If a dog hunts, Jason Dillen is a fan. The Castle Hayne, NC hunter was all in with driving deer with hounds until he lost his hunting leases. Then he started training retrievers and competing in field trials. Although he still hunts waterfowl with a retriever, he had to let the field trials go when his son got into high school sports. So, he took up squirrel hunting, with dogs, of course.
One morning he and his hunting buddy, Payton Davis, got their limits of fox squirrels and he mentioned he didn’t have anything to do on Sunday.
“Want to go to a foxpen?” asked Davis, who now is Dillen’s kennel partner.
He and Davis went to a nearby foxpen where they planned to volunteer for “game patrol,” non-competitors who help keep the hounds from catching or baying a fox or coyote in a place where it can’t escape.
“But when I got there, a lady handed me a judge’s book and told me where to stand,” he said.
Watching the dogs pursue game got him so excited he began writing down the names of dogs he wanted to buy. When nobody would sell him one of the winning dogs, he contacted Danny Gardin of Wadesboro, a well-known North Carolina hound man, and bought his first foxhound.
Competition
“He took me under his wing and helped me become competitive,” Dillen said. “There is a foxpen just across the road from my farm, and some guys there have also been super nice, showing me the best way to run a dog in competition.”
Dillen runs true Walker hounds and has six dogs right now, plus some puppies coming along. With a plethora of foxpens across the Carolinas, he is usually at a foxhound competition every weekend. And during the week, training is necessary to keep the hounds in shape to compete.
“I try to run each of my dogs at least four hours a week. Some people do way more than that, but I found that amount gets my dog where it needs to be,” he said.
“You just have to put game in front of them. They don’t get any better without it. It’s just like a runner. You can be a good runner, but you don’t get to be a great runner without practice.”
His specialty is the one day speed and drive hunts where the hounds are judged on their ability to run the scent line left by fleeing game with speed and control. His favorite hound is Dillen’s Hot Diggity, a female Walker who is a winner in the speed and drive competitions.
Winning a field trial is fun, Dillen said, but the real reason he likes the foxpen trials is just to watch good hound work.
“I enjoy watching a dog do what it’s bred to do; a Lab, a pointer, a beagle, a foxhound. If a chihuahua had a job, I’d watch it,” he said.
Carolina foxpens
Plenty of foxpens are present throughout the Carolinas. But it is almost a misnomer to call them “foxpens” anymore since most foxhound running pens are now stocked with coyotes or, in some cases, a mix of coyotes and foxes.
Whether hounds will chase foxes or coyotes, or both, opportunities abound for the sport in the Carolinas. Currently, more than 80 “foxpens” are in North Carolina, and more than 50 in South Carolina. By late fall most pen operators in both states will have renewed their licenses for the 2024-25 year, and those numbers will have increased.
Both states provide for field trial permits, so out of state foxhound enthusiasts can participate under the blanket permit instead of having to buy individual hunting licenses.
Foxhound running pens can range from very small, as little as 40 acres, to large, 900 acres and sometimes more. At one time South Carolina boasted a 2000-acre pen and a 1000-acre pen, but those operations have closed.
Pens are allowed to operate year-round in both states, but most either close or reduce running activities during coyote trapping season when they are allowed to buy live game from licensed trappers to restock the pens. Trapping season runs Oct. 1 to the end of February in North Carolina, and Dec. 1 through March 1 in South Carolina, with sales allowed through April 1.
During running in the pens, some participants are posted on “game patrol” to prevent the hounds from actually capturing the game.
“The number one rule is to not hurt the game,” said Jason Dillen who can drive to seven different foxpens in less than 45 minutes from his home near Wilmington, NC
Be the first to comment