He do you go about picking a pup?

[oneguy828]

We are kind of going off the rails here but I see one of the biggest pitfalls for houndsmen I have hunted with that have hope that their dog is doing the right thing. That isn’t a recipe for success.

Being right, as much as possible and consistently putting your dogs in a position to be successful and correcting the em when they are not should be your goal. Not necessarily catching game. If you go out there with the mindset to catch game and not train dogs in my opinion your already off on the wrong foot…

It’s not extremely complicated it just take a lot of time and being humble enough to know that you and your dogs aren’t going to be correct 100% of the time but striving for that through an objective lens.


If you do your job right 90% and have well bred dogs and hunt enough, the rest sortve figures it’s self out. And that’s when the top dogs that are genetically gifted separate themself.

[lawdawgharris]

I agree guys. You can’t get it if it isn’t in there. It’s funny that another buddy and I were talking the other day and we said the same thing about taking dogs to the woods. You have to be going to the woods with the intention of training your dogs. If catching game is your focus then your going to put yourself behind the eight ball. I was watching meat eater earlier and that fella let a bear go. He was there to hunt bear but let a good bear walk because he just didn’t feel like he needed to shoot him. Then he went on to tell that he’s always heard that there are phases in hunting. Letting this bear walk told him that he was in the final phase because he was as happy just watching this bear and letting it walk as he would’ve been in the past if he had taken it. Maybe that’s where we are. The young inexperienced hunters are worried about catching game and don’t see the success in leaving without catching anything. Myself, I’m more concentrated on what I need to be doing to put my dogs in the best situation to make them better. Pride and lack of patience can ruin dogs.

Dewey, why did you make that outcross and how did you decide on the particular dog you bred to?


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[dwalton]

If you have had the chance to read dave bobcat book i think he did a great job of describing different levels of hunters. Look at the professional basket ball players do you think he would get the job if he could not make a basket. we all walk to a different pace and that's ok. I have sent more time in the woods than most people can. I enjoy everyday i am out there and we all should. I have seen dogs or packs of good cat dogs that will jump about 80% of the cats they start and tree or catch on the ground 99% of them. That is what I expect from my dogs. I sold a pup into Montana that was 5/8 northern California bred that was born here it ended up being a top dog on moving a track as his dam and sire they made a cross with stronger tree dogs and i bought one back at 8 months old he will be three this year. He is making a top dog I have a female that have 5 generations being born here hunted by me she lacked the tree dog that we need out here but has everything else I bred those two and have five pups at 7 months that are looking good as of now but time will tell. Heres the part a lot of people disagree with me I have always been a hide hunter I trapped and hunted in the seventies for coyotes and bobcats mostly at 28 years old i build the house I live in today way money from hard word with a lot come from hide hunting. Be content with who you are and how hard you work for what you have. I just like to hunt bobcats. Dewey

[oneguy828]

I just like to train dogs. - Rodney

[lawdawgharris]

Dewey that makes sense to me. I agree we do need to appreciate our blessing of being able to hunt these dogs no matter what discipline. I bet your pups turn out. Keep us posted, I’m interested to hear more about them.


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[macedonia mule man]

Fellows, I’ve operated a retail feed and hardware store since 1982. I have listen to opinions on dogs from every angle you can listen to. People who have had their own family bloodlines to the young man just getting started. They are all sincere and believe what they are doing is the way to go and it is for them but not the only way it can be done and be done right. I’ve hunted with all types, the guy that’s been breeding his on line for 20 yrs up to the fellow that bought his at a dog swap and they look the same. Both men had good dogs and both men hunted the hair off them.

[dwalton]

All dogs need to be hunted hard and handled right to turn out. Everybody has there own expectation as to what that is and that's OK that dog that they love is perfect for them. My expectation are pretty high I have had some great bobcat dogs which all dogs for me have a high yard stick to compare to. That does not mean that something less than that does not get to hunt with me i don't cull for a fault unless that flaunt takes away from me catch a cat. I have spent untold miles and hours hiking behind bobcat dog and lion dog in my younger days that will show you who is really getting the job done. Unless you are walking or riding mules behind good dog it can be hard to determine what is going on. With the gamins as a tool it is a lot easier to train and see what's happening That said the picture of the track does not tell it all that lead dog may not be the best, it might be the last dog that makes the corners not making a loose. I have seen dogs that were always ahead of the pack but could not catch a cat on there own. Dewey

[lawdawgharris]

I have and always will say that a good dog is the dog that makes the person buying the feed happy. I also say there are two types of good dogs, the one that makes you happy and the one that makes me happy. It doesn’t make one right or wrong just a difference in flavors. I’m 53 and I’ve been around dogs all my life. I was living on my own at 18 and that’s when I had my first personal set of dogs that weren’t someone else’s, that I could do with as I seen fit. I tried every freebie dog there was from strays to pound dogs, long hair, curly hair, short hair, no haired, tall, short, fat, lanky, ugly, pretty, non conventional, and conventional breed. I tried pups and started dogs to finished dogs. I had a decent set of hog dogs. Some of the conventional dogs were just somebody’s dog bred to somebody else’s gyp in hopes they would turn out. There was no rhyme or reason to the breeding. I tried dogs that were hyped up and promoted to be the dogs that were fixing to take over the world. It spent more than a dollar running the roads hunting with this family of dogs or that one, this breed or that one. ALMOST all of my mentors hunted those freebie mongrels. One of those was a bluetick/leopard cross that was so much better than anything I hunted with anywhere that I lost sleep thinking about that dog. He set my bar for hog dogs. Right after that dog died, I lucked into my once in a lifetime dog. What was even luckier is that he was an outcross on a super inbred family of dogs that had been used for hogs and cattle. I took that opportunity and I feel like have made the most of it. With some tweaking and evolution of the hogs, I still have those dogs going on 30 yrs now. They are not the best or the greatest but they make me happy. They are easy to live with around the house and they do what I expect from a hog dog when I cast them. We caught 9 hogs our last hunt and several little pigs. We had one dog that was over two he was a non factor for the first 4 hogs. Only one dog was 2 and the others 15 months and 11 months, the 11 month old was rigging the hogs on our drive through the woods and it was only her third hunt. I thought she was barking out of excitement at first until I looked at her body language, and where she was facing. We were definitely in hog woods and when we exited the woods to park, our super wild hogs had already gotten up and were leaving. I say all that to say that they start early consistently and it’s because they are purpose bred. I have had other dogs in recent years that weren’t purpose bred and while I think some of them would’ve turned out ok, I wasn’t looking for ok and I wasn’t waiting a year or more to see the growth. I also need a consistency of ability in the dogs they came from to be able to have a chance at building something. My oldest dog is about 6 now and while I Iove him and think he’s a really nice dog, I still see him do things to show me he’s still getting better yet. My experiences tell me the same thing as yours muleman about any dog being able to do a job, but my expectations have shown me that purpose bred dogs are bred that way for a reason.


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[macedonia mule man]

Dewey, I’ve hunted a lot of packs of dogs from 3 to 16 and most always the speed front end dogs is not the dog that’s keeping the race tempo. They most always get caught out of place and have to fight to get back up front. Question: when you run a pack of over 5 dogs and you are having a race that’s that’s moving at a steady clip with no outs, how many dogs do you think are really smelling game?