Cat Dog Chronicles Preview 4: Experiment but Don't Reinvent the Wheel
Enjoy another excerpt from my new book which is now available on Amazon.
Last Thursday, I announced that my book is officially published and available on Amazon. But I still want to continue sharing excerpts from it to give everyone of what it’s all about. So today, I’m sharing a short piece from Chapter 12 where I mull over a personal challenge I’ve encountered when learning the ropes of hound hunting. The problem is, it’s all between my ears. Can anyone else relate?
Experiment But Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
One of the biggest lessons I have learned with my dogs is centered around not getting ahead of myself. Not doing too much, too soon, or in a way that’s too complicated.
But as someone who prides himself on being creative and dare I say, innovative, sometimes I find it difficult to settle into doing things the “done way.”
I’ve always liked putting my mark on the things I do, adding my own little bit of flair here and there, but with hound hunting, that has bitten me in the butt and led to more than a few embarrassing moments.
Humans have been hunting with dogs for thousands of years—it’s practically in our DNA—so I’m not sure why I always feel the need to reinvent the wheel, but the impulse is there.
Now that I recognize that, it’s something I must consciously work on.
A good example of this was when I bought a Chevy Astro van to hunt out of instead of a truck with a dog box like everyone else. I clearly learned my lesson about that and now have a great appreciation for the tried-and-true combination of pickup truck and dog box.
But like I said before, there is a lot of creativity cooked into hound hunting and the sport attracts a lot of problem-solving-minded people, myself included. That’s where experimentation and innovation come in.
Taking the example of the truck and dog box, you’ll find that every hound hunter who utilizes that combo has his own custom touches to his set up, adapting the tools to his personal situation and preferences. This is where design features such as rig rails or built-in water tanks come from, I’m sure.
One gentleman I know explained that he built his dog box quite a bit shorter than most do because he likes his dogs to lay down while he’s driving and the short ceiling also makes it more difficult for male dogs to mount females in case one comes into heat before he realizes it. Very creative, in my opinion.
I’m still using the dog box my mentor is letting me borrow, but I have been sketching up some ideas for building a new one for myself. Having spent a full season hunting with a very classic dog box design, I feel I’m much more informed about how a dog box needs to function and I’m feeding that knowledge into the design I’m working on.
For me, accepting and embracing the fact that hound hunting is a historical activity and that things end up being done in certain ways for specific reasons has saved me a lot of time. There are some things that our hound hunting forefathers figured out early on that we can just take as gospel and move on.
The current generation of houndsmen doesn’t need to spend lifetimes doing trial and error. Instead, we get to use the foundation of knowledge that was laid out for us by those who came before to build upon it and hopefully, add to it such that the sport of hound hunting progresses to the next level.
I hope you’re enjoying these snippets from my new book, Cat Dog Chronicles. And in case you missed it in my last dispatch, the book is available now for purchase on Amazon.
I still have a few more excerpts from the book I’ll be sending out, so please stay tuned and subscribe with your email address to be among the first to know.
If you’re interested in purchasing the book, click the button below to head on over to Amazon to check it out!
Best wishes,
Niklas