Growing up and throughout my early adult years I had the perfect setup; my cousin Chris, who couldn’t be closer to me if we were brothers, had the dogs. I didn’t have to take care of them, I could just show up and take them hunting whenever I wanted, which ended up being a lot! It’s safe to say that if it wasn’t for Chris, I wouldn’t be in the position I am as a houndsman and to be completely honest I may not even be a houndsman at all. When I finally got settled down and was able to have and take care of my own dogs, Remi is the first dog I raised on my own from a pup. He was exactly the dog I needed at exactly the right time.
I could tell story after story of times Remi has bailed me out throughout the last 8 years. He’s one of those rare dogs that thrives under the pressure of tough trailing conditions and being accompanied by less than trustworthy dogs. He doesn’t care what the other dogs do, he’s just going to do what he does, and nearly every time he’s right. When you have him in your truck when you leave camp in the morning, you know something good is going to happen.
On one of the last days of a kill season, the last day the guy with the tag could hunt, it was rainy and windy. We had a killable bear on a bait but with the rain we knew it was a long shot to get it jumped. We turned Remi and a couple other dogs out. They went into the bait, sniffed around a while, and then came back to the trucks as to say, “there’s nothing there, Boss”. But I know Remi and I know I can put a lot of pressure on him without him cracking, so I sent him back into the bait while we retreated to our trucks to stay dry. The GPS showed that he was slowly moving out, but with the rain and the wind there was no telling if he was barking or not. After several minutes the GPS showed Remi was no longer moving but now his bark indicator showed steady barking. Knowing the bark indicator is prone to lying, I took off on foot to see for myself. I got within hearing distance and sure enough, he was barking steady, and he was bayed. So, we quickly gathered up some more dogs, got them to him, and a short time later the bear was harvested. That is Remi!
It was bobcat season, I found a dandy cat track but conditions were far from good without any fresh snow in over a week, and the cat was headed into some of the most deer and coyote infested area we hunt in. I considered whether it was even worth trying or if we should look for something else. Remi went out cold trailing real nice, so I added a couple more dogs and took off on foot to make sure they stayed on task. After cold trailing through one section and calling the other dogs off numerous coyote tracks, I figured our best bet which was still a long shot, was just to let Remi take it into the next section on his own. This was even more trash infested than the first, but we let him pick away at his own pace. We sat in the truck and watched the DriveTrack while Remi took that track all the way through that section barely missing a beat. He crossed the next road in front of us, still cold trailing, and jumped the cat not 100 yds off the road. We added a couple dogs, the cat circled tight, and the hunter was able to harvest a nice Tom. That is Remi!
We tried a bait and had a good cold trail going. All the dogs were barking and moving out beautifully. Remi was towards the back of the pack. Suddenly, all the dogs took a left, and then Remi proceeded to take a right, all by himself. I was cursing him, of course he decided to do something stupid. But he was a long way from the road, and I couldn’t prove it, so I decided to let it play out. As it turned out, the rest of the dogs switched to off-game and Remi stayed on the bear, jumped the bear, and then brought it across the road so we could get more dogs with him. That is Remi!
Remi isn’t the perfect dog, he has flaws and there’s plenty of houndsmen who wouldn’t appreciate his hunting style, but he’s been perfect for ME. He’s trained numerous pups, he’s great with my kids, he’s great with other dogs, he doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. He’s my buddy. For the last 8 years he’s given me everything he has, and I can only hope he would say the same about me.
Remi isn’t the perfect dog, he has flaws and there’s plenty of houndsmen who wouldn’t appreciate his hunting style, but he’s been perfect for ME
This past summer it became apparent Remi wasn’t himself. He’s never been fast, but suddenly he just couldn’t go on a jumped bear, the other dogs were running away from him like he was standing still. So, I decided to take him to the vet where he was diagnosed with DCM (Dilated Cardiomyopathy), a heart disease. It was a real hard pill to swallow. For the last 8 years Remi has been the foundation of my bear and cat hunting and now it’s apparent those days are coming to an end.
Remi and I have been through so much together; over 1,000 days hunting together, multiple trips out west, dozens of visits to the vet, mostly ups, a few downs, and even some things I don’t care to talk about. It’s hard to imagine myself going hunting without him. But the harsh reality of dogs is that they just don’t live long enough, especially the good ones. In what can seem like a blink of an eye they all reach that point where their body starts to deteriorate, the end is nearing, and you wish you could turn back the clock to “the good ol’ days”.
I hope, by some miracle, Remi isn’t to that point yet. It breaks my heart knowing he’s not himself but I’m still going to hunt him as much as he’s able, because deep down I know he’d rather spend his last days in the woods than at home. I don’t know what I’ll do when he’s gone, but for now I’m going to keep enjoying every day in the woods and the yard with him and hope I’ve given him as much as he’s given me, because that’s Remi.
