Angela, yes they are in really good physical condition, they are exercised with assistance of a 4-wheeler 3-5 miles 3 times a week and also run a training track once each week that is two to four miles in length. The younger dogs that have not made the cut yet are taken on training tracks twice each week, and are exercised lightly, 2-3 miles, twice weekly. I took one of the dogs on a run just to see how much he could stand without any adverse effects. He went sixteen miles at a lope with three water stops and was still on cruise. He was still out in front of the 4-wheeler and it was obvious he was having fun. I stopped him at this point because I cant see a real track going this long. The key is conditioning and getting them to water periodically. You would just have to see these things in action to understand how much heart and drive they have. In extreme heat and in the absense of water they will literally run themselves to death. I carry a Trimble Nomad GPS device that has one meter resolution aerial photos of the whole state. No matter where I am in Okla. if my dogs need water I can see every creek, farm pond etc. that is close to me. The trick is catching the dogs and getting them to the water. The technology available now is unbelievable, the Garmin Astro GPS transmitters and recievers have been a blessing in this game. If any of you folks run your dog off leash these things are a must have. I dont sell these or personally know anyone that does, they just work and I am totally impressed with them. Well Ill hush I just got carried away a little bit.

Please don't "hush", Terry. I'd love to hear more anytime. Anyone or any dog that catches a bad guy is a hero in my book. I do have a question.

When a dog is tracking for a long distance, what keeps them on the man trail and not running off somewhere else, like if they catch the scent of a deer or other wild animal? I understand it might be the thrill of the chase for them, but is there something else that keeps a dog going for 6-8 miles on the scent of a man and not deterred by other scents of animals? Is it just training or is the dog in some other mode as well?

I use the garmin astro on my coursing dogs too, I won't turn them loose without one now. The dog unit is a little bulky on smaller dogs (40 lbs)but on a harness they carry it fine. It not only keeps you informed of what your dog is doing while out of sight, you can learn a lot about how your dog runs by downloading the tracks later and seeing speeds, distances, etc.
Were you able to stay within range of the dogs during the chase?
vickie

Sandy, I raise these dogs from babies and start them on men when they are 8-10 wks old. It is progressive training and they are introduced to trash under controlled conditions early on. If one of the pups shows an interest in deer, bobcat, wildhogs, etc. he is vigorously encouraged to stop doing that. If the problem persists and I become convinced that a pup likes running trash better than men he is dropped from the program and has to get another job. The really good ones get hooked on the game and thinks of nothing else when in the woods. Before a dog gets put on the A team he is taken out on a drag ( this is a hunt in a place that I am absolutely positive no human being has been for the last 12 hrs.) This location will be a place where he is exposed to everything that walks, wiggles or crawls in the woods. If a dog can stay focused for several hrs. looking for a man track ignoring all of the other animals and scent trails he comes in contact with he is ready for the real deal. I deliberatly lay tracks for the finished dogs where I am certian they will see and smell trash of every discription. By the time I take a pack on a manhunt they know who the pack leader is (me) and they know why we are there. In answer to Vickies question, we usually are able to stay in hearing distance and I try to keep them in sight. We have tracked some really bad folks with long guns and staying close is not condusive with long life. This is what is so neat about the Garmin, we dont even have to follow directly behind the dogs and are able to stay a quarter or so on their flanks until they locate. How the operation is handled from that point depends on the intel we have on the perp. Most of the time we dismount and take him into custody. Usually our helo is overhead and with the dogs going crazy it is easy to slip in and spot him before he sees us. Generally they are so overwhelmed resistance is not an option. I am 53 yrs old and I cant keep up with a pack of hounds on these tracks and that is the reason we ride mules, the flop eared kind. I started out doing these things alone and the department threw a shoe so I got a partner, we had a couple of near misses so now we will be going with no less than three riders. The team started out with Me, seven dogs and one mule, it has now grown to two fulltime dog handlers and several people who have been trained to go with us as security, two pk-ups with trailers containing eight dog boxes and room for three mules. An intel unit of at least four that gathers everything possible on the perp, they will usually have him identified when we arrive and will brief us on his personality, experience in the woods, any past violent tendencies, wheater or not he is armed, what type of firearm etc. In addition to this they contact the local residences in the area to locate and disable any electric fences. These things cause a lot of problems for us. We have a criminalist assigned to us that is on the computer identifying a bunch of stuff that I will not talk about here. There is a Tac Team of at least four that cold trails us and stays as close as possibe in a veh. They keep our GPS location updated and are prepared to come to us if things go downhill. The garmin Astros now give a new capability. WE have a Quick Response Veh that is equipped with a computer that also has the aerial photos of the state overlayed with streets, roads, railroads, rivers and streams, etc. The transmitters on the dogs transmitts their GPS info every five seconds and the info shows up on the map as a breadcrumb trail. I know some of you are thinking, why would we put all the time, effort and money into this system. The answer is in the history of our state dealing with some very bad men that cost millions of dollars and a substantial loss of life. Prior to this units existance we dealt with one individual at a cost of 2 million dollars. About a year later we had another manhunt that cost in excess of one million. New York State Police was taken to school by a fellow named Bucky Phillips. They hunted him for about four months with fourteen hundred officers, he killedd a couple of the state troopers and wounded another. According to the after action review he was seen 13 times going into wooded rural areas. On one occasion he was seen entering a wooded area by a New York State Police Dog Team and was not captured. Any way the Oklahoma Highway Patrol grew tired of being perplexed by an individual that chose to do bad things then run into a rural area and stay there causing manhunts that might last for weeks. Our manhunts are now usually measured in hrs. If you do bad things to our folks here in Oklahoma and elect to hit the woods, there are going to be some genuine hillbillies and a pack of hounds breathing down your neck in short order. When they close in on you your options are limited, give up, go to the hospital or the morgue. Oh yeah Vicky, there are new flexible antennas for the DC_20. This allows the unit to swing under the neck, the antenna comes around and is fastened to the side of the collar sticking straight up just behind the dogs ear. This system will stay till the cows come home.

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If you do bad things to our folks here in Oklahoma and elect to hit the woods, there are going to be some genuine hillbillies and a pack of hounds breathing down your neck in short order.

Thats as basic as it gets! I love it! It appears your training regiment is well honed. Nice work.

Howard

For those of you that are interested you can google Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, that will open our web-site, on the right hand side of the page go down the subject list to Safety Signal, click on that and a list of issues will pop up, click on Feb/08 and there is an article about this unit with some pretty good pictures. I didnt mean there are anything pretty in these pictures. I aint fixin to win any beauty contests and Im pretty sure my partner Tommy hasnt either, the mules are uglier than a mud fence and the dogs are just a bunch of flea bit hounds, but that dont matter cause we can gitterdun.

http://www.dps.state.ok.us/SafetySignal/sig-08-02.pdf

Fascinating!

 Quote: Terry Holstine

The warden at one of the correctional institutions told me the word on the yard was that if you dont have some wheels dont jump the fence.

Thats hilarious!

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The technology available now is unbelievable, the Garmin Astro GPS transmitters and recievers have been a blessing in this game. If any of you folks run your dog off leash these things are a must have. I dont sell these or personally know anyone that does, they just work and I am totally impressed with them.

Do these work very well in heavy woods?

Vickie Ngala, in this thread, said they were bulky for small dogs. Do you, or Vickie, know of anything like this that would work well for an even smaller dog? (14 lbs.)

I'm with Sandy. Please don't hush. Go catch more bad guys and come back here and tell us about it.

I also enjoyed the article you mentioned. This is great stuff.

Terry, reading that article, wonderful stuff.

To all you cops out there catching the bad guys, confronting the bad guys, running after the bad guys instead of running away - bravehearts - a big huge thank you. You're all very cool.

terry probably uses these in pretty rugged terrain. When coursing, the dogs are in wide open rolling terrain out west, but I've used them a bit around here in Mo. You won't get the full range, more like just under a mile, but I've had signal in a complete canopy, in steep ridges that you can't get an atv into.
Best to go to a cabela's and see the unit for yourself- a 14 lb dog is pretty small. It is about 1.5" square by 3.5" long.
Hearing how it is being used in law enforcement is fascinating; mine is used more as a toy than a tool since my dogs are sprint dogs and don't go that far, but an 8 mile track is really testing the limits of it. You don't have to guess what the dogs are doing or where they are.
vickie