12/16/2025
Per the normal this is a long read but this is a very important one.
For 9 years my ol pupper dawg and I have had the privilege to help alot of people. She may be 10 but as you can tell in this video she absolutely loves what we do.
I wanna take a min to remind everyone who follows us and all the new people who will be coming to our page if the city of Fond du lac police department, continues the current path they are on. Please see the end of this post.
Back to Diamond; who as you all know truly is the brains of our operation and I am the dummy on the end of the leash. Her first owner beat/shock trained her when she was very young and had planned on her. She is small for her breed but no dog deserves to be treated the way she was. Upon finding this out a good friend of mine who previously ran Wildside Outfitters took custody of her and added her to his pack. He knew she was special. During her first bear season one day while being released from her dog box she stepped on a ground wasp nest and went back to the truck refusing to go back after the bear. After that, a few more attempts were made to try and get her to rejoin the pack but she just wouldn't go. As I said before her 2nd owner knew she was special and he reached out to me. I am partially colorblind which makes tracking my own deer incredibly difficult. Also at that time I had just gone thru a horrible break up and needed that kind of love only a dog can give you. My daughter and I drove north to Gleason WI on Jan 20th 2017. On the 21st we left with a huge snow storm and the 4th most important female of my life. (My Grandmother, mom and my daughter). I have video of the 1st time we put a leash on her and took her for a walk. In that video you can see the damage her first owner had done to her. At that time little did either of know what the future was going to hold for us. But i made a promise to her current owner and more importantly to her; No matter what she wouldn't ever be treated like that again and she would be able to live the rest of her days safely with me. With the 2017 hunting season already closed by that time she wouldn't see a live track for a minimum of 9 months later but we would begin building our relationship.
About 2 weeks in she stopped eating and I got scared and took her to the vet. He told me her stomach was twisting. The vet asked me questions about where she came from and what I had changed since she came home with me. I told him where she came from, and I told him she was previously a bear dog. He asked did she live outside prior? I said yes and he told me to get her a doghouse and a kennel and put her back outside. It just so happened earlier that week I saw a doghouse on the side of the road. I went back and luckily it was still there. I brought that home, screwed an eyebolt to it and tied a rope to that. The moment she got tied up and inspected the doghouse her tail started wagging and you could see her attitude change. I brought a bowl of food and water out and she immediately went for both. It was like she felt more at home with that rope and a bed of cedar chips than indoors. Over the next week she got lose a couple times (she has strong dislike for the trash man.) My dad and I drove to Sheboygan and bought her first kennel 6'x12'. Over the years her kennel had grown to 36'×12'. Because I am getting ready to sell the house she has been back to the old days where she no longer has a kennel. Just a lead tied to a doghouse. Although her doghouse has been replaced by one I built for her, it has been drastically upgraded since her first. Her house has better insulation in it than most of our homes do. She also got upgraded to having 2 rooms. This allows her to get out of the wind. She is home outside in her doghouse.
In the beginning I never planned on doing this for customers I was only going to have Diamond do my own deer and maybe a few for my friends. One summer day my daughter was playing at our local school, and she met a boy. They got on the topic of their dogs and one of them mentioned having a Plott hound. The other child mentioned they also had a Plott hound as well. Later that night I was contacted by Matt Zoch of Coppers deer Recovery. Matt talked to me about Diamond and told me about some training techniques I should work with her on. Thru the magic of children, I had just met the man who would become a great friend and even better mentor. That first year I was lucky enough to get a doe, and Diamond almost yanked my shoulder out of its socket trying to get to that deer. Throughout that first year Matt would start to send me tracks and I think we took 7 total that first year I believe we found 1. Over the next 7 years Matt has continued to be a mentor to me. From that tuck tail scared little girl who was almost euthanized at less than a year old; to 7 years later considered by our peers in the industry as a reputable team that gives everything to try and recover each deer we go after. Grind and Find was our motto. I honestly do not know how many tracks we have done since her first year, but I know we have found many deer that would have went to waste these last 7 seasons in the woods as a team.
She taught me more about deer, scenting, using the wind, hard work, the amazing things dogs can do with a little bit of guidance and a lot of love. We have saved each other from charging deer, drowning in marshes surrounded by 9' tall grass, buck thorn thickets, coyotes, hundreds of ticks, and anything else the woods could throw at us. We have found some amazing deer throughout our years in the field.
My job in the woods is to read her body language to understand what she is telling me. We do a lot of talking back and forth with each other. She understands human much more than I understand dog. 1 thing is for sure, if you tell her she is wrong she will take you to the worst terrain on the property. She's a lady, she's never wrong.
Diamond has lived outside of my home from early Feb 20weeks after she came home until 12-3-25. Over the course 8.5 almost 9 years I have been harassed by my neighbors with calls made as recently xx/25 & xx/24. They have made many false accusations about her care, her shelter, and her ability to live outside to the police department every year. Her housing, level of care, and health have always been deemed as acceptable. The only difference between now and all those years was she had a cage around her.
At just after 10 o'clock on the night of 12/3 the Fond du Lac police used a catch pole and removed Diamond from her doghouse and impounded her.....
My Ol pupper dog had looked like that same tucked tail beaten dog I first met on Jan 21st almost 9 years ago. It made me cry as I watched her get loaded in the back of a police car.
That is the only details I can share as there is currently a civil case ongoing for her, return. But I can assure you of this; her housing conditions, diet, and level of care have never been better.
If you read all of this thank you. Our clients will tell you how special the relationship between Diamond and I is. I am hoping she will be returned to me soon, I made her a promise that no one would ever hurt her again and it's killing me that they won't return her. In the most recent communication from the police department, they gave me a couple of numbers to direct questions to either Capt. Dave Lecaptain of fdl or the city attorney Debra Hoffman 920-322-3423
