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 cohost, Stephen Basham.
And this, this is Semper Doggin.
Welcome welcome welcome to another episode of the Semper Doggin podcast.
Stephen Basham has recruited a couple people to come hang out with us tonight and if I
have any inclination with how tonight's gonna go this is gonna be a fun one.
So guys welcome to the podcast.
Stephen Basham your cohost.
How you doing buddy?
I'm doing pretty good.
How about yourself?
I cannot complain.
My favorite bald genie, Mr. Michael Mitchell.
How are you brother?
Good.
How are you fellas?
Fantastic.
That's a little inside joke there.
Every time I see Michael at a hunt I gotta go up and rub his little head.
I need some of his luck because I tell you what between Michael Mitchell and our other
guest on here Mr. Lee Wade these two seem to have all the luck when it comes to these
big hunts.
So Lee thanks for joining us tonight brother.
How are you?
Pretty good you guys.
Ready to get this going.
I am excited.
So Basham you set this one up.
This is a deal where you text me the other day and said hey we're recording we got Michael
Mitchell Lee Wade and I said alright let's go.
So I'm gonna let you roll with this one for a little bit brother.
Lead us off.
Yeah I just wanted to.
Biggest thing is I just wanted to give a shout out.
I know me and you know what it takes to as you talked about in some of your other podcasts
you know your goals that you had marked down and one of them was just getting that state
jacket and look at him.
For those that can't see it Bryce is holding up his goal sheet to where he wrote down a
bunch of his goals that he wanted to achieve and one by one he'd mark them off and so we
know how much night in and night out it takes you know running these dogs up and down the
road not only to get them qualified to go to the hunt but then in Lee and Michael's
case to actually go to the hunt and in the same year win the United Kennel Club state
championship and then turn around and win the professional Kennel Club state championship.
So I thought it was a great accomplishment and I really just wanted to bring them on
here and talk about you know each one of them talk about you know what got them into hunting
talk about their dogs.
Me and Michael go a little ways back you know I sold him the rack them up bin dog and so
always enjoyed him so like I said I just wanted to bring them on here.
Michael won't you talk to us let's start off by just talking about Hook and where you got
him from and how all this came about.
Well I had the old I had bin dog and I seen an ad from Bob Blackwell and he had posted
the dog for sale and then he sold it.
Well then when he got it back I said boy he'd look good in my kennel.
Well I got a phone call from Bob just a few minutes right after I posted that and he said
hey buddy I can get you in that dog let's do it.
So we made an agreement.
That sounds like a car salesman.
Got the hook dog and hunted him.
Had Austin Terrell hunting me he was going to hunt me in the spring super stakes.
We didn't go after it real hard didn't get his money won.
He had an issue never been hung with dogs much so that kind of hurt him a little bit
and so I got the dog back from Austin Terrell posting for sale knowing he wanted to come
and look at him and I tried to tell people he was a dog to look at and I ended up Lee
ended up getting a hold of me and I said hey he's a real deal.
I said this is what we need to do to make him right and Lee came in and bought half
of him and that's where we're at today.
Alright well let's go back a little bit.
Let's go way back.
Hook is an English dog for people who don't know.
Have you always been an English fancier or like walk us through the history of Michael
Mitchell in the coon hunting.
I always had a walker dog and then the late junior king he passed about five years ago.
I used to hunt with him and Tommy Crows and I had a little walker jib.
So junior king was always a blue tick man and I always favored tricolor looking blue
ticks.
Well I wasn't hunting the hunts then so I took my little walker female and bred it to
Ringo which was the blue tick that junior king had and I got a beautiful tricolor English
dog and I called her Maggie and I hunted her.
She was a real, real dog but she was still mouth and I always loved the looks of a tricolor
dog but I got it through a blue tick and a walker dog and then back in the 90's, 91's
I was able to get a black and tan pup and I ended up super staking him.
He was real good but he ended up being sterile so I took him off the super stakes program
and other than that I've been pretty much all walker dogs and then me and Lee had an
English dog together named Freak but he had mine up north had him.
Lee had got him, I bought half interest in him and he was a country and so that piqued
my interest on the English dogs.
Well when Buzz posted that on Hook he was beautiful and he was the perfect dog in color
that I liked so I ended up buying Hook not knowing how good he was going to become and
he's still a young dog but that's where we're at with the English dog.
I still got Ben but I favor him and the walker dog is pretty good.
Yeah absolutely and for those of you who don't know about this Hook dog that we're talking
about, the first time that I laid eyes on him I was like oh my, like this is a pretty
dog.
He is a nice red and blue tricolored English dog.
He's one of the prettiest English dogs that I've laid eyes on and the fact that he can
look that good and treacoons, I mean that's the icing on top of the cake.
Yes sir.
Lee let's roll into you.
How did you and Mitchell get hooked up here other than you were wanting to buy half in
on Hook?
Did you and Michael ever have any past dealings?
Were you guys buddies before this?
Was this a relationship that has formed over a dog and has just evolved over time?
Just walk us through that because you've been around for a long time and you've handled
a bunch of dogs.
So me and Mitch we met actually, I had a dog named Rebel.
He was super staked, had his money won and stuff like that and Mitch's brother got a
hold of me and said hey my brother's got two dogs, he's looking for a super staked dog,
he loves the super staked stuff and these dogs ain't super staked.
I said okay.
So Mitch come down, we went hunting.
It was bitter cold that night.
And he brought a dog down named Thousand Dollar Duck.
And we cut Rebel and Duck loose and Duck hit a track and I looked at Mitch I said buddy
I don't know you real well.
I said was that dog running a deer?
He said no he's going to put an end to it here in just a second.
He said just go ahead and treat Duck.
Well we walked in there, Duck had a coon.
I mean made it look simple, easy.
We cut Rebel, he treated a few coons.
And me and Mitch we just come pretty tight.
He got a hold of me and said hey will you hunt Rebel at super stakes for me?
Handle on him.
I said yeah that's perfectly fine.
Me and Mitch we go way back you know.
If it wasn't for Michael Mitchell I'm going to be straight up on us with you guys.
There's a lot of hunts that I will not be able to go to.
You know he's a heck of a guy.
He gets me to point A to point B when I need to go.
I look at him like a dad.
He does everything I ask.
I do everything he asks.
We just we've been tight and close.
If he says hey I got a dog over here you know running tree of coon.
You know he says it runs in trees of coon but that dog's got a lot of ability once somebody
starts hunting it.
That's just like Hook you know.
I ended up selling Freak and went down.
I bought Hook off the chain.
I didn't need to see him go.
Brought him home.
Didn't know the dog from Adams.
I cut the dog loose.
He treated nine single coons.
I messaged Mitch.
I said this is a coon tree in full.
Now granted he treated nine single coons and one on a fence row.
You know probably about four miles long fence row.
I didn't have to walk too far.
He was just popping them up like candy.
And Mitch said hey you need to start hunting with some group of guys.
Take Hook out there.
Work on him.
Do this.
Do that.
So I started working on Hook you know and here we are today.
We just we win about 90% of the cast we're in.
If we don't win you know we're there.
I'm on your tail end throughout the whole cast.
Yeah and I've seen that.
That's been very apparent through the few hunts that I've drawn in.
And I actually have I think I drew the freak dog one time hunting against you.
But I never did I never have hunted against took.
But man I've seen them score cards that come in.
You guys put a hurting on him.
Yeah he just you know he gives me the opportunity that I need.
All I do is sit there.
I strike him.
I tree him.
I let Hook do the talking.
Walk in there you know.
There's been a few times we've lost a few casts in the summertime because he trees a
lot of layup coons.
And you can find it in the thermal.
I can squall beat and bang.
And sometimes you know guys I just can't get that coon to look.
But in the thermal it's right up there and it just it makes me sick you know.
That's part of the sport.
He don't work on he don't walk on water.
But what he does is he trees coons and he don't give no points away.
And for a young dog two and a half years old that's pretty impressive for me.
Yeah that's impressive no matter what.
Going back a little bit Lee what got you into coon hunting?
Where did all that start out at?
So a lot of people knew my stepdad David Allen.
Him and my mom got married.
Larry Allen Jr. he owned the train dog.
My stepdad owned the high stepping Jake dog.
I started hunting and everybody knows an old man named George Burnett.
He had English dogs.
Red hot nose Rosie.
I hunted her.
I made her night champion.
I grew up around the English dogs.
I grew up around the walker dogs.
I hunted almost every night I could.
I played football, swim, baseball.
I did it all throughout high school and I was in the woods every night.
So if it wasn't for my stepdad I would never even know what coon hunting was about until
my mom and them got married and I just loved the sport.
I made it to the PKC Youth World down in Salem, Illinois.
Everybody was like hey that Jake dog is going to win.
He's going to win.
Jake ended up getting ran over in a cast.
I was leading the cast.
I was two coons up.
No dog ever barked for an hour on that cast.
I told that guide and that judge, I said hey guys, Jake's ran over.
They said well how do you know?
I said the dog ain't treed is he?
They said no, he's not ran over.
Don't think anything of it.
So after the hunt was over I pulled out the beep beep tracker and I said hey he's straight
through.
We drove around there and he was dead in the middle of the road.
You know it wasn't no highway.
It was a gravel road with probably about four foot of grass growing in it.
He ended up getting hit.
Bud Hood called the next morning and said hey let me speak to Lee.
I took the phone and Bud Hood said hey you come back.
I will come back to Indiana and pick you up.
You can hunt this female of mine.
I said no, Jake was the one who got me all the way there.
So I didn't go back to hunt.
Man that's tough.
That's got to be tough.
You talk about having a dog that kind of gets you there.
I think Bryce posted on it today on Facebook.
Having a dog and building a bond with a dog and then something happened.
I think for me mine was a dog named Candy.
Right before I joined the Marine Corps my dad we went up to a dog trader and we had
bought my dad bought this little female from Todd Arms which for those of you that don't
know Todd Arms.
Todd Arms owned a bunch of dogs.
The Thunder Dog, a bunch of dogs for J.C. Ellis and White Tard and Ailer.
A bunch of those dogs.
But anyways my dad paid $20 and a chainsaw for this pup.
I went out there and started training on this pup, training on this pup and got it going.
I was the only one that ever won anything with it.
I turned right around and sold it to J.C. Ellis.
J.C. ended up bringing it back because she was one of those dogs that just wouldn't go
hunting and I kept her all the way to the end.
To build that bond with the dog, I know what you're talking about Lee, whereas you don't
see yourself winning that award because if you was to take another dog and just by chance,
by luck, go out there and win the whole thing.
Now you almost feel like you've dishonored that dog because he's the one that got you
there and you went out and did it with a different dog.
Oh yeah, I agree 110% right there.
It's tough.
It's hard as a handler when the dog that you're hunting and you form a bond with gets sold.
That sucks.
But man, when you put all that time and effort into a dog and an accident happens and there's
nothing you can do about it.
Every time we cut these dogs loose, it's a chance, it's a risk.
And Bryce, wouldn't you say like last year?
Last year was a bad year for that.
It was.
There were several dogs that had just had some really, really unfortunate events happen
and just good caliber dogs and freak accidents.
I don't know, it's weird and it'll almost like it'll scar somebody.
You might, like Lee said, you might be hunting in the middle of nowhere on a gravel road
and you see that dog going on that tracker now because with bird's eye and satellite
imagery, everybody can see everything and you can see where that dog is and that thing
is getting close to a road and you're like, hey judge or guide, is that a busy road over
there?
Like, nah, nah, there ain't hardly any roads over there.
And you're like, man, it only takes one, you know, it literally only takes one.
So it makes it tough.
But Mitchell, how, how do you do it?
Because in your shoes, every hunt that I go to, actually let me rephrase this.
Most of the hunts that I go to, you're the, you're the, you're the handler's truck man.
You are, you are right there making sure that Lee gets where he needs to be in the woods.
You're sitting there to drive around, pick him up when need be, you know, you are a part
owner on this dog, but Lee does 90% of the handling.
And I know you've stepped in a few times when you absolutely had to, um, just to some other
circumstances, but how does that work for you?
Like, do you ever doubt what's going on in the woods?
Are you ever nervous?
Like, just walk me through what it's like to be an owner slash truck man.
Cause I'm curious.
That's the most important part.
I'm never nervous.
Um, the good Lord gracious to enjoy this sport and enjoy it any way we can.
And when you, when you creep up on age and get some health issues, you just got to try
to enjoy this sport any way you can.
Uh, Lee will tell you, you know, I don't know how they're scoring trees and this, that,
and the other, but I ain't too far off the scores when he comes back to that truck.
So I've got it down to an art where I listened and I can, I pretty much know how it should
have went if, you know, depends on if they plus did or minus did, but as far as how many
trees hook makes or another dog, I got that all figured out.
I, you know, so as long as they, they stay in here and I I'm in the game.
Like do you enjoy that?
Like is that something that you've just learned to come to enjoy, you know, due to health
issues and stuff like that?
Or you know, if you were back in just say perfect health and, and able to walk to every
tree, would you still be the truck man?
Would you still let somebody else hunt a dog for you?
I'd let him enjoy him, but now he had step aside a little bit more.
They would because that that's in my blood.
I mean, I love competition.
I, I plan on getting back to it, but, uh, you, like I said, you gotta, you gotta enjoy
what you can enjoy, however you can enjoy it.
That's a good way to put it.
That's the way I do it.
So, so for the listeners out there, and I think I'm going to take a step back just for
a second, Bryce, a little bit of a somber moment here.
I don't want to take this kind of in a bad way and this is kind of a bad twist, but,
uh, I think for those four of us on the call, I think we kind of know, uh, Michael's background
as far as his medical issues.
Um, would you just for the listeners, would you go through just what you're fighting with?
Because I think for every guy on here, we look up to you.
We look up to the strength that you have, the perseverance that you have to continue
going on each day.
And we just, that's kind of one of the reasons why I wanted to get you on here was just to
spread that positivity of what you're going through.
And maybe somebody that's going through it, you know, would find some, um, inspiration
in your story.
Well, I mean, a lot of it's just wear and tear on your body that you put on, you know,
I've been heavy all my life, so I've worn my knees out and ended up getting two total
knee replacements.
And I had a flu pulmonary embolism.
I lived through it.
And uh, you know, I just, right now I'm just, right now I'm just anemic.
I'm cold all the time and my body for some reason, I don't have no stored iron.
They're trying to figure that out right now, but I took some transfusions.
I think I'm starting to feel better.
So you know, it sucks getting old guys.
Yep.
That it does.
Yeah.
Enjoy your youth.
You know, and, but the fact that, you know, every, I don't think that I've ever seen
you upset.
And I mean that with all sincerity.
Like, I don't think I've ever went to a hunt and just seen you aggravated or mad, you know,
even if you don't win or Lee doesn't win, like you're always upbeat, you're always positive.
And you know, when you just said that kind of hit home with me, you said, enjoy it any
way that you can, you know?
Yeah, that's true.
Yeah.
I, you know, I get fired up if, if you feel like you just been blatantly cheated, I get
fired up about that.
But you know, you cut these dogs loose, you got these dogs spread now your dog happened
to spread out the right way and got the right track and got on the top end of a strike and
the top end of the tree.
You know that a lot of that plays a part in them hunts.
You can get beat one day and beat the world champion the next.
I mean, it's just a lot of it's luck.
You gotta have a good dog.
I'm not saying that, but you gotta take the, you gotta get the breaks.
You gotta have the luck.
Lot of things happen out there.
And you know, they're dogs.
In all reality, they're dogs.
No use getting all upset over it.
I, I like, I don't mind correcting a dog, but I don't get on them hard.
That bothers me more than anything, probably the most when, when you see someone going
overboard on a dog because they're just dogs.
They're a working dog.
It's doing everything they can for you.
They're not doing it for them.
I mean, you got dogs there naturally that do it, but you know, once you correct them,
once you get them to doing what you want, they're doing it for you.
So I don't, I don't usually get upset at the hunts and I usually don't.
Yeah.
So like Lee, do you ever feel any pressure as the handler, you know, knowing that Michael's
in the truck or, uh, you know, reporting back after the hunt and like, man, this happened,
this happened.
Like you ever have any pressure on you, especially like in those high stakes hunts, like these,
these state hunts that you guys have been fortunate enough to win.
You know, um, so let's start with the UKC state hunt, you know, Friday night, um, I'm
not gonna, I'm not gonna lie about it.
Um, we was getting, when I tell you we was getting coon dogged, we was getting coon dogged.
Um, that little female heifer that I hunt for Robin Demita, um, I drew her of course,
and she was, she was throttled on us.
And um, I told, we called timeout and um, I told Mitch, I said, Hey, we're getting throttled.
And he said, yeah, I figured.
Well, we ended up moving, you know, when hook just did his thing.
Um, that boy that was hunting heifer made a couple of bad calls, which I knew it was
going to happen.
Um, hook set her up on a tree, left it, went over and treated the coon the right way.
Um, that boy treed and then, you know, he struck for a hundred.
He's not thinking he trees her again and she's on a gut slick.
And um, after that, you know, we ended up winning Friday night, Saturday night.
And I went out there and um, hit a thousand and um, hook just did his thing.
Um, would I, would I have scored a thousand in a four dog cast?
Uh, it'd been hard because where we was hunting is big state land that I got, um, big hills
and hollers.
Um, but honestly, no, I do not feel pressured when Mitch is sitting in the truck because
I spend almost every night in the woods with hook.
I know what hooks doing.
I can tell you whether he's going to jam a coon.
Um, I can tell you whether if he misses the coon, um, I can tell you everything hook hook
just does in the woods.
And I don't feel pressured.
You know, I get, you know, at first, um, I get a little nervous, you know, like the Indiana
PKC state hunt, um, first round hook hook did a sign and did it right.
Uh, late round, I, you know, I got a little nervous.
I asked Mitch, I said, Hey, you ever feel nervous?
He said, nah, never do buddy.
And um, I said, well, I'm sitting over here.
My hands are sweating and I got the fidgety shakes.
You know, I'm ready to, I'm ready to go.
Once I get that dog on paper, I'm good.
Yeah.
See, I'm the same way.
I got to get him struck and then I'm good.
Yep.
That's how I am.
I get them, I get them struck.
I'm a hundred percent good.
And bash them sitting over there laughing.
Uh, he's got to get his treat in and have a coon to feel good.
No, the reason why I'm laughing is, is if you don't know why Bryce Matthews is asking
if you ever feel nervous, I'm going to give you just a quick story.
We went to a legacy hunt in Morgantown, Kentucky, and he's having rebel.
We come all the way back and he knows what I'm about to say.
We had come all the way back from Arkansas.
Me and him, man, me and him used to take these trips on a whim.
We just take off, go everywhere.
Me and him drove all the way to Arkansas, went way down to the white river refuge, made
it all the way back Saturday night for a legacy hunt.
He's hunting rebel.
And we go cut the dogs and they go down through there and rebel barks once.
Rebel barks twice.
The judge says, who is that?
Rebel barks three times.
Still nothing from Bryce Matthews.
Rebel barks four times.
Rebel barks five times.
Finally, Bryce is like, oh, strike in rebel.
Well, rebel goes down through there.
Now, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
This is early in my coon hunting career.
Very early.
Continue.
He goes down through there.
Rebel runs the track and he loads up big, just loads up a big locate, loads up another
big locate, loads up another big locate.
That's hurt all my life.
I look over at Bryce, I'm just like, man, what is he waiting on?
Rebel locates again and starts to roll it over and starts to roll it over.
I kind of make a little clearing of the throat gesture and I look at I look at Bryce again
and all of a sudden this little female just came in there and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That guy treat his dog.
Bryce goes, tree rebel.
I looked at him and I was like, Bryce, what are you doing?
He yells back at me.
He goes, I'm nervous.
Leave me alone.
I was man.
That was my very first legacy hunt.
Like that was the first time I'd won early round.
This was late round.
You know, I was nervous.
You ought to ask Shane Smith.
I'll bring him on here one day.
We'll tell a story about the first time that I ever went to with him.
But this is not a story or podcast about Bryce's nervous stories.
But yes, I was funny because you brought up the being nervous.
Yeah.
Honestly, I'm the same.
I'm the same way with as Lee for me, man, I am.
I'm tied that first until I can get my dog struck in.
I don't know what it is, but my heart's beating.
It don't matter.
It don't even matter if it's a $35 hunt.
If it's a $100 hunt.
It does not matter.
Like I'm going out there and I'm like, oh, man, come on, come on, get your, you know,
let's let's once the once the action starts picking up.
Oh, I'm fine after that.
The only thing the probably probably the best feeling I have over anything.
And it don't matter whether it's Lee's dog, Bryce's dog.
It doesn't matter is when that stopwatch goes off and hunts over and you're walking to a
dog that will determine whether who wins and who loses.
I could puke at that moment.
No that right there.
I love it because that is to me, that is the epitome of competition.
Coon hunting.
That is the epitome of, you know, coming down to the last wire, that last second shot at
the NCAA tournament.
You know, to me, that's what it's about.
That's the way it wins most of his cash.
It's usually that last tree.
Nope.
Lee walk us down.
I'm sorry, Basham.
Go ahead.
No, go ahead.
Go ahead.
No, no, no.
I was thinking that Lee walk us through that Indiana State PKC hunt because I was sitting
up watching the play by play on that and it looked like a pretty thrilling cast.
Like you would take the lead and then that young kid would take the lead and then you
would take the lead.
Walk us through that.
So you know, we cut loose.
Tilly struck for a 100 rock 75.
Tilly's treed, Rock's treed.
I strike hook for 50 with a line hooks over here, you know, pulling a puppy stage because
he's still got a little puppy in him.
So we go in there.
We're shining tree.
Hook comes in there.
I got to handle him.
They got a coon.
So we walk our minute.
Well, when we walk our minute, I look at hook and I said, what are you doing?
And he just, you know, I just grabbed him by the jaw and looked at him eye to eye, nose
to nose.
And I said, what are you doing?
And he gave me that look and hook knows when I get upset a little bit, you know.
So we cut loose after we walked our minute, we cut loose hook went over the creek is probably
about 20 seconds into the minute.
I struck hook right off the bat for a hunter because I'm trying to play catch up now.
Hook goes across the creek, trail and trail until he struck rock struck hook throws a
big locate.
I let him settle in.
There's nothing with him.
Kai said, putting the stationary on him.
I said, there's no reason to put stationary on hook.
Just tree him.
Well, I treat hook.
We walked in there had a coon.
I come back across the creek and I look, I look over to my right until he's in the water.
So like kind of swimming in a circle and I'm thinking, yeah, come on up here.
Take some minus girl.
So I'm taking my sweet time and I kind of, you know, handlers are going to do what they're
going to do, you know, so I kind of, I veered to the left a little bit because she's in
the water swimming.
And when I veered up the bank to the left, she ends up following me up there and she
took her minus.
So, you know, now I'm sitting, I'm sitting with 225.
Tilly took 75 minus and she had 225.
Well, when I cut, there was coons sitting up everywhere.
And when I cut Tilly kind of got up around hook and hook, he, he shot out of there like
a rocket.
And I was like, well, there went that idea, you know, there was coons sitting up everywhere.
Hook just, he just blew through there.
So rocks treat on in there, you know, the two's working on rock off and on, off and
on.
Kai saying he's in one spot, myself and that young boy, we both knew that, you know, rock
is moving down the creek.
And finally, I say something, I said, Hey, why are we keep walking to this dog and we're
putting the two on him and the two almost catches and he barks once and you're saying
he's treed.
He, he was in a hole at first, but you can clearly tell that he moved down and you know,
I don't blame short for doing what he's doing.
He's trying to, you know, that's just part of, part of the sport.
So they ended up minus and rock.
And when they did hooks behind me, treed towards a truck, I said, Hey, you got me?
I said, yeah, it's just go ahead and striking tree hook right there.
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Well, you know, walking back to Hook in my mind, I was like, yeah, I got this cone.
This is this is ball game.
You know, the dog don't normally the dog don't miss.
Well, he missed the cone by a tree.
So I eat my minus that now unleashed locked because till he's treed rock street in there.
And I'm thinking, yeah, here we go.
So we walk all the way across this field.
We get probably about, I don't know, 20 yards from Tilly and she's sitting there tree and
rock he's gone short says minus me.
Kai says cut, cut hook.
I cut hook.
He runs right towards Tilly, takes a left, goes up through there.
We circle Tilly's tree.
I heard hook locate a couple of times in there, but I never I knew it wasn't right.
Well, hook ended up coming treat.
I think there was like 18 minutes.
I think it was or 17 something like that.
Well, he threw this big old locate when he did.
I just I just jammed him.
You know, there's hooks got certain locates.
If I need to tree hook before the hunts over, I can get away with it.
I can I can jam him because I know he's going to stay.
So I tree him and we're walking to him until he till he comes treated to the right.
Well, he treats Tilly and we're walking hook.
I got to have a coon.
So we get over there and they say shine time start.
Throw my light up.
First fork all balled up sound asleep.
There he is.
I'm least luck now because short treed his on through there.
So we go over to Tilly and we're sitting there and you know, if she's got a coon, she's got
me beat.
Well, she was over there where hook kind of located two or three times and moved that
track on out of there.
So they're sitting there beating and squalling this tree.
I'm just sitting over walking around with hook, you know, throwing my light up in the
tree, look and look and I'm saying, I just my luck, the coons going to come running out
of this hole.
Well, it didn't.
So that was the, that was the end of it.
I won it and I got back to the truck and I went to shake Mitch's hand and he said, he
said great dog handling proud of you.
And he gave me a big hug.
I mean, that's a heck of an accomplishment.
You know, you guys went out and won the UKC Indiana state and then you turn right around
and win the PKC state with the same dog.
You know, that's nothing but preparation.
Time spent in the woods, knowing your dog and being prepared for the situation at hand,
you know, knowing your rules, knowing your dog, it all comes together.
And the thing is that Bryce, the, um, the little list you had up, we had the same list,
but verbally with me and late, we was going to get all these accomplishments done.
And you know, Lee and hook and me, we, we'd done everything we wanted to do.
The only thing we didn't do is we didn't win the truck at the, uh, Pup shootout.
We didn't, uh, we didn't win the, uh, world hunt.
We didn't go to the finals of TOC, but everything else we accomplished.
Yeah.
I mean, and I think it's important to have those goals in those lists.
Like I, even if it isn't like, you know, just a verbal deal, I think it's important to get
it out of your head and say them or write them down because that's what you're shooting
for.
That's what you're working for.
And whenever you have those bad nights in the woods, you have a, you make a bonehead
call on a cast and you cost yourself a cast win.
You go back and you look at that stuff and you're like, man, okay, buckle down, saddle
up.
Let's go again.
Like let's ride.
You know, I think it's important.
We had that kind of talk not too long ago, didn't we?
Yeah.
About a three days ago.
And that's the thing.
That's the thing about running these hunts is man, it's your mood.
I don't care what anybody says.
Your mood changes like the weather.
It really does.
Especially mine.
You go out, you go out there and you have a good night.
You have a bad night.
You have a good night.
You know, you have a bad cast, you know, you cost yourself a cast.
It all costs you a cast.
You know, it's just it's really becoming one with the dog.
And like you mentioned before, a lot of times, especially when you're handling for somebody,
typically you do a lot of winning with the dog and next thing you know, the dog's being
sold.
So for me, you know, obviously I've gotten lucky kind of probably like Lee has, you know,
with Hook.
I got lucky with Buddy and Spot that both owners, you know, have no interest whatsoever
in selling.
And so I kind of get to keep the two that I have.
So yeah.
So like how is that with you guys like forming a partnership on those dogs?
Because you guys are partners on Hook.
You are partners on Freak.
Do you guys ever have discrepancies on handling styles or correction styles?
Like walk us through that for those listeners who, you know, maybe we got some young guys
on here who are listening and they're thinking about, you know, they want to start going
to some of these competition hunts, but they don't they don't quite have the funds to do
it or the means to do it.
And they need to partner with somebody like walk us through kind of like the ground rules,
I guess, for for a partnership that's going to last and is going to work because there's
a lot of partnerships that fall apart real quick.
Go ahead, Lee.
Well, you know, the most the the biggest thing I can say about partnership, you know, you
and your partner's got to be on the same page.
You know, if your partner calls you and says, hey, how's how's your dog look tonight?
You don't sit there and tell him, you know, well, he looked like this and look like that.
You know, don't make him sound good.
I'll tell Mitch straight up.
Hey, he looked like he looked like dog crud.
He looked like a counterfeit dog.
You know, there's there's times where, you know, I get hot headed with Hook and because
I know what Hook's capable of doing.
I know what he's going to do.
And me and Mitch, we just stay on that same page.
Like, you know, the way I handle a dog, Mitch handles the dog the same way.
We talk we talk a lot.
We talk.
We're always on the phone together.
It don't matter if it's, you know, 11 o'clock at night and I'll call him and say, hey, you
know, how would how would you do this?
You know, I'm still young.
And you know, I've I've actually ruined a couple good dogs myself from laying the electric
to them.
You know, just just burn them up and just ruined them.
And so I call Mitch and he he gets a good idea of what I'm going through.
And then he'll tell me how to handle it.
You and your partner just got to stay on the same page, you know, and it's not all because
you got a partner.
Oh, well, you hunt the dog every night and then you're going to rely on your partner
to pay, pay all the hunts.
It don't work like that.
You guys split it 50 50.
That that's the biggest thing.
I mean, everything is 50 50 down the middle.
Yeah.
Michael, what's your side of that?
That's the same thing.
I just I'm never going to treat someone.
I want to be treated the same as I'm going to treat someone.
So I'm going to always be on that side of it.
I if Lee would do something that upsets me, I'm going to wait until I cool down and then
I'm going to mention something.
And usually it's little things that bother me because I've done it to a dog and I didn't
get good responses out of that dog and I went backwards with that dog.
So I'll wait until I kind of chill out a little bit and then I'll say, hey, how about if we
do that?
How many of you guys go to bed thinking about how to fix a dog for doing something?
We all do it.
I lay in bed constantly and I've always had to fix problems.
And so I usually think about it and then we'll call Lee and say, hey, what do you think about
doing it this way?
How about if we try to get the dog to respond this way?
Sometimes less is more on a dog.
You know, sometimes it's just as simple as put them in the kennel for two or three days.
Don't think about it, bring them back out, you know, as far as a partnership, honesty
goes a long way with me.
You straight up with me and we're good.
So I don't I don't have no issues.
Usually, I mean, there ain't too many people can say I've done them wrong because I don't.
And if I feel like I have, then I make it right.
So I think Lee and all them may appreciate that.
I think that's why I mean, there's times where I'm going to go down and get a dog and me
and Lee's hunt together and he said, no, you stay right here.
I'm getting that dog.
That's too bad.
These guys take care of me.
Cody, Cody does the same thing for me and I appreciate them.
I mean, they they they really go above and beyond sometimes for me.
Yeah, I think I think Mitch, you you kind of hit part of it.
What I was going to say and that is I think the number one thing and it goes even for
me and Bryce that we've learned is, you know, in doing even this together is that you've
got to have a friendship first.
You've got to have a level of respect that allows for different personalities.
One thing that Bryce would tell you is me and him, people think that me and him are
a lot alike, but we're actually a hundred percent different in most areas.
We just we respect each other enough that I allow him to have his differences and he
allows me to have our my differences.
And it's the same way whenever you co owner dog or even if you handle for somebody.
I mean, in the world that we live in, you know, it first and foremost is successful
partnership, whether it's you just straight up hunting for somebody or whether you're
actually fully in partners with somebody is it is first and foremost is just that friendship,
that respect, being able to sit down and talk with each other and understand that the way
that you do things aren't always going to be the way that I do things.
And it's OK if we go about it in a different way, as long as we both end up at the end
result that we both want.
It doesn't matter how we got there as long as we don't lose each other in that process.
And I think that's what makes it successful or not.
Yeah, I agree with that, you know, because you and I have went several times on different
topics where I say one thing and you say another thing and we're both too daggone stubborn
and hard headed just to let it go for a minute.
So we'll sit there and hash it out for way longer than we need to.
And I think we both kind of just razzle each other a little bit, get some enjoyment out
of that.
But at the end of it, it's like, I I'll chill like I'll back off on this one and you you
handle it.
You've been there.
You've done that.
You know, you handle it this time and it works that way.
Like I said, just talking.
So I'm just curious, you know, how that worked, you know, for a dog partnership, because I
really haven't been in very many of them that were like legitimate partnerships.
So you know, a lot of a lot of them won't work.
I mean, I'll just be honest with you.
A lot of them won't.
I mean, you've got to be committed to that relationship because you're taking a dog that
you care for and putting it in someone else's hands or, you know, a partnership and you're
not going to have full control that same dog like you did.
So you got to have a lot of respect and you got to trust that that person's going to take
care of your half the dog when they got it.
So Michael, let's throw out a hypothetical situation here.
You're in the Indiana State hunt.
You're a co-owner on two dogs and both of them get in the final four.
What do you do there?
How is your emotions playing?
Like obviously you want to win with one of the two dogs, but I'm going through that.
I'm not wanting to win with one of my two dogs.
I'm going to want to win first and second.
So it doesn't matter which way it works.
That's I mean, that's the way it is.
I mean, I root for them both.
I mean, there's times where the same big hunt and I'm getting texts from Cody's wife and
I'm knowing what's going on with Hook, so it's like getting play by play.
So yeah, it's exciting.
I mean, dude, I don't know.
I guess I've never hunted for somebody like that where you're like you're on the same
team, but at the same time, you're very much like trying to win it for yourself, you know,
and be an interesting dynamic.
Oh, it definitely would be having multiple dogs.
So let's go back into Hook a little bit.
Let's dive into him.
I've seen where you guys have you guys just bred him.
Talk about his pedigree.
Talk about where he comes from and what are what are the attributes?
Lee, I'd like to hear you chime in on this.
What's the attributes that makes Hook so special?
What makes Hook so special?
So you know, you go to these big hunts, right?
They got dogs tied out.
Some dogs are just barking, pacing back and forth, just doing doing stuff that just drives
a man crazy.
You know, I can tie Hook out anywhere.
He lays down.
He acts like he's a 30 year old man just wore out tired, but he's not.
He's just chilling.
He's rolling around in the grass.
You know, he's not sitting there barking.
Hook's just got a head full of scents.
And that comes a long, long ways in a dog.
You know, me and Michael take offense to the old age.
Easy on that one.
Well, Hook's just Hook's just Hook, man.
He just, you know, I'm not going to sit here and brag him up because, you know, he could
go a week and never treat him.
He go next week and treat 50.
I've just been blessed.
You know, me and him, we make a great team.
So that's just that's just how I feel about it.
He's got a head full of scents and you know, it takes a head full of scents with me because
there's a lot of things I want in a dog.
And I'll tell you, hey, your dog just don't got what it takes for me to be behind it.
He's got all the right tools and a head full of scents and it comes a long ways.
So like, would you say that one of the, I guess the biggest trait that you were hoping
that he passes on to this litter that he's getting ready to sire would be just that head
full of scents?
Yeah.
I mean, all reality, he, you know, he's got a head full of scents.
Now they're going to be coon trees, you know, if they take anything after their daddy, I
don't know much about the mommy.
What I've heard about her, she's a coon tree and full and she's got a head full of scents
too.
So, you know, I just, I just think them pups are going to come out, you know, it's not
going to be hard to train them.
They're just going to, you just take them to the woods and they're going to speak for
themselves.
Mitch, what are you looking for in this litter?
I think he'll throw his rich collars.
As far as Hook, he's out of Big Lee and a mother is, is damn is Pebbles, which is a
direct daughter out of Hatchie River Dottie.
Well, Hatchie River Dottie is a hall of famer.
Her genes are in a lot of pedigree and they're coon trees.
And I've always said, I told Lee, I told Cody, I tell everyone, I have no doubt in my mind
that Hook will reproduce just because of his intelligence.
The dog from, from the kennel to the truck to train coons back to the truck.
He's all business.
He, he knows what you want.
You could just, you take a dog in the yard and when that dog's turn around looking up
at you, them are the kind of dogs I like to mess with.
They're intelligent.
They're going to work for you.
And I think Hook's a total package.
He's nothing fancy.
He trees coon, but he'll tree any kind of coon.
He'll tree the layup.
He'll tree the old feeder track and he can scorch or run and coon his looks and his intelligence.
I just think he'll produce and I'm, I'm really excited about this cross.
Yeah.
Well, so did Mitch, is it your, was it your idea to breed to this female?
Give us the background on her.
Like did somebody come to you?
How did that work?
How did this cross happen?
I was, I was going to a strawberry festival in, uh, making Georgia for kettle corn and
I got a phone call on the way down and the gentleman, uh, called me and said that he
had a female coming in.
He, and I'd already told Lee that I was going to be real selective at first.
You know, I, I just don't want to breed to anything.
And uh, he sent me videos and I talked to a few guys that know her and um, down there
in Tennessee, they say she's a real deal.
Uh, I liked her looks and we made arrangements.
I told him I didn't want to do, uh, no live breeding, uh, because we still got a lot of
hunts and he's still young.
And I had some semen collected at, uh, never for gone with Keith Bowling.
And he said, no, we AI'd her last time and she didn't have no pups.
He says, I want to live breed.
I said, I ain't going to be able to give you a live breed, but what I'll give you is a
side by side.
He said, I'm all good for that.
So that's what we did yesterday.
We did a side by side standing breeding with a hook in her.
Okay.
So walk, walk through that with the listeners.
Maybe somebody doesn't know what that is.
Like can you explain the side by side breeding scenario?
Yeah.
I took both dogs up there.
They done a progestin test on the female and she was, uh, she was ready to be bred.
She was at 18.5.
I guess they need to be between 16 and 20 for a good breeding.
And uh, so got hooked out.
They got the semen out of hook, turned around and put her in a strips and they ended up
putting.
Clearly they put nine breedings into her from hook.
Why?
He had, he had 18 straws that he, he gave it for that, uh, nice job at Keith giving.
And so he put it all to her and we'll see what happens.
Yeah.
That's got to be exciting.
When I had him tested, he was, he had 200 million live sperm per milliliter.
So I mean, he's, he's, he should be able to get the job done.
She's got 14 days.
I'm sure there's going to be 14 straight line swimmers.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And then they made it.
Basin, what else you got?
I got one more question in my mind.
What do you got?
Nah, go ahead, buddy.
So I want to know what the future holds for hook.
Like what's y'all's plans?
You guys have checked a bunch of stuff off the list.
What's that?
What's that one hunt that you want to win or what's that one goal you want to accomplish?
The biggest, you know, the biggest goal for me, um, Hey, it'd be great to win the super
stakes.
You know, um, we can check that off our list.
Um, the UKC world, that, that is going to be my big goal.
Um, we're gonna, we're going to make some noise when it comes to that.
Um, you know, and we got nationals coming up.
Um, I'm going to make some noise with him and nationals.
Um, you know, there's just, there's, there's quite a few hunts that, you know, I want to
win and hooks hooks just going to do it.
I mean, you know, I can sit back and talk about it, but I can tell you now we're gonna,
we're going to check them boxes off.
You guys just be watching.
You heard it here first on the simple dog and podcasts.
Mine's pretty simple.
Uh, next, next big stop is of course spring super stakes, but other than that, keep him
healthy and keep running these hunts, let the chips fall where they're going to fall.
Because I, I know what kind of dog he is.
It's just that simple.
No, absolutely.
Absolutely.
And, you know, going to these hunts as much as you guys do, do you guys ever get burnt
out?
Like y'all ever just want to take a break?
Yeah, you know, I was running for that, um, truck ticket.
Um, I was at a hunt every night.
I didn't care if it was, if it was two hours away, $35 hunt, I'd call Mitch and say, Hey,
I'm on the road and me and hook, we're, we're going after this truck ticket.
Um, and that's just, I got burnt out real quick.
Um, you can run it up and down the road.
It wears you out.
You know, then you got to go to work.
You come home, you know, you got a family at home and it's, it's high by, see you later.
Yeah.
I mean, there's a lot that goes into this, you know, pushing a dog to the level that
we are all wanting to push one to and reach those goals that we all want to reach.
Cause I think all four of us right here on this call, we have a competitive nature to
us that, you know, sometimes it's stronger, sometimes it's weaker, but it's always there,
you know, when we get our mindset to something and we want to go win, it's time.
Like let's go Katie bar the door, baby.
Like I'm coming.
I'm going to put forth all the effort that I can.
And I see that in you guys a lot.
You know, you can always count on anywhere.
We're really in the state of Indiana.
I feel like that Lee Wade, Michael Mitchell and hook are going to show up and you're going
to know that they're there.
Yeah, we're going to compete.
Right.
We're going to compete like there's no pressure on Lee.
If we don't hunt a hunt in two weeks, it's fine.
Cause you know, we had all these big hunts that was changed up this spring.
So you know, if he wants to take time off in the summer, he's already granted out.
I do know that we're going to hit some of the many slams around all the moats and we're
going to be at all the moats.
We're probably not going to do the Labor Day classic PKC this year.
We're probably going to do many slams just to experience and enjoy it.
It'd be at all the moats.
I got some pups down there at all the moats to sell, but I know me and Lee's going to
keep several of them.
And because the big thing about putting pups on the ground, it don't matter what you breed
to you got to have them in good hands.
If you don't have any good hands, no one's going to know about it.
So we're going to keep them in our hands, whether they're good hands or not, we're going
to keep them in our hands.
So we're going to do it that way.
Can you name one of those all state?
I said, can you name one of them pups all state?
Cause you're in good hands.
Sure will.
Thank you.
You can call him state.
You guys just call him state.
I was thinking, I was thinking the less, the less than symbol.
Oh yeah.
One of the pups less than 400.
I like that.
Speaking of winning the UKC world, let's, let's just talk real quick.
When was the last time an English dog won the UKC world?
Does anybody know?
Oh, trivia.
No, you should, Ashl.
Oh, I definitely know.
I wouldn't ask the question if I didn't know the answer.
I don't know.
Oh, Mr. Michael Mitchell.
Yeah, I think I don't, I'm trying to remember the dog's name.
Jesse river.
Maybe no, sir.
Let's go with the late and great Randy Leonard and John the Baptist.
Yeah, that would have been the last one.
What year was that?
What year was it?
I thought you was over here and had the answer for us, not over here pulling stuff out of
thin air.
No, I know what dog it was.
I don't remember.
Didn't big man with Jesse ever win?
He ever won the UKC world?
I don't think, I don't think he won the, and before that, a few years before that would
have been top gun with Mr. Wilcox.
Okay.
Hold on.
I'm going to do something fun here.
This is for those people who have stuck around to the end of the podcast.
We will send a simple dog and t-shirt to the first person who emails us the correct year
that John the Baptist won the UKC world hunt.
You have to email us at simple dog and at gmail.com.
Bastion is going to do some research.
He's going to find this answer since he asked the question.
He gets to do the leg work.
He's going to find the correct answer after this podcast drops.
First person email us simple dog and gmail.com with the winner.
Or excuse me with the year that John the Baptist won the UKC world hunt.
We'll get a simple dog and t-shirt.
So we've got to do better than that though, because you have all these young kids that
probably don't even remember the Baptist dog.
So what we need to do and with you guys help cheering us on, we'll just win it this year
with Hatchie river hook.
So they'll be, that's what I was thinking.
There we go.
Do I get one in t-shirt?
Do I get one in t-shirts and hats for guessing the name right off the bat?
Well, I mean, I could sit here and say that, um, I'd be rooting for you guys, but, uh,
I mean, I'll root for you guys to come in second.
Well, what's going to happen is me and you, we're going to draw each other in the final
four.
I bet we don't.
Why?
I bet we don't.
Why are you so confident?
Cause you ain't going to be there.
Cause I will not be there.
That is why.
Oh gosh.
That was a fun, that was a fun little jab.
We will not go into that, but I will not be there.
However, however high dollar whiskey, I hope will be there.
Make a, um, do we make his comeback tour, make his comeback.
Let me ask you, Steven, do you, do you, you got a return date?
No sir.
Indefinitely.
Oh, okay.
Sometimes you better ask for forgiveness and permission.
You feel the pain too, but you could go and paint Cognito dressed up like Bryce.
I don't think that anybody would ever mistake me for anybody else.
He couldn't pull off a look this good.
Ain't no way.
Hey, I don't have a frog suit.
I couldn't do it as good.
You wish that was me in that frog suit.
What's not funny?
Hey, you guys, if you guys haven't yet go over to froggy bottom outdoors, go out to
froggy bottom outdoors, Facebook page and go watch their reel.
We had a, we had a good time today.
Showcase in one of our, one of our briar proof jackets, the light and dry rain jacket.
Cause it was a nice rainy day today.
And we had one of our team members hop in the frog suit to do this video.
And I cannot tell you how many people have messaged us and everything saying that they
thought it was me in that frog suit.
I'm just saying, if it was me in that frog suit, you would have seen some real moves
busted out at the end of that thing.
That's why I thought it was you.
I've seen the moves.
Oh my goodness.
So all right, this has been a blast.
Definitely it's been a fun time.
So Mitch Lee, thank you guys for coming on.
Definitely.
Yep.
Thank you guys.
Best of luck to you guys and hatchy river hook, um, in your upcoming endeavors.
I know y'all can be making a bunch of noise here.
So best luck to you guys.
Thanks for joining us on the simple dog and podcast today.
All right.
Thank you gentlemen.
All right.
Thank you guys.
I'm good.
You good?
Good.
All right guys.
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It helps us get the word out here.
It helps us to, you know, make people want to spend some time on this podcast with this,
you know, it makes it worth their while knowing that everybody that listens to this podcast
is going to get to hear about all these different stories, whether it's from the bears to the
chairs as Vashon likes to say, you know, we cover it all here.
So English dogs, Walker dogs, blue tick dogs, maybe even a poodle one day.
You never know what it's going to be, but we always have fun on the Semper doggone podcast
and we couldn't do it without you guys, the listeners.
So thank you guys for everything that you do for us.
Thanks for following us along on this journey and we hope you guys will just continue to
enjoy it and let us know what you think about it.
If you don't like it, okay, great.
Send me an email, shoot me a message, let me know what you don't like and we will try
and make it better for you.
So always here to improve that customer experience.
Ain't that right?
Vashon.
Yes, I'm all about the customer experience.
All right guys.
Well, for Semper doggone and all of us here tonight, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for joining us.
Thank you.
We're going to sign off here.
Join us on the next doggone Tuesday, Facebook live Tuesdays, 8 p.m. over on the Semper doggone
Facebook page.
That's where you can join us interact.
Have a good time.
We have a good time over there and we want you guys to be there with us.
So I'm signing off here.
See you guys.
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