1on1: Sadler loves dog-day afternoons on the hunt (cont'd)

Q: Do these dogs have names?

Sadler: Oh yeah.

Q: How can you possibly remember all those names?

Sadler: I don't know if you have kids or not, but you probably remember their names -- at least most of the time. These dogs are just like kids of mine.

Elliott Sadler has Pedigree dog food brought in by the truckload.

One thing I try to do is if the dogs are born together, I try to give them names that are similar to each other. The last bunch, the three females were named after my nieces -- Cora, Hayley and Naomi. The three males I named after wrestlers -- so I've got Batista, Cena and Angle. You try to do things like that, so you can keep 'em together. The last set before that were all named after states -- Utah, Florida, Dakota, like that.

Q: Each of your dogs now comes equipped with a Garmin tracking device, right? How does that work?

Sadler: Garmin is a great sponsor of ours, and I've been working with them a lot to try to use GPS on the dogs so I know exactly where they're at all the time. The reason you do that, I don't want any of them to stay out all night, away from the home, if they don't have to be. I want to get 'em back home, especially during the winter time, where it's a nice, warm place -- and where I can have 'em refreshed and ready to go the next morning.

So I've been working with the GPS. It's pretty much a tracking device that you clamp around their neck, just like a collar does. I have a computer screen where I can keep up with where every dog is at. It's pretty neat.

In the old days, you just had to ride around until you found 'em. Then about 20 years ago, they came out with a tracking device that beeps -- like a homing device. And you had to use that with an antennae. Now, Garmin has come out with this tracking device for 'em; it shows you exactly where the dog is at. You know, we might be missing 50 to 60 dogs a night, at a time -- between me and my buddies that all have dogs. So when you have a system like that, it really helps you catch 'em and round 'em up as quick as you can, so you're not out all night lookin' for 'em.

Q: How much dog food do you go through in a day, or a week?

Sadler: That's a good question. I'd say we go through about 70 or 80 bags a week of Pedigree dog food. Pedigree was a sponsor of mine when I drove the 38 car, and they're still a sponsor of mine, now. They send me a pallet of dog food a month -- and it is a huge pallet. I can't remember how many bags are on it, but there are more than a hundred bags on there. That takes care of 'em pretty good.

Q: So you really don't have a favorite?

Sadler: I definitely have a favorite. Princess definitely is my favorite dog. She's the mom to pretty much all the puppies I have now. You know, we breed our dogs for the voice. A lot of people, when you breed different dogs, you try to get a different size or a different color. The way we use them in hunting, you want to be able to hear 'em bark -- you want to be able to hear the clarity of their voice.

She's by far the best dog I've ever had. She's definitely my pride and joy. She's very well-mannered and she eats good. She knows her owner. She comes to you; she's very easy to handle. She does all the good things a Walker dog should do -- but she's got one of the most beautiful voices that I've ever heard on a dog, so that makes her my favorite.

Q: And with all that, you're still not tempted to let her come in and lay on the couch and watch some TV with you?

Sadler: No. She has a will to hunt. Those dogs are not inside, lay-around dogs. They're all outside, very high-strung dogs.

Believe me, she's got a comfortable house to sleep in every night. Don't worry about that.