Canines are our passion.
They are our addiction.
They are our way of life right down to the very core and without them we would be lost.
The canines of this world really are something to behold.
They assist us at work, they accompany us at home, and they perform for us in the field.
No matter where we go, they are by our side.
Canines really are a ride or die, and for that we are grateful.
This podcast will showcase working canines of various breeds and disciplines as we search
for those canines and their handlers who are always striving to be the best at what they
do.
Those who are always grinding.
Those who are always pushing the limits.
Those who are always dogging.
Join us on our adventures as it is sure to be a wild ride.
I'm your host, Bryce Matthews.
And I'm your co-host, Stephen Basham.
And this, this is Semper Doggin.
Welcome, welcome, welcome to episode numero uno of the Semper Doggin podcast.
Guys, I am your host, Bryce Matthews, and I am joined by your co-host, Stephen Basham
today.
Mr. Basham, how are you?
I'm doing pretty good, how about yourself?
Buddy, I can't complain.
Can't complain, been hunting.
Yeah?
Been staying busy.
I know, I know, we're going to get into that today.
I know, it's going to be good.
Guys, we are so glad you have decided to join us over here at the Semper Doggin podcast.
We hope you've maybe seen some of our stuff on our Facebook page, our Facebook group,
Semper Doggin podcast.
You can find that over on Facebook, private group, just for this podcast and the members
of it.
A lot of good stuff going on over there.
So we have been posting for the last couple months, trying to build up to this release
date and I think we're there.
We are here.
Today's the day.
The grand opening.
I'm excited.
It's going to be a, guys, it's going to be an adventure.
Me and Bryce, we'll get into it on this podcast, but me and Bryce were brought together by
dogs.
That's what we eat, breathe.
I mean, we just, I mean, that's all we're about.
We eat dogs?
No, not really.
Hey, actually, honestly, I know.
I mean, you, to be honest with you, you could go to Guam and they actually have dog farms
just like we have cattle farm.
Really?
Yes.
In Guam?
Guam.
Didn't know that.
Yes, sir.
Well, this, that right there is some historical information.
This podcast already took a turn.
I wasn't ready for that one.
Hey guys, get ready.
It's going to be an adventure.
We're here for everything.
We're going to go over some different styles of hunting throughout this whole podcast.
Not this one in particular, but going forward, me and Bryce were brought together by it.
We become friends.
We're going to get into it on this podcast and we hope that you, you know, just carry
along, come along with us in the journey and become family and friends.
Yeah, absolutely guys.
So you know, today's episode, episode number one here, all about just laying down the groundwork
for this podcast and just how we, how we got started with this, you know, we have been
doing this for a long time.
When I say doing this, I mean, you know, Bash and I hunting together, being buddies, being
brothers, like it's more than a friendship, you know, it's not a bromance.
It's a brotherhood.
I don't know.
It's like it's Bryce either wifey.
Oh my gosh.
That's what she calls you.
No, not to get on her.
But no guys, this has been fun.
So you know, the deep and lonely podcast, which I hope you guys have listened to in
the past was awesome.
It was amazing.
The amount of support and just feedback we got on that from you guys, the listeners was
amazing over at the Hanson XP podcast, but I wanted to do something different.
I wanted to get out of backing myself into a corner, only having competition, Coon hunting
to talk about.
That's my passion.
That's my love.
But I really, really enjoy working dogs of all forms.
And you know, to do that, I felt like we needed, we just needed a little rebranding.
So little creative juices started flowing.
I started talking to my buddy, Basham, and you know, we got the idea of joining each
other and doing the Semper dogging podcast.
So Basham, before we get into the whole concept of Semper dogging and everything, why don't
you go back here and tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?
Give yourself a little bit of credibility because we know you don't have much.
No, not much at all.
But give them a little bit, give them some insights for those of you who don't know you,
who don't follow you on Facebook.
They've never drawn you in a hunt.
Who is Stephen Basham and why are you here?
Man, we could, we could have a few episodes on something like that.
So basically, I got started coon hunting probably when I was like five or six years old.
My dad, which anybody that knows me knows, you know, wherever I am, my dad's typically
not too far behind.
And so I got started about five or six.
I'd always go with my dad every weekend, every, every night that I could.
And really it turned into an addiction.
If you ask the wife, it's, it's not just, it's not just something that I do as a, as
a hobby.
It's, it's who I am.
It's embedded in me.
I was born with the dogs.
If you hear my family talk about it.
So there I was, you know, as a young kid, just following dad around and got different
coon hounds throughout the, throughout my life, teenage years.
And I started competition hunting competitively.
My dad was more of a pleasure on her.
He loved going to these back in the day, you know, a UKC hunt.
It was an all day event.
I mean, we had drag races and water races and training contest.
For those that you don't know, the most fun event out of all of them was something called
the road cage.
And you take this road cage and you put it in the center of a circle and you turn the
dog loose and the one that can knock it out of the circle, the fastest one, the road cage
contest, road cage contest.
And that was exciting.
So we had that, uh, then you had the hunt.
So it was just a whole day event.
And so we used to go to those every weekend, me and my dad would, and then it just kept
evolving from there.
I took a liking to the competition side of it, going out and competing and training and
competing, um, kind of fast forwarding through all my teenage years, just to kind of make
this a little shorter.
Um, I joined the Marine Corps and left, um, the ability to be able to coon hunt.
I went out to California and lived my life out there, ended up going overseas quite a
few times and, uh, came back.
I got out of the Marine Corps the first time somewhere around 2007, uh, came back to dad's
house, worked a little bit, went back into the Marine Corps.
Uh, I got stationed in North Carolina and that's where I finally picked up coon hunting
again and, uh, started coon hunting hot and heavy over there, uh, handling dogs for multiple
people and really competition hunting.
Deployed one time, came back and then the evolution of me as a houndsman began to grow
even more.
So backing up just a hair whenever I was younger, we had rabbit dogs and squirrel dogs and coon
dogs and I mean, anything that had a dog to do with it, we had obviously labs as a pet.
So everything that I've done from a kid was just dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs related.
Now going back to the present as far as in the Marine Corps, uh, the Marine Corps created
a program called the IDD detector dog.
Basically what we did is we took Labrador retrievers that were in the field trial world.
So field champion bird dogs and we took them and we took the bird aspect away from it and
we imprinted these dogs on, um, debt cord, ammonium nitrate, C4, just all your bomb making
materials that we were seeing in our area of operations overseas and we imprinted these
Labrador retrievers on it.
So I went to a school in Southern Pines, North Carolina called K2 Solutions and they actually
taught me how to train these handlers and I became the kennel master, second battalion,
eighth Marines.
And so that's kind of where the evolution of me, um, as a dog man, um, really kind of
took a big different out of the hunting world into the service world, but for me it's just
man, everything that embodies me, if you know me as a person, I'm just, dogs are my thing.
Um, I like dogs more than I do people.
I mean, it's just, I think most of us that are in this world would say that there's just
a common bond between a man and his best friend and that's a dog.
And so on this podcast guys, that's what it's all about.
I mean, I'm getting goosebumps sitting here talking about it just because if you wholeheartedly
live it like we do, you understand, um, the validity of what we're talking about.
And that is that a dog brings something out in you that people just can't, uh, when you're
having a bad day, they're there no matter what, when you're having a good day, they're
there to share in it.
And just something about a dog just brings a person up.
And that's just been me my whole life.
Um, I've competition hunted, I've competed on the top level, I've competed on the lower
level, I've had good times at competition hunts and who I've had the bad times, but
I think what keeps me going back is just the love of the dogs.
Um, taking something that is nothing and making it something.
And so, um, I guess in a nutshell, that's kind of my story there, Bryce.
Yeah, man, you know, I've heard that story a hundred times and every time I still enjoy
hearing it because you can just hear the passion in it.
I mean, that's what you do.
And it's the same for me, you know, it's a little bit different for me.
I'll give you guys a little bit of background on myself here.
If you guys listen to the Simper or the Deep in the Lonely podcast, you've heard it before,
but you know, we're really hoping that we've got some new listeners today.
So just bear with us and give us a chance on this podcast.
Um, you know, it's new for both of us, but it's going to be good.
I think it's all me and you both are after is just a chance, a chance to show that the
passion that we have and just follow us and on our endeavors.
Because it's not for those of you that aren't into coon hunting, that's not what this podcast
is about.
This is not a coon hunting podcast.
Well, you know, during this podcast, we're going to go through every walk of life that
a dog does all the way down to just the pets in the house.
Uh, you know, we're going to talk to different people and that's what we hope that you guys
join with us and follow along because it's truly a passion for sure.
So you know, a little bit about myself, I grew up, uh, born in North Carolina, raised
here in Indiana, but I always had family down in North Carolina at my dad's side and we
would go down there in the winter times and we'd go deer hunting with my granddaddy and
you know, deer hunting down there in North Carolina that we did wasn't like the stands
still hunting that we do here in Indiana.
You know, it's running deer dogs down there and that those are some of my fondest memories
as a kid is going down there and running those deer hounds with my granddaddy and my dad.
I mean, it was just, it was an amazing time.
And so that's kind of probably where my love for dogs started was running those deer hounds
down there in North Carolina.
And when I only got to do that in the winter time in December that, you know, once a year
we couldn't do that here in Indiana.
So you know, most of my early childhood career or childhood, I didn't have a hunting dog.
We always had house dogs, um, had yellow labs and boxers and, uh, we had a miniature pincher.
We had all kinds of different dogs, but no hunting dogs.
Fast forward to college and I've got a buddy that I'm taking some classes with and he's
like, Hey man, uh, you want to go coon hunting this weekend?
And I was like, I guess, I mean, I like to hunt.
I'm a big deer hunter, but I mean, I guess, I don't know what is coon hunting really like
he's like with the dogs.
I was like, well, if it's got a dog and we can hunt it like, yeah, I'm in, I'll try it.
You know, and now my buddy was quitting clow.
I got to give him a little shout out cause he's the one who started this whole thing.
And so we went out, we had a black mouth cur, a one eyed Kate is her name for obvious reasons.
She's only got one eye, but that little gyp man, she, she started something for me that
will last until the day that I die.
We went coon hunting that night.
We treat several coons and then we went squirrel hunt the next morning, me, him and his dad.
And we treated three men, limited squirrels with the same dog.
And it absolutely blew my mind that a dog was able to do that.
Like just be so versatile.
And she lived in the house on top of that.
You know, when we got done hunting, she lived in the house with them.
So she was your best friend during the day.
She'd go out with you, coon hunt at night, wake up in the morning, squirrel hunt.
Like she just knew, she knew what time it was based on the time of day.
And that really left lasting impression on me.
And from that moment I was hooked, um, went out, got myself a coon dog, found him on Craigslist,
just a registered or a gray dog.
Wasn't even registered, started pleasure hunting him a little bit.
Um, really enjoyed it.
Then I found out there was competitions and I'm a competitive person by nature.
So decide, all right, this dog that I have now, he's probably not good for the good enough
for these competitions.
Went out and found a dog that I thought was.
Lo and behold now she, she wasn't, you know, um, but it was fun.
And through the trial and error in meeting different people, I have evolved as a houndsman
mainly in the coon hound world.
But like, as Basham said earlier, I've met a million people through dogs.
I met Basham through dogs and you know, now I'm very, the last five years I've went down
to Virginia to go bear hunting with a good buddy of ours, Heath Hyatt, go down there
and run those bear dogs.
Um, recently I've gotten into some, uh, doing some squirrel hunting up North with a buddy
and his cur dogs been doing quite a bit of that here recently.
Uh, got into coyote hunting down in Kentucky.
Been doing that, you know, though Dalton, yeah, Dalton Hillard, you know, um, watching
his scent hounds and his sight hounds work, which the sight hounds, I'd never been around
until about two months ago.
And I've got a new found passion for these dogs.
I don't, I don't, it's an appreciation and it's a passion.
Like they are freaking awesome.
They're fast.
They're cool, man.
Like it's great.
And we've got a story.
We have a podcast for you on that.
Um, you know, covering those types of things, but these coon hounds have opened the doors
to so many different types of hound sports and things that I never knew were possible.
I didn't know they were out there.
And you know, I've been doing this for nine years now.
I got into the coon hound when I was 20 years old.
I'm 29 and it's been the best nine years of my life.
Honestly, I can say that, you know, I've met my, my fiance, my future wife, we're getting
married in August.
I met her through coon hounds.
I met her through Basham and coon hounds, you know, you know, you know, you know, you
were right there with me the day that I met her.
And that's a whole nother story.
It is.
But it's just the bond that you and I have as a, as brothers and these dogs that it's
brought to us.
Like you were hype man at that point in time.
Absolutely.
You were doing your thing and I was just there to be your equipment manager.
But it's worked out, you know, and those are the kinds of stories and passions we want
to share with you guys.
You know, we've got several different disciplines of people lined up on this podcast for you,
for you guys to learn with us to grow and evolve as hounds, men and women with us, you
know, um, the, the concept of Semper dogging, I'm going to let Basham turn, I'm going to
turn over to Basham.
I'm going to let him explain it to you guys because this is really his brain child, but
it's something that I have believed in and supported since he told me about it.
That he has guys that he has, he's, he was actually before he ever decided to come on
to join me in the podcast, he, he really pushed, um, saying that he thought it could be bigger.
He thought it could be better.
And um, so here we are now.
So kind of where it all started Semper dogging.
Um, two, um, I'm actually getting cold chills thinking about it just because it means that
much to me.
Um, so Semper dogging, um, I obviously is, you know, as anybody knows, I hunt probably
as hard as just about anybody or I did, I've kind of taken a break for a little bit as
this podcast is aired, I'm doing a lot of working right now, but Semper dogging, what
does it mean?
So I was kind of going along and I had been working as an electrician for a while and
a bigger company came and bought my company out and they kind of shut us down.
And at that point in time I was hunting quite a bit and I had had many people ask me, Hey,
what would you charge to hunt a dog for a month for me?
And so I kind of gave them a figure and I started hunting and as I started hunting,
I was like, man, I like this.
Maybe I could just do this for a while, you know, as my main source income.
So I started hunting pretty hard, you know, six days a week I'd work.
I mean, I'd hunt from, you know, nine o'clock at night to four or five o'clock in the morning,
about five, six nights a week, you know.
So I started hunting for the public and all of a sudden I was like, you know what?
I think this would be a good opportunity to kind of start my own brand, start my own,
you know, not just kennel club, but my own brand of, you know, training dogs and something
that meant something to me.
So I sat down and I came up with a million, anybody that's ever named a company, who you
go through a million different ideas, you know, dog 101, coon hunting extreme, you know,
like I came up with some of the dumbest names that you would ever hear.
And then all of a sudden I was sitting down one day and I thought, what means something
to me?
Because if, you know, it's kind of like, if you've met me, you know that I've got tattoos
and I don't ever get one unless it means something to me.
And here I was, I was starting a new endeavor and I was like, what means something to me?
And the first thing that popped in my head was Semper Fidelis.
And anybody that doesn't know Semper Fidelis, Marine Corps model, it means always faithful.
And I broke it down and I said, okay, so Semper is always and Fidelis is faithful.
Well, if I'm always coon hunting, then let's do Semper.
And I didn't really have another word for it at first.
I said Semper coon hunting Semper hunting Semper.
Treen Walker coon hounds Semper.
And I just kept going through and then all of a sudden I was like, well, I'm from Kentucky.
I'm a little redneck.
Let's just use a redneck term.
Semper dogging and it's stuck.
It's stuck.
And from that point forward, I kind of started off slow.
I started a dogging Tuesday, which we are going to bring back dogging Tuesdays.
Absolutely.
So you guys can join us over on our Facebook page, the Semper dogging podcast.
And on Tuesdays, Basham and I, it's going to be actually every other Tuesday.
Yes, sir, Basham and I are going to get on and do a Facebook live.
It's going to be the first and third Tuesdays of each month.
You guys can join us.
We'll let you know the times, you know, prior to that.
But after after we do those dogging Tuesdays, the subsequent weeks, the second and fourth
will be when this podcast comes out of the month.
So first first Tuesday of the month, dogging Tuesday on Facebook live at our Facebook group.
And second week of the month, we're going to have the podcast coming out third week,
dogging Tuesday, fourth week podcast.
So that's going to be a little bit of the format of this, but Basham, go ahead and keep
going with the Semper dogging.
I just want to interject there.
Oh, no problem, buddy.
So yeah, that's where it all started was the dogging Tuesdays.
And man, I got good feedback on it.
You know, everybody liked just joining in.
And what I liked about it was it was it was live and it was raw.
And Bryce, I'll go kind of into my pushback when he first brought it to me about doing
a podcast.
One thing that I always said on my dogging Tuesdays was, hey, guys, this is not recorded.
This is not edited.
This is raw.
It's right at you.
Here we are.
Let's talk about it.
And then now here I am doing a podcast.
So it kind of evolved.
But Bryce would always say, man, I think I think you got something there.
I really would like to see you push forward, push forward.
And lo and behold, I think things happen in your life for a reason.
And some unfortunate incidences happened to me that caused me to kind of step away from
competition hunting.
And I believe whenever I stepped away, I found my passion again in that it's not about competing.
It's about the dog.
I found.
Oh, well, I've got two in particular.
But there's one dog that kind of hits a spot between me and Bryce.
It's the dog that just really brought me and him together more than friends, but more like
brothers riding down the road.
And that's Duncan hit the spot.
And he is owned by Tiffany and Jeffrey Davis of Mississippi.
They sent him back to me.
He wasn't he wasn't doing exactly the way he was when I had him up here.
And I won seven that the UKC World and wanted autumn oaks and doubled up his super stakes
and as all as a one year old.
And so I told Jeffrey, I said, you know, after my unfortunate incidences, I told Jeffrey
that this winter I just wanted to just me and spot go back to the way it was 13, 14
years old, sneaking out of the house, putting a five gallon bucket next to the window so
that I could get out of the window in the middle of the night after I heard dad starting
to snore.
And then I'd sneak back in at 530 in the morning and act like I was asleep so that they could
wake me up to go to school the next morning and then get kicked out of school for sleeping.
So that's that's kind of where it all evolved from.
And then Bryce called me one day and he said, well, actually, I called him and I said, hey,
man, I need help.
He said, what do you got?
I said, well, I've got two dogs that need to be hunted at Ripley, Tennessee, and I'm
only one man.
You think you can help me?
And he said, yep.
He said, I'll handle one for you.
He said, there's something that I've been wanting to talk to you about anyways.
And so he threw the idea of turning the Deep and Lonely podcast into Semper dogging.
And that's kind of where we are.
That's kind of where Semper dogging came from, always faithful to always dogging.
I believe both traits embody what we're about here at Semper dogging.
We're always faithful to always dogging.
Yeah, absolutely, guys.
And you know, Basham and I, we've run up and down these roads together for years now.
It's when we, I don't know, when we chase these dogs, do all these hunts, we explore
new territories, we go to different states together.
I mean, Arkansas, you want to go back to Arkansas, but yeah, we can go back to Arkansas.
Yeah.
I mean, that was okay.
We, I mean, we've been to Arkansas.
We've been to Mississippi.
We've been to Virginia, just all over the place, anywhere, Southern, Southeastern.
We've been there.
You know, we ride down the road all the time.
Bastam's always driving.
I'm usually sleeping.
But when I'm awake, we have really good conversation, you know, just about life.
And I thought that, you know, that on that trip that he mentioned over there to Ripley,
Tennessee, this would be a good chance to pitch it.
Like he's got the idea.
He's got, he's got the knowledge.
I already had a podcast platform with Deep and Lonely.
I was wanting to do something a little different.
Let's marry the two together.
You know, why not jump into this with somebody who I've done everything else with, you know,
what's different about this?
You know, great idea, good platform.
Let's see what we can do with it.
And it might flop.
I don't think it will.
You know what, though?
And you know, I've as this has evolved and obviously people in your circle know about
it.
People in my circle know about it.
And, you know, you'll get those people that'll say, hey, this ain't going to work or, you
know, starting an endeavor like this with someone so close to you.
It's going to be, it's going to be hard to develop it into something.
And here's what I've told every single person that I've talked to, even if all this ever
ends up being is two buddies sharing stories on a podcast.
I'm fine with that.
Me too.
Because guess what?
We'll be able to go back and listen to them.
You know, it's a recording session.
Yep.
It's going to be good.
But, you know, just to give you guys a little bit more about the format of this show.
So we already mentioned the first and third Tuesdays of the month are going to be dog
and Tuesdays on Facebook.
The second and fourth Fridays of the month are going to be when the podcast releases.
This podcast is not going to be about just coon hunting.
It's not just scroll hunting.
It's not just agility dogs.
It's not just bomb dogs.
It's not just police dogs.
It's not just mountain lion dogs, coyote dogs, rabbit dogs, whatever bird dogs.
It's not any of those in particular.
It's about that wiener dog that you have laying on the couch or that little toy miniature
chihuahua that follows you to bed every morning or sits outside the bathroom door waiting
for you to get done, you know, taking your shower.
This podcast is going to embody dogs in general of all kinds.
And we are going to explore those.
We're going to hopefully learn more about them and teach you guys a little something
along the way, not necessarily from us, but for the people who we have as guests on this
show who are experts in that field or who are passionate about what they do.
You know, not everybody we talk to is going to be an expert, but they're going to have
passion just like us.
Yes.
And I think passion goes a long way.
I think passion goes further than knowledge and a lot of avenues.
I think passion will get you to knowledge.
I do.
So, you know, we've already got guests lined up who we've already pre-recorded with before
this come out.
We've got Lane Denny going to be coming to you.
Competition Coon Hunting.
We've got Heath Hyatt coming to you.
Bear Hunter, big time bear hunter down in Virginia.
Dalton Hillard.
We've already recorded with him.
Coyote.
Coyotes running greyhounds, running walker hounds, trig hounds, all different kinds of
dogs to marry all these different disciplines together to complete one goal, which is to
hunt a coyote.
To me, that's a work of art.
It's beautiful.
Oh, it definitely is.
It takes a lot of time and a lot of passion to do anything with a dog.
You know, I talk to guys all the time and I tell them about the endeavor that I'm on
in there.
You know, even in my work of being an electrician, they're like, oh man, I've got this dog at
the house and I'd really like to teach it obedience training and you know, this, that
and the other and I tell them, I say the hardest thing is not to train the dog.
It's to train the human because the dog is consistent in everything it does.
The human is not right.
So you know, we've got guests who we have not recorded with yet, but have agreed to
come on here and talk to us.
We've got Calvin Redhouse with res hounds out there in Arizona.
He you know, former, um, who was in the Marines, I believe he was, uh, but now he's out there
running mountain lions, bobcats, bears.
Uh, we've got Hannah falling said she's going to come on.
She's a coon hunter.
She's running a, is it American bulldog on fly ball?
Don't hold us to that.
Cause I know there is a certain term.
Yeah, there's a certain term and they get kind of, uh, been out of shape if you don't
use the right term.
Yes, but it's really cool what she's doing.
I watched her on Facebook.
I've watched all the steps where she's trained this dog piston, I think is his name.
She's a show dog and now she's running him in this event called fly ball.
Yes.
And then do it and then doing her, uh, pet grooming.
Yeah, absolutely.
So she's already agreed to come on here.
So guys, we've got all these different types of people who we've already recorded with.
We've already got promises to come in here and record with us on that are all in different
aspects, but it's not just going to be a mumble jumble every other week of something different.
We are going to hopefully, and this is just a plan we're thinking out loud here, spend
a few weeks talking about coyotes with those, the coyote hounds with those in that field
from east, the Eastern border all the way to the, that goes, the guys out West talking
about the different types of hunting, going to bear hunting, the guys from the North all
the way down from the guys to the South, the Coon hunters from your local behind the barn
pleasure hunter to the elite handlers of right now, spend weeks, a few weeks on each of those
things to get a better dive, better learning and understanding in each of those before
we jump around to the next thing.
Um, I don't want it to be jumping around all the time.
Yeah, I guess confusing.
Oh, it does.
What's what's next?
So basically what we're going to try to do here guys is obviously bear hunting with dogs
happens at a certain time of year.
Yep.
So there's certain, there's certain aspects that are only going to happen certain times
of the year, like bear hunting and different things like that.
Obviously we're blessed as Coon hunters.
We can do it anytime we want.
Here in Indiana, at least.
Yeah, here in Indiana.
So we're going to spend, um, and this will be something we come out with a little later
down the road as far as an actual schedule.
It's something that, uh, me and Bryce are kind of fly by our seats.
So we're kind of thinking out loud on the podcast.
So if you listen to our podcast and you join us every week, Tuesday's dog and Tuesday,
the following Friday, the podcast will release the following Tuesday.
If you follow along with us, you will see the evolution of Semper dogging.
Cause we are not two guys that really say, huh, six months from now we want to do this.
You're going to see us sitting here, you know, moving our gums, talking, and all of a sudden
it's going to be born.
So follow along with us, follow along with the adventure.
It's not just me and Bryce.
No, that's what we want you guys to understand.
Semper dogging is not Bryce Matthews and Steven Basham.
It is every dog man and every dog woman out there.
This is what we all embody.
Absolutely.
So I think it's going to be fun.
Do you want to go into a little bit of our, our overall goals, missions, and maybe some
future plans here at the podcast, just to plant the seed of where we have big visions.
If any of you guys have ever talked to me or bash them, we are dreamers, our wives call
us crazy, but we think big, big.
Where do you think it can go?
What do you think?
Just tell our listeners, our overall goal, mission, and maybe some future plans.
So here we go.
Me and Bryce were driving down the road, Ripley, Tennessee, and Bryce looked over at me and
he goes, man, how far do you think Semper dogging can really go if we do this?
And I said, bud, the sky's the limit.
I said, if you really want my honest opinion, I think it's as far as we push it to go.
You look at PetSmart, you look at anywhere.
My number one, my number one example to Bryce was Mossy Oak.
I said, if you go back and look at the history of Mossy Oak, they started out as just stickers.
They started out as just selling shirts.
Now what are they doing?
They're making tree stands.
They're making guns, you know, putting rats on guns.
They're, they're multimillion dollar company.
I'm not saying me and Bryce Matthews are going to be a multimillion dollar owners, but I
think making our own dog food, you know, making our own dog houses, you know, having stuff.
Who knows?
Who knows where this is going to go?
But at the very worst, it's two buddies on a podcast sharing adventures with other dogmen,
other dog women.
My kids will forever be able, when I go, they'll be forever be able to hear these recordings.
They'll be able to go back and say, that's my dad.
That's the passion that he had.
That's what he loved.
And at the worst, that's what we have.
But at the best, who knows?
And so when you talk about our vision statement, when you talk about where we want to go, I
have a passion.
I have something that probably means just as much to me as dogs.
And that's my military brothers.
That is my wounded brothers.
That is the brothers that I served with.
Anybody that that's been around me, I don't really talk too much about my military career.
I did a lot of, a lot of deployments overseas and spent, I think I counted it up one time
and I was up to a hundred and something months overseas.
And so I've spent a lot of time, done a lot of things and helping.
There's a lot of, and I told Bryce, I didn't just want to be like everybody else.
Cause Bryce asked me, he said, I really would like to help vets, you know, like wounded
warrior or this or that or the other.
And I said, I really don't want to be like everybody else.
I kind of want to be unique in our own kind of way.
And we're not sure where that's going to go yet.
Right before this recording me and Bryce were kind of talking about it.
And he asked me, he said, should we mention what we eventually want to do?
And I said, do you know exactly what we want to do?
And he said, no.
And I said, then let's just leave it broad.
We would like to in some way, shape or form some of the profits, if there ever is any
big, big, big, if, if this thing ever takes off and there are profits, we would like to
take a biggest majority of that and to either some way, shape or form help a vet go on a
style of a hunt that he's never been on.
Or more importantly to me, help train or purchase a service dog for a vet just somewhere in
that lines.
And guys, you are on the ground floor.
So we ask you to join us on this endeavor because it's never just going to be me and
Bryce.
We were neither one of us are made of money.
And so that's not what this podcast is about whatsoever.
It's about a passion, but we are not going to be able to do this alone.
So we ask that you join with us and seeing where this can go, embodying it with us.
That is kind of our mission.
It's not just me and Bryce.
It's all of us.
It's all of us as dog men, dog women.
But eventually we would like it to, we would like to take it to unfound territory within
ourselves, help veterans out wherever we possibly can and kind of go that route.
Absolutely, man.
And it's bigger than that for me.
Like you said, we don't know where this is going to go, but if it ever does go somewhere,
I want to give back.
There's been several people who have mentored me along the way and helped me out along the
way.
And the least that I can do is pay that forward, you know, for somebody who's given the ultimate
thing they can give to our country.
That's to serve.
And if they're, they're down and out and they need a little help and we can help them through
this podcast, that's what I want to do.
I hope that the listeners hear when you hear Bryce talk, there's different levels to Bryce.
Okay.
Everybody knows.
I know people say that I'm loud, but who man, he gets excited.
All right.
So there's different levels of Bryce.
There's different levels of me.
And I hope, I hope and pray that you guys hear the sincerity and the passion in our
hearts, not just for dogs, but for each other as, as houndsman for the camaraderie that
we, that we build between each other, running up and down the road, sleeping in the same
hotel rooms, doing this duffel bags thrown in the back lights everywhere.
Well, my lights everywhere.
Bryce, anybody that knows Bryce has got to have his hair dryer.
Easy now.
I just live an organized life.
Okay.
Yeah.
Let's, let's, let's ask Nikki about that.
Oh, it's organized.
Let's ask Nikki.
It's organized.
Where'd you find your vest?
In the closet.
On the side of the road or did you have to go pick it up?
Oh, I did have to go to that.
I was in a rental car.
Gosh darn it.
My organized system got thrown off.
So as you see guys, we are not the type of podcast that is going to have a script.
We are going to kind of, we're going to bounce all over the place, but we're going to try
to stay.
He's going to more so than me try to keep me on track.
That's a task because I see a squirrel and I like to chase it.
So absolutely.
So guys, it's going to be fun.
It really is going to be fun.
I'm getting ready to hit bashing with something right now that I didn't even talk to him about
before here.
So here we go.
Wham bam.
Thank you, ma'am.
Oh, here we go.
So give me one of your favorite stories of you and I together.
It can be funny.
It can be embarrassing.
Give me something.
Man.
All right.
Honestly, probably one of the funniest and it didn't even really involve us together
was I was, I was actually, I got two dogs qualified for the UKC world hunt and I had
called Johnny Hamilton and I had said, Hey man, are you going down there?
And he said, no, I'm working.
And I said, dang it.
I said, I kind of need somebody else to handle a dog for me.
And he said, well, he said, I got this young guy.
He's all into it.
He said, he don't know much about the rules, but he can strike and tree a dog.
I said, Hey, that's good enough.
Whatever, you know, beggars can't be chooser.
I'll take the bottom of the barrel.
And so he hooked me up with Bryce.
Well, Thursday, the dog that I was hunting came in heat and Bryce had already hunted
with the male dog a couple of times.
And so I told him, I said, I'm not going to take the dog away from you.
Come and get the dog.
I'm actually just going to go to work.
You know, I didn't know Bryce very well at this time.
And I was just like, man, I don't know this kid.
I'm just going to, I'm going to go to work.
I'm going to make some money.
I'm going to let him go hunting.
And so he said, okay, he said, uh, I'm always early.
So what time do I need to be up there?
And I said, man, it's a UKC hunt.
I said, deadline's probably going to be like seven o'clock.
He said, all right, I'll get up there at six.
And I get a phone call from Bryce and Bryce says, buddy, the deadline was at three o'clock.
Oh, so ready to go to, oh, he was so mad.
I didn't even know where to find the information or else I'd have found it myself.
And we wouldn't have been in this predicament.
He was so mad.
And I said, well, he said, that's okay.
I'll come back tomorrow.
I said, Bryce, the thing about the UKC zones is if you get scratched one night, you can't
hunt the other.
That made it, that made it 10 times worse.
And uh, I will say that he never, ever, ever lets me live it now.
And if we're talking about going to a hunt together, he will say, well, let me get online
and verify the deadline information.
Yeah, absolutely.
Cause I'm not getting stuck with that again.
I was so pumped up and it was just like somebody took a dag on Swiss army knife and popped
my balloon.
Honestly, probably if, if I was sitting here being honest with me and you, probably the
time you have more reasons than I do, but probably the time that sticks out the most
with me and you was our run to the UKC world.
Oh, it was great.
Not only because that's where you met Nikki and your future wife and your future family
and all of that, but it was, I think that hunt there bonded us as, you know, because
I was hunting, uh, you know, people thought we were crazy on Facebook, you know, going
live, you know, some people took offense saying that we were being arrogant, which we weren't,
we were just, we were just enjoying it.
Win, lose or draw.
If you ask, you know, um, it was just, it was just a wonderful time between two friends.
Just live it in the moment.
If you ask, and I'll tell you who can, I've heard him tell the story two or three times
and that's old Jason Coop, Oh Cooper.
Yep.
I'm gonna tell you, and it's probably because he blew me out of the water.
Yeah.
And I had to emphasize that just like that, because that's exactly what happened.
The wheels fell off the train.
He said that the final nine casts that me and him was on are, was it no, no, no one
final nine.
It was final seven final, final something, we were heads up.
Less than ten. Yep. We were heads up
It was late round Friday night at the UKC world. It was me. It was spot against outlaw and
The first tree I thought I had him licked possum I
Thought I had him
We tried everything we could to get him to think it was a possum. I thought I had well
No, I had first and first on that one. Anyways, he had second and second. So I was like, oh, I've got him
What I didn't know was outlaw was good at going 25 yards and train another one
Oh, yeah, the possum wasn't the first day that one now there was just a really really white coon
We were trying to get him think was a possum. That wasn't the first tree
I said that was like that was like the fourth or fifth and that he treed I've slept since then
Yeah, it was it so I got the first and first on him and then he went
25 yards and jammed one and then went 40 yards and jammed one and then went yeah, it was bad
But anyways coupe will tell you that he never met two guys that enjoyed losing
As much as me and Bryce and it wasn't that we enjoyed losing me and Bryce were just enjoying
The ride it was so I think if you really look at the aspects and everything that came out of that weekend
for
Me it wasn't even just that for me. It's also the something that you don't know
It's the friendship and the family atmosphere that I have built with Jeffrey Davis
Tiffany Davis
That I have built with Michelle Roberts and Ben Roberts that family is
Phenomenal love them to death. It's a relationship that I've built with them
through spot so
That dog a lot that dog has brought a lot onto our plate that weekend
probably embodies and is probably the
Focal point of me and you our friendship our brotherhood the whole nine yards. Yep. I agree
Guys, we're gonna wrap this up here
I don't want to drag this not too long
But I do want to mention our two sponsors that we've got for this show. They're gonna be helping us out
We cannot do this without a little bit of help. It's not cheap to put these things on
That's just the bottom line. It's not we had to have a little help and we've got two companies who are
Ready to take on this journey with us. They're ready to help us out
They know it's not gonna be
crazy good right off the bat, but they're ready to join us and that is froggy bottom outdoors and never satisfied off-road
So you guys be listening to future episodes
Don't skip right through the ad section in the episodes
I need you guys to listen to what these two companies have going on what they have to offer because it's good for all
hound hunters in
General they're gonna have something to offer everybody. So please don't skip right through the ad sections in the future episodes
Take a minute listen to what they have to offer
It's gonna help you out in the long run
If you want to support us, you'll go support the sponsors
Like I said, this is a ride for all of us jump on board be with us from beginning to end
Help our sponsors out. They help us out. They believe in our product
You know, we went to them and talked to them about our vision
We had to give them our vision statement our mission statement
We had to give to give them our sales pitch. Shall you say and tell them who we were and
They've come on board. They they want to help us on this endeavor
So we ask you to support them as you support us. Yep. Absolutely
So guys we're gonna wrap it up on this and bashing you got anything else you want to close out with
No, I just I appreciate I appreciate everything you do Bryce
Not just saying that I think especially in this time right now with me
Being away from town and working so much
This thing doesn't go where it's supposed to go without you
I appreciate you not only as a friend but as a brother and now as a
Co-founder of semper doggon. Yeah, man, it's it's good. It ain't no sweat
You know, it's something that I enjoy to do and they say when you enjoy what you're doing, it's really not work, right?
Yep, so no, it's good guys. Like I said, we've already got several
Episodes recorded they're logged. They're in the pipeline. They're ready to come to you
They're good. Yes, they're probably better than this one. Actually. I know they are. Yeah
Yeah, it's not just me and you rambling. Yeah, I know it's not just us very much
It's a little bit more thought out. Absolutely. So guys stay tuned to that. Like I said every other week
Dog and Tuesday the off weeks of that are gonna be the podcast released on Fridays
First and third is dog and Tuesday second fourth semper dog and podcast
Be sure to head over to our Facebook page join us over there interact with us over there
We want to talk to you guys. We want to see your pictures. We want to see your videos
We want this to be a family. Yeah, and just stay tuned
I mean we're gonna be doing all kinds of things to promote this. I mean anybody that's ever started
Anything knows that you you know, we're gonna have giveaways. We're gonna have this we're gonna have that we're you know
We're gonna have like and share we've already done giveaways. Yep. Yeah, we already have so
Facebook group head over there. You gave away a tumbler gave away a leather wrap tumbler
Tumbler gave away a leather wrap tumbler. I gave away a license plate. Yes, sir
So just head on over to our facebook page follow us
Uh, we'll be getting some more out there to give away
to have some like and shares and we'll spin that wheel and like I said guys and
Embrace us bring us along y'all come along with us. Let's build this up. Let's create that family atmosphere that uh, I think
Everybody would agree is missing in today's
um
Hunting world. Absolutely guys. So we're gonna wrap this one up. We're done. We'll catch you on the next one until then
Keep dogging