david wrote:Dont know if you will ever face this situation but:
When we guided bobcat hunters, we didnt want the dogs to kill the cat when they bay it. Heck, I never really wanted the dogs to kill a cat, unless they would kill only big toms. Never found dogs that would spare the females. It took a lot of trial and error, but we finally figured out exactly how to team dogs that would hold a cat tight but not kill it.
If a certain two dogs were together, the cat would always die. Pull one of those dogs and team it with a scaredy cat that would bay behind the cat at least 8 feet back, and that cat would hold tight. The cat would never look at that dog behind it, but knew the back door was closed. And that dog that would kill the cat if it had another dog to make that cat turn around, would only bay it in the face up close and personal.
It is super hard to get city folk with a bow in to a bayed cat befor the cat breaks and moves, or gets killed. This is the combination that worked for us.
What David is sayen is true on medium fast dogs/ but ya take that whole-in-the-wind-world-wind beater type dog it runs a strike too 3 turs at most from strike, then that cat flips over onto a new set pattern an goes 1 pattern and has too streight line out and get up off the forest floor PDQ or die tryen !
Ya put that very fast same close tracken machine hound with another hound that if cant trail at foggen speen itsself but can ride the coat tails of the front end burner hotrodd/ hey the track goes like this :
the strike and about 2 full turns around the pattern set and then loopes over intoo next set and 1 loop and line out and don`t tree gets caught on the ground and a cat under 20 lbs dies in about 2.0 seconds once caught from behind tryen too still out strech the oncomeing recken ball machine ! Or, is so scared that it don`t line out it spyrells down in a death spyreal and they spint the track like a top into the ground/no tree it dies quickly!
Not many amazeing track dogs like I`m describeing/ but they come along now and then and by 18-24 months of age and they been running and treeing sence 6-7-8 month old puppys on grey fox,then swithched on too bobcat by 24 months of age/ they are world beaters calabered and ya cant set em on the ground with a nice pack of 4 hounds cause them strange dogs are goen too get ripped a new one by thid cracker jack new hound.
This really happened! I moved too Sacramento Ca. and had two littermate gyps 13 months old andrun em on gray fox in the riverbottems and they was awesome. I met Harland Mexxwell who in Sacramento was the KING and had an ontorague follow him an his Cowboy dog up too the foothills on the coast range out of guinda & Capay area hunting/just too watch his dog run coon,gray fox,bobcat/ ole Cowboy treed game and was a machine and showed ya 98 % of his strikes ended up in treed and seen up !
So I meet Harland and look at Cowboy and he tells me this 4 yr old is direct out of old Topper and had him shiped from Mr.Nances pen in Ky. as a puppy.Tells me he will teach my redtick colored gyp Little Trixxie asnd her full sister a white bodyed pup with red head,white muzzle how too work a coon and its Aug. and my 2 pups are turning exactly now a little over 12 months of age and been on over 50 gray fox races & tree ups/ 40 of em when Sonny had em as from out of his old Trixxie bitch who was now then just turnen 5 yrs old.
When I showed up too Harlands there was no less than 3 cars following us up the hill and so off we went. He spotlited and located some eyes up in a tree along a ditch some 100 yds out in a cow range field with rolly hills behind a dry summertime creek bed that that tree was located on. He said let me go with my dog and walk him over there it probably will leave out of the tree befor i turn him loose/I`ll flash lite ya when too turn your dogs loose!
Harland got about 70 yds acrost the dryed open field cow pasture and turned loose and his dog goes hunten and opens at the tree and then takes off headen up the ridge and is gone out of hearing/ he flashlites for me too come so I tail gate my 2 dogs and have small goat rhig bells on the 2 hounds and cut em accrost the field and they cover the ground quickly but strike 2/3s the way across and everyone said oh man thats just goen too mess it all up what are they runnen ?I said lets just wait and see ! Well they quickly trailed into the tree and circled and took of running and opening headed up the hill and dissapeared be hind a saddle! around the next hill came cowboy just a getten it and Harland was not too far up the knowll yet and turned off his light ad Cowboy made aloop around and toped over on the other saddle hump and was gone. Here came Trixxie & Fly and they was hi ballen it and they all said oh sheese, them 2 pups a horse racen a deer ! I said I think there runnen the same thing Cowboy is but their a turn be hind yet and gaining ground but wont cut and honer him/they are runnen their own track and run a close one!
Berrnie said well here Comes Cowboy again,so when they top over if their on the same track as him they will top over right by them 2 oak trees !
Sure nuff they did and with in about 50 second they caught up too Cowboy and blue past him jus foggen and Harland was tryen too yell at em and catch em but they was gone again over the hill and when Cowboy got too the top he gave out 2 long bawll calls and quite!Harlen caught his dog an put a whoppen on him and sent him back to hunt up them 2 pups and cowboy just was done with it.
We drove around the loop and come out right on the back side of that same hill and Cowboy was parked under the only tree around a smaller white oak and treed up some 12 ft maybe off the otherside of the dirt one lane ranch rd. Here come Harland walken down off the hill to us ans he said Cowboy dont have nothen up he just went on and when he come too the rd he opened and just felld treed!so we looked and ther was a ridge runner coon sitten up.They all said Jacks dog run a deer & cowboy found a coon andyways and treed up. I said well there was 2 sets of eyes looken at us up in that tree we turned Cowboy too and maybe the other one is were my 2 gyps are ? Harland said I don`t know what your 2 is runnen but their goen too catch it/ nothen reaches a feaver pitch like that and don`t catch it !we hsot the coon out and squalled and hooped / no 2 pups came .
about 2 minutes after it got quiet were we was, we hurd my 2 hounds started tree barken waw up on the ridge and all we seen was scrubb oaks and brush looken from the road up towards em some 300 yds futher on from the rd.We drove around nd sporlited the tree from a trail and saw it was a small live oak tree and Harland said I`ll go get em in my bronko Jack your vw 2 seat pivkup cant climb up there! So off he went and shined the tree and come back and gave me my 2 pups back/ Bernnie said what they have a slick tree ?Harland do\idn`t even look at Bernnie and insted looked at me and said I got a good buck 2 blaided knife and a Boker single blade knif I`d trade ya for them pups ? he had a big smile on his face and he leaned down and petted thier heads.