I don't shoot dogs.

The only exception I could imagine is if it were showing aggression to me or my family.

If I saw a dog on my land, I would have a problem with an owner. If it was a stray and starving, I would probably try to catch it or at least give it some food . . . but that's how I am.

The land we own is around my grandparents house in the middle of nowhere (no houses within miles). When my grandmother was alive, every stray cat or dog that was able to make it to her house got fed and got to stay there until it moved on or died. So, I will feed any stray that comes through. I feel like that's something I owe to her memory. That's also how my parents ended up owning a 120lb Dane/lab mix (great couch potato dog, but when he was younger he would catch and kill deer) and a cat. And thats how the wife and I own a black lab mix that showed up at my grandparents house so starved as a puppy that she didn't have any hair. Now she is fat and happy and continually irritates me because she won't let anything stay on the faucets outside. So, no, I'm not going to just shoot a dog.

Another story: When I was young and just starting to hunt by myself, I had two little dogs, about ten pounds each, run a big doe by me one morning. They looked like Jack Russells or Rat Terriers, the memory is faded now. I heard them run the deer for a while and then start heading back my way. I shot at the doe as she crossed the shooting lane and she kept running. By the time I climbed out of my stand and started looking for blood, the dogs showed up. We (the dogs and I) picked up the blood trail and found her about 30 yards away in a thicket. The dogs did a little "Yah!!! We killed a deer!" dance that only little dogs can do and then took back off through the woods never to be heard from again. We asked around and no one knew who owned the dogs or had ever seen two little dogs like that out in the woods. So, seeing a dog in the woods doesn't bother me that much.