There was nothing out of the ordinary as the night began. The cast consisted of four dogs, a hunting judge and a non-hunting guide. I introduced myself to the cast members and I read each their names out loud from the scorecard. Next I made a few brief statements about how I would like to handle the hunt. I added that I would try to do a good job but acknowledged that I can make mistakes. In case there were disagreements, I suggested we look at the rules, discuss the issues and if applicable have a vote. If a disagreement cannot be resolved, then we can put a question mark on the scorecard and have it resolved by the Master of Hounds. I then requested that handlers strike and tree their dogs only and that they refrain from making comments about other people or their dogs.

At first glance this might seem like an adequate beginning to a nite hunt. In fact I have been on plenty of casts where even less was said before turning the dogs loose. Looking back now, I wonder if it might not be worth taking a few more minutes to get acquainted before the hunt starts. For instance, I might have asked if anybody wanted to say something about his or her dog. Given this chance, almost all handlers will state that their dogs could come off the tree to meet us as we approach. I take this for granted now and I have gotten into the bad habit of not even asking anymore. Most handlers still appreciate the chance to speak up before starting the hunt and I shouldn’t be assuming things. It also might be good to know how much experience the cast members have with UKC rules. Then there was the fact that we had a non-hunting guide on this hunt. It might make sense to get a feel for the country we were going to hunt in and how well he knew it. When I stop and think that I’m going to spend a couple of hours with strangers and their dogs in unknown country, it’s crazy. An extra 5 minutes to share a little information before getting started might not help, but it certainly could not hurt. Anyway, with our introductions completed, we proceeded on with the hunt.

Following the release of the dogs, we spent quite some time listening and talking quietly. Eventually, each dog was declared struck and as you can expect on a night hunt, they were spread out and trailing in different directions. We walked slowly through the section in order to keep all of the dogs within our hearing. After about fifteen minutes, two dogs were declared treed. Shortly after that a dog in the other direction was declared treed separate.

The first and second dogs to be declared treed were together and quite some distance away. It was obviously going to take more than five minutes to reach them. The third dog to be declared treed was closer and to the right at about 45°. There was still one other dog in the cast not yet declared treed. 

My initial impulse was to start walking in a straight line to the two dogs that were declared treed first. Along the way we could send the handler of the dog that was treed separate to his tree with instructions to wait for us and not shine. Unfortunately, a swampy region lay between our position and the first tree. Our guide advised us that it would be much easier to walk around this obstacle. We all agreed and began our hike around the swamp. While we walked, the last dog in our cast was declared treed and we assumed that he was with the two dogs on the first tree. We walked away from the dogs for a short period as we skirted the edge of the swamp. When we rounded the bend we were now walking towards the dog that was treed separate. The other dogs were somewhere behind this dog but we could no longer hear them. 

As we approached the dog that is treed separate, we could not help but notice that there was a strong smell of skunk in the air. We walked closer in and actually saw the dog baying the skunk. I informed the handler of the dog that his dog is being scratched. I then told him that he could catch his dog and head back to the truck.

At this point it seems like a good thing that the swamp was in our way. Without this obstacle we would not have made the cast stay together. I now see many potential hazards that would have resulted from sending this handler alone to his tree. Foremost in my opinion, this handler is a young boy of 15 on his first nite hunt. How is he supposed to know what to do when he arrives alone and finds his dog on a skunk? Using my imagination, I can think up all sorts of other things that could have gone wrong. What if the dog leaves the tree? What if he leaves the tree and then trees again? How would this boy re-tree his dog? I am so glad that we stayed together on this hunt. Which reminds me, maybe I should have asked this handler if he wanted to stay with the cast instead of sending him to the truck.

Having handled the separate tree we are free to go to the other dogs. We still can’t hear them while the skunk is being bayed so we just start to walk in the general direction that they were declared treed. When we finally do hear them again, we are confronted with a difficult situation. One dog is barking in front of us alone, farther off in the same direction, we can hear another dog barking. From where we are standing, there is no way to know which dog is treed at the original location. It is obvious that at least one of the dogs moved.

We are still walking towards the barking but should we continue to do so? How can you possibly make sense of a situation like this so that it can be scored? We could go back to the place we were standing when we first treed. We should be able to determine who moved if we listen from that vantage point. Not a very appealing idea when you consider the long walk around a swamp that also takes us farther away from the dogs again. We kept walking in the direction of the barking.

I knew we were gambling by walking right towards the dog that was closest to us. The rest of the cast didn’t object even though there was a good chance we were approaching a scoring nightmare. If this dog is really treed and has a coon does he get plus points? Then what are we going to do with the other dog that is treed in the distance? If we minus either dog after the fact we deny its right to be re-treed. It looked like this might not work out very well at all.

When we were finally in sight of the closest dog, it became apparent that he was not really treed. He was moving around and locating a lot in the general area. We watched this dog for a minute and he never showed us a tree. I can’t remember ever being so happy to see a dog not treeing. This was the only way I can think of that allowed us to continue the hunt without controversy. I assigned minus tree points to this dog and he continued on track.

Now it became easy for us to assume that the dog barking farther away has been at the original tree this whole time. We proceeded in its direction and as we approached we could finally hear that there was a second dog treeing there. We were convinced by then that this was the original tree and that both dogs had been there all along. Things were starting to fall into place now and we would be able to finish this hunt without incident.

There was one more complication we would have to deal with before we were finished though. As we walked into the tree both dogs came out a little way to meet us. As one dog swung around to return to the tree, it collided with the other dog still headed towards us. We stood for a minute and watched how the dogs behaved. One dog returned to treeing hard and had its feet up on the tree. The other dog was still treeing but was very loose. A case could have been made for awarding minus points to the dog for being loose on the tree. Since I had seen how the dogs had bumped into each other, I felt that each deserved plus points on this tree. I talked it over with the others and one member had also seen how the dogs had run into each other. We agreed that both dogs had been treeing well up until then and that plus points were in order for both dogs. I have to wonder now about the possibilities now. What if I had not seen those dogs bump into each other? I might have argued for minus points for one of these dogs. I might also have suspected that the other dog was mean. Now add to that a cast member who is only interested in getting minus points for other peoples dogs? I was so relieved that we had handled this without any conflict or controversy.

When the two hours of our hunt were up, our scores were correct and the proper dog had won the cast. Judging this cast had been somewhat of a humbling experience for me. As I recall the events of the night, I am struck by just how much was out of our control. Somehow, things just happened to work out for us. It sure is nice to be lucky.