Kyle, when I hear "dog park" I chuckle and think, are they serious???? I don't need my dogs to socialize. When I pull up and there are 2 or 3 dogs there I need my dog or dogs to get out of the truck when told and get away from those dogs as quickly as possible. I don't need any butt sniffin or wrestling. My yellow dog with the tail has killed 3 dogs in the past four months in the back yard but she acts right away from the house. Very rarely do my dogs have more than 2 days where they don't get hunted or at least taken somewhere and turned out. Until 3 years ago I had never owned a dog for anything, I don't like dogs. I go through a lot of dogs because they aren't pets. If they don't do what I need them to they don't stay at my house.
As for Cowin. The "decoy" dog is a very broad topic. Everyone likes something different. Take TBone for example. He stated he "trained" his dog before he lost it in a divorce. I don't know exactly what all that entails. How many coyotes did the dog work before he considered it trained? I have no idea. Take Jeff, for example. (Btech29) He and I hunt together a lot. He likes a dog to stay close, I like one to go out by the call and go 100-150 past it. DTOM likes a dog to go out 300, 400, 500 yards out and find coyotes and bring them back. Who's way is the correct way? Who's way isn't? It's all in what a guy wants. DTOM might have a few things that he does that actually trains his dog to do that and he might not want his dog messing with any other game. Jeff and I walk to a stand, set the call out and start calling. Our coyotes are usually coming to the call when the dogs see them. We have been drug across the coals because some say that's not decoying. If a coyote is coming to a call you don't need the dog. We do what we do 110% for recreation. We let dozens of coyotes walk each year because we want to see our dogs work and aren't worried about not killing a coyote. It's recreation. If my dogs chases a rabbit or possum or skunk or whatever else I don't care. Is it making her gritty or more gamey? [beeep] if I know. Jeff and I have over 75 videos, probably 60 of them are his, with 16 different dogs. Some of the dogs aren't so great in our opinion but the people that wound up with them love the way they work. As far as coming back on call or signal, of the 75 or more videos I can think of 2 times that I toned a dog back and that was because I was trying to keep the dogs tight for filming purposes. Jeff's dog doesn't even wear a collar. From my experience dogs develop a style and there's not much I can do to change it. We just do it the way we like. If people don't agree that's fine too. I think our videos prove that we spend hours upon hours with these dogs and put a ridiculous amount of coyotes in front of them. We don't train a dang thing, we just give a dog the opportunity to do it.