A Hog Hunter - Chronicles of a Hunter  - Decker Hunting Terrier Temperament
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 I have had many fun conversations with Dean Dickison over the past few years. Dean has allowed me to share his story and many of his experiences for this article. I consider it a privilege!

 Dean had very little history with hunting until he was nearly 40. He hunted birds a bit as a kid with his uncle, but began seriously fishing as a teenager, and fishing was his passion! When his son was old enough to take his hunter’s safety course, he talked Dean into taking him deer hunting. They hunted a little, with poor luck, on public land in California. About this time, Dean (an arborist by trade) was working for a man with a farm in his area, and fell in love with his dog. When he asked him what kind of dog it was he was told it was a Rat Terrier. It turned out the man had gotten his dog from Decker’s Rat Terriers. Dean went right out and bought one for himself and named her Amazing Grace. At the time, Dean had no thoughts of hunting with her, or breeding dogs at all, he just loved this type of dog and wanted one. Before too long, he had a couple more, and began to deer hunt with them. He got Skeeter Valentine from Rosalie Rinear of Fire Mountain, and began to hunt deer with him. He was an amazing deer dog! Before he was a year old, Dean and his party had taken 3 bucks over him, and friends from other parties had asked his assistance in finding 2 wounded bucks. 

 About the time Skeeter was well trained for deer, Dean was invited to go hog hunting with some friends that had dogs. He went along and was instantly hooked! He began hunting hogs all the time, and worked to train his Deckers as strike dogs. Dean doesn’t start his pups on other game. He waits until they are around 8 months old, then takes them along on hunts with the older dogs, but he keeps them leashed. If the bigger dogs bay up a large hog, he will not turn the pup loose. He waits until they find a smaller 70 to 80 lb hog, then turns the pup loose, so it can get the experience on a young hog that doesn’t have large tusks. 

 Dean’s basic hunting method is to turn a Catahoula loose as a tracking dog, and run 1 or 2 Deckers at the same time. The Decker’s job is to wind the hogs. More often than not, Dean says the Terriers will get to the hog first, and start to bay. He says the advantage of having smaller dogs as strike dogs is the pigs have a tendency to bay up faster and not run as far. He says the Deckers are less intimidating to the hog. Dean has snuck in on large hogs many times while his Terriers are baying, and the hogs never even know what hit them. They are mesmerized by the constant barking of the small dogs. The Deckers are quick, and usually won’t try to catch the hog until the larger dogs get there. Once the big dogs show up, many of the Deckers will grab a piece of whatever they can and help! Dean told the story of hunting with Fire Mountain Susie and Fire Mountain Sissy, two dogs he had in the 1990s. They were baying a large hog in thick brush and one of his larger dogs showed up. The hog got nervous and took off. Dean said when it came out of the brush, it was running full speed with Susie and Sissy attached to it, one hanging off its ear and the other holding onto the back end! Dean told another story about Susie. A large hog had one of the big dogs down, and was working it over. Susie jumped right on its back and started biting its ear, distracting it so the big dog could get away. 

 
 When I asked Dean what the advantages are of using Deckers as strike dogs, instead of just hunting larger dogs, he listed several advantages. He said the best quality they possess is winding ability! He said if there is any wind, his Deckers will almost always be the first dogs to the hog! He also said, where he hunts, most of the hogs have been chased by a dog at one time or another. He said large dogs will usually have to chase the hogs a long ways before they bay up, and they will constantly blow out and run a little further. The hogs feel less threatened by the Deckers. He said 2 Deckers can bay up a hog, and the hog will many times stay put. They will get right in its face and just yap at it, circling it, yet they are so quick, hogs almost never lay a tooth on them. This allows Dean to get in close before he turns loose the catch dogs, and the hog is mesmerized by the Deckers, and never sees it coming! He says putting 3 Deckers out as strike dogs will put more pressure on the hog, and they will be less likely to stay put. Another big strength they possess over a larger dog is maneuverability in thick brush. Dean says a hog can go through thick brush extremely fast, and the larger dogs have a hard time keeping up with them. Many times his larger dogs will lose them in the brush, but the Deckers keep up and get them bayed. One other advantage Dean listed is, when you are done hunting and back to the truck, the Decker is right there with you. They are ready to go hunting when the time comes, but they have an off switch and are your buddy after the hunt. Dean has hunted his Deckers with Catahoulas, Airedale/Catahoula crosses, Black mouth Curs, Tennessee Brindles, American Pit Bull Terriers, and American Bulldogs. He says another advantage is, in his experience, the larger dogs get along with them, even though they are aggressive. When asked about their weaknesses, he said their tenacity can get them killed. The biggest weakness is, if a hog gets a hold of one, they usually can’t overcome it, though, with their speed and agility, the hogs almost never get a hold of them.

 Dean got several dogs over the years from Fire Mountain Kennels, and he also worked with Jim Johnson of Sycamore Flats. He has had many great dogs over the years like Amazing Marvin, Fire Mountain Susie and Fire Mountain Sissy. When I asked him which male was his foundation dog that produced the most consistent outstanding hunt, he said Skeeter Valentine. Skeeter was a deer dog because Dean never trained him for hogs, but he was outstanding. I asked him which dog was his all time favorite dog to hunt with he said, hands down, Amazing Little.  Amazing Little was an outstanding hog dog, but what made him so incredible was, he only had 3 legs! He lost one of his back legs in a non hunting accident. Dean’s Vet tried for a long time to save the leg, but eventually had to remove it. Dean said it took Little about a month to find his balance, but once he did, he never missed a beat! Dean entered into a California hog hunting competition with Little and won. He says Little actually won the competition because he was the first dog on the hog. Little was almost always the first dog to strike a hog. The next year, his son entered and won with Little as well with one hog sporting a phenomenal set of 4 and ½ inch tusks! 
 

 Dean recalled the day Little died. He was hunting with some younger guys in an area they had hunted a lot, not far from Dean’s home. Little was 9 years old, and Dean estimates Little was in on taking around 500 hogs in his life. They hadn’t been hunting more than 5 minutes when the dogs struck a hog and got it bayed up. He says when they bay a really large aggressive hog, the dogs make a different sound, more of a frantic sound. Dean knew when he heard the sound of the dogs, they were in trouble. He told the younger guys, “This is a bad hog, it’s going to kill our dogs.” He told them to run as fast as they could and not to wait for him. They got there and killed the hog, but, sadly, Little had been mortally wounded. Dean said Little had hunted that area a lot, and he felt there was no place more fitting to lay him to rest.  Dean has lost a few dogs over the years to hogs. It is a part of hog hunting that no one enjoys. He made a statement that really struck me. Dean said, “If you could really talk to a hunting dog, and ask them how they felt about something, and you asked them if they would rather sit around the house and live to be 15, or, they could go hunting, but they may only live a few years, those hunting dogs would all rather die doing what they love than live and never get to hunt.” 
 Dean still hunts a couple times a week. He is training some young dogs, and has no plans to stop hunting hogs anytime soon. Dean plans to raise the occasional litter, and will breed, as always, first and foremost, for hunt. 

                          Dean, Little, and some of Dean’s Wife’s family from England

I wish to send a special thanks to Dean Dickison for allowing me to share this story. 

By Ellis Decker