked their heart rates up a little as they prepared to witness the results.
Humans are very competitive and challenge driven by nature and hunters are even more so that way, in my opinion. Even the introverted hunter who escapes to the woods and fields for solitude is competing with his chosen quarry and with Old Mother Nature herself. We as Houndsmen add in another dimension of complexity with our thinking, living and breathing canine companions. Our Treedogs compete with one another in terms of supremacy, speed, accuracy, endurance and many other aspects of the chase regardless if they are cast with others on a pleasure hunt or in Nite Hunt competition. The competitive spirit in our hounds is an extension of ourselves as we attempt to bond into a cohesive team. This solid team effort is required to thoroughly enjoy the pleasure hunting experience or to succeed in reaching significant achievement in the Nite Hunt competition arena.
Unfortunately in this day and age we as sportsmen are given no choice but to compete with the evolutionary changes within our modern society. The cities and suburbs of yesteryear are being vacated in fav ... more
2007 HTDA Year in Review
Wow! December 2007 is upon us already. December means a lot of different things to different people. At our house we still have three kids under age ten so we all know what that means…Christmas! Christmas at our house is as much a Birthday Party for Jesus as it is Santa Claus and toys. I was very proud of my kids when they came and asked my wife and I if they could bake a birthday cake for Jesus instead of cookies for Santa. Do you think I could go ahead and eat a piece of cake on Christmas Eve? Naahh, I don’t want to risk it. I hope all of our members are enjoying a great Christmas Season.
December also means the close of the first year of business for the HTDA. I thought I would just take a few lines and review our work for 2007 and let you all know what we have been up to.
In 2007 much of our time has been spent getting items in order so we could be up and running for business. These items include writing Articles of Incorporation, By-Laws, meeting with attorneys and appropriate fillings with the Secretary of State’s Office. In order to become a recognized corporation there is a lot of red tape to cut through. With the help of Larry Meeks and PKC we were able to get through this with their help of employing Scopeletis Garvin, Light and Hanson Attorneys at Law. Thanks Larry. The top work of these attorneys made the legal work much smoother but still required several meeting in Indianapolis of the Board of Directors for reviews and approval. This process took up most of the first half of the year.
During the same time the HTDA took on the challenge of attempting to seek changes in the current coonhound running seasons. There were a couple of reasons that we decided to take on this issue. One was that we felt as members of the HTDA you deserved an equal opportunity to exercise your dogs as any other sporting breed in Indiana enjoys. We met with the DNR to determine the feasibility of accomplishing this goal. We left the meeting feeling confident that this would be an easy task and should meet very little resistance. Upon leaving the meeting we felt that this would be a quick and easy victory for tree dog enthusiasts in our State so we proceeded. What has happened since then has been far from easy or quick. I would categorize it as a lesson in “Politics 101”. Our easy homerun was met with stiff opposition from a few people who say they represent deer hunters and trappers. They used what influence they had to block the proposal at every meeting we a ... more
Building Bridges-Mending Fences
By: Jerry Moll
It was that very special time of year, early November in Indiana. The leaves had long since turned and were absent from nearly all the trees by now, scattered to the wind they blanketed the forest floor as well as many of the creek banks and farm fields. Farmers had been fortunate this fall with dry weather and that beautiful harvest moon on the clear nights bringing us several early white frosts. The golden brown soybean fields had all vanished to barren farm ground and the remaining cornfields left standing were few and far between. Our raccoon season had just opened two days ago on Saturday and I felt very fortunate to take the entire family out on opening night. We stopped and bought snacks and drinks for the night out while on our way to a farm I’ve been hunting since I was just a young boy. We turned the dogs out and as we sat there on the majestic oak ridge listening and soaking up the night air it seemed as if the deadlines and stresses of the daily grind were long gone and we were in another world all to ourselves. By 11:00 or so the moon was up bright and the kids were cold and worn out, so we loaded up and headed back toward home. We had treed several raccoon, walked a few miles, ate a lot of snacks and had a great time laughing and cutting up. While driving back home I reflected upon how fortunate we were to have this great Hoosier outdoors to enjoy, the beautiful night, these lovable hounds and most importantly to be able to share it all with our children on this peaceful November night.
On Sunday evening after dinner, homework and bedtime I headed our once again, just me and a young female. It was a still, cloudless night with millions of bright stars and a huge moon lighting the sky. The kind of fall night where there is not a sound in the woods but maybe a faint trickling of water in the creek and a house dog barking several miles away. When you venture out on these clear nights you know Jack Frost is not far behind you. Beautiful yes, but not exactly the kind of night you would pick to work a young dog, but I was enjoying the gorgeous night and the time spent with the young hound even if I did need to keep my expectations low. We covered a lot of ground that evening, made some bad trees, caught a possum and even treed a few coon. For her age and experience I was content with the performance and had her back home in the kennel by 1:00.
Today was Monday and our local club had a one hour event scheduled ... more
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