Gone to the Dogs Podcast

This episode takes the listener to eastern Kentucky, land of our host’s roots and home of our guest Robbie Spears.

Spears is a coon hunting game warden with the rank of Lieutenant in the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, a coon hunting Mr. Green Jeans.

Robbie and Steve enjoy a conversation about their Kentucky roots, about Robbie’s lifelong desire to work outdoors, and spend a great deal of the episode talking about some successful English Coonhounds, his breed of choice.

Spears has done his share of winning in competition, placing sixth in the UKC World Championship and winning the Purina Outstanding Nite Hunt Coonhound race overall.

A good deal of the conversation centers upon the importance of passing the tree dog sports on to the kids, of which Robbie has two.  His outlook is interesting may present views the average houndsman has not considered before. 

And by the way, the coon hunter whose name Steve could not remember in the episode was Irvin Sutton, owner and handler of Dark Shadow Bobbie, a remarkable English coonhound in her day. 

This one is worth you time.

We would like to thank those who support this podcast.  Special thanks to Alpha Dog Nutrition and Double U Hunting Supply for sponsoring this episode.  Want to learn more about Alpha Dog Nutrition? Check out the links below

https://www.dusupply.com/alphadog

www.dusupply.com

https://alphadognutrition.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@DoubleUHuntingSupply/podcasts

What happens when an active raccoon and bear-hunting houndsman is faced with a debilitating injury at the onset of hunting season?  Does he become discouraged to the point of giving up or does he purpose to overcome adversity and forge into the future with a firm resolve? 

The subject of our episode this week personifies the latter. Mark Miller of Taylorsville, North Carolina is a houndsman in the prime of life, a guy that approaches hound hunting like a rookie fireman on his first five-alarm run.  His determination to take a green pup all the way to the Quadruple Grand level in the coonhound game is evidence of just how hard he goes at it. Unfortunately, Miller finds himself dealing lately with a severe back injury that so far is devoid of a clear long-term prognosis, a situation that would get a lesser man down.

Steve and Mark spend the duration of the podcast talking about Mark’s personal battle, about the hound that the two friends co-own and finally, about a new prospect that Steve hopes will follow in his sire’s footsteps. 

Despite the variety of subjects at hand, some with a serious degree of uncertainty, the friends manage to see light at the end of the tunnel in the upcoming Grand American and American Plott Association upcoming at the first of the year.   It’s an hour of the “dog talk at its finest” you’ve come to expect in this spot each week. Enjoy. 

In this episode, Steve records with Randy Smith of the famed Lone Pine Kennels in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, renown producers of world class Treeing Walkers  Steve recently spent seven nights hunting with Randy.   Randy’s son Troy and video and podcast content producer Clayton Stark of Stark Outdoors joined Steve and Randy on some of the hunts.

In what could also be described as “A Trip To The Lone Pine Museum” Steve questions Randy about several of the photos and paintings found hanging in the guest quarters and the answers are a walk through the annals of Lone Pine history. 

This episode is the next best thing to driving to western Pennsylvania and hunting with the Lone Pine hounds in person.  Enjoy. 

Fred Moran, a frequent guest to the Gone To The Dogs podcast, is eighty-seven years old.  The remarkable octogenarian coon hunter continues to hunt raccoons regularly with his beloved Redbones at an age well past the point most coon hunters have retired from the game.  Not only is Moran still hunting, he continues the pursuit of good hounds wherever they may be found.  In this episode he discusses going to Mississippi to try a new hound.   This is a vintage Fred Moran conversation that listeners have come to appreciate over the life of this podcast.  Enjoy. 

The Gone To The Dogs Podcast is nothing if not a gathering place for the nation’s best known and most revered raccoon hunters.

The week the podcast features a big helping of “Dog Talk At It’s Finest.”Steve brings one of the sports most respected and longest running breeders of Treeing Walker Coonhounds, the renown Jim “Wildman” Meeks to the Gone To The Dogs microphone.  Meeks, a first ballot inductee into the North Carolina State Coon Hunters Hall of Fame, is possessed of a wealth of knowledge all areas of the coon hunting game. 

This one literally oozes Old School coon hunting from the first drop to the final tree.  Steve and Jim discuss a gamut of subjects from hunting gear to pup training and a little of everything in between.  With hunting seasons upon us, this one is for the guys that do it simply for the love of the hounds, as told by one of the true purists in our sport. 

Jones describes first-hand what it’s like to see entire towns, bridges and highways swept away with no warning.  This frank conversation exposes the insensitivities of those outside the region and the shear hopelessness felt by citizens of the region, many of them hound people themselves.  

Jones describes the devastation and recounts the terrible tragedy as a fellow coon and bear hunter on a rescue mission with his boat is swept under a bridge and has not been seen.  It’s not the average feel-good episode but it does reveal the importance of living each day as if it is the last.

I felt it important to do this podcast at this particular time if for no other reason than to bring help and comfort to those that are so badly in need.  Jones emphasizes the importance of looking to those nearby that may need our help and doing what we can for them first.  It’s a sobering episode but one that we all need to hear at this very difficult time.

We would like to thank those who support this podcast.  Special thanks to Alpha Dog Nutrition and Double U Hunting Supply for sponsoring this episode.  Want to learn more about Alpha Dog Nutrition? Check out the links below

https://www.dusupply.com/alphadog

www.dusupply.com

https://alphadognutrition.com/

Georgia's Peach State Shootout winner Gregory Mitchell joins his father Greg Mitchell and event founder Caden Riley to discuss Gregory’s recent success in capturing the prestigious year-long coonhound series designed exclusively for youth hunters.

Riley was a guest in June of this year to discuss the event already in progress.   Barely out of the youth competition age group himself, Riley is the architect of the event which consisted of eight qualifying events across the State of Georgia with successful cast winners vying for one of the Top Nine spots in the final.

Listeners get the full account of the event from both the management and participant's perspective.  This is big league youth hunting at its finest and the listener will realize it from the opening bell until the final tree is scored.  Enjoy.  

In this episode we catch up with Casey Maggard of Hyden, Kentucky just three days after the Treeing Walker female owned by his uncle Jack Maggard won the prestigious UKC World Coonhound Championship.   WLD NITE CH GRNITECH (2 Little Lacey won four casts without a loss at the championship finals held in Marshall, Illinois one week before this episode airs.  

We talk to Casey about his origins with Lacey, how she came to live with the Maggards and how she began her climb to greatness and achieved the ultimate by winning the most prestigious coonhound world championship in the competitive coon hunting sport   We talk about her breeding, her hunting style and most importantly, Casey takes us along with his play by play account of her ascent at Marshall from round one all the final important seconds of the World Championship final cast.

If competition is your game, if you like staying on the cutting edge of that game, and if you are possessed of a genuine interest in what it takes to succeed at the game, this one’s for you.

Gone To The Dogs with Shininger and Cable

Monday, September 23, 2024

When the Autumn Oaks interviews suffered a hit by unexpected electronic foes, the onsite conversation with Plott aficionado Bill Shininger and youth handler/hunter Hannah Cable had to be rescheduled after the event.  What would seem to be a disappointment, lacking the on-site flavor of the crowd at Oaks, the interview turned out to be an easy-listening episode that listeners are sure to appreciate.

Shininger is no newcomer to the podcast while Cable is a first-timer. The exchange runs the gamut of all things Plott dogs.  Shininger is a breeder and fancier that has hitched his kennel’s star to a standout stud dog named Lazarus, winner of the trifecta for Plotts with three-in-a-row victories at the prestigious Plott Days event hosted annually by the National Plott Hound Association.

The name Cable is legendary in the coonhound world through the exploits of Hannah’s older brother Kevin, handler and promoter of the famed Big Money-line of Treeing Walker dogs.  Kevin’s seventeen-year-old sister Hannah has also earned considerable acclaim but with her Plott dogs.  Showing and sometimes hunting Gambler, her first Plott and Joe, brother to Shininger’s stud dog Lazarus, Hannah has compiled a long list of wins, largely in Bench Show competition but not all.

Shininger and Cable appear in this episode because of their demonstrated willingness to give back to the sport they love.  Shininger’s efforts in encouraging hunters to preserve their hounds through frozen semen and Cable’s efforts to encourage and help other youth to excel in the hound sport she loves make them both worthy of your time.  The inspiration and encouragement they bring is infectious. 

Steve’s guest is Tennessean T. L. Jones. Many of Jones’ friends know him as Tracey. Tracey is a third-generation houndsman and bear hunter. He is also an ordained Baptist minister and a newly-published author. He appears as our guest in this episode because he is a great speaker and an altogether interesting fellow on many subjects. Tracey has written a unique book titled The Old Men. Born in 1970 in East Tennessee, much of his boyhood was spent in the company of old men, farming, hunting, fishing and as he puts it, “loafering” in the Appalachian Mountains. Jones’ book consists of eighty-four essays representing conversations with the old men of his experience that help boys become men. Steve and Tracey are longtime friends. They share a love for the Plott Hound and much of the conversation in this episode centers upon their experiences with the special old houndsmen in their lives. For Steve, it’s the many years he hunted with his dad. For Jones, the experiences with his dad and his grandfather continue to inspire his pastoral work and his writing. Each attribute their attitudes and accomplishments to the good sense to listen to the old men. Whether you are young or old, you are bound to find something to enjoy in this unique episode.