The Sonoma County rain has put the damper on my hunting ambitions this morning, although we are in dire need of the rain, I need to get my weekend “Hawg Doggin’” in.  Not on this day however, the hills of Cazadero have gotten over 3 inches in the past 24 hours.  Running dogs in a down pour is tough, to say the least.  The scent of the hog does not stick on the ground, rooting and tracks are tough to distinguish as fresh, and if you have ever been in heavy timber during a down pour, then you know your hearing is minimal.  Excuses, excuses! lol

The hunting here has been great this winter, we have been hunting every weekend since early November, and have only struck out a few times.  My group of hunting buddies have done extremely well with lots of pork to put in the freezer.  Reports of other people have been good as well, both on private and the public hunt at Lake Sonoma, which is open to Archers.  Reports of downed hogs including tuskers have been floating around.

Dogs have done well, our younger stock, including a few pups at 8 mos. old are striking and baying.  The winter “heat” has passed and a few of us have bred some dogs.  A nice batch of Mcnabb/Kelpies are coming soon, as well as a liter of APBT’s from my “Honeybunch” bitch will hit the ground in late March.  The dogs are in their best shape right now, for they are running hard up to twice a week.

We have a few more months of runnin’ dogs left before it starts to warm up and get real “snakey” up here!  Gonna be runnin’ ‘em as much as possible until then, with a few big weekends coming up with friends.  Those are the best, when a bunch of serious dog guys get together and run the hills, then sit back after and tell about the hunt.  So that is my late winter, rained in, report on Hawg Doggin’.  Would love to hear some stories and see some pictures if any of ya’ll could send ‘em. Send ‘em to catchdogfarmer@gmail.com!

“cut ‘em loose”