Breeding. Raising, starting, culling

[scrubrunner]

Perk, I've been sitting here thinking about Corky hitting that cat 300 yards ahead of the pack, we don't know that he didn't hit another cat and pull the whole pack away from a cat that they were fixing to catch, but if it was the same cat the pack wasn't really running it, they were following it or just trailing real good.
If a dog starts opening 300 yards from the rest I don't want mine to quit what they are running and go to it. If it is the same cat, when they get to where that dog hit it, now it is a covered track, then they need to shut up and get up.
David, I tip toe around the way I see things sometimes from fear of making friends angry at me or not wanting to appear to be a smart but, but I'm just going to say it, It is a smart dog that does this but most thieves and cheaters are smart and that's what I see that type of dog as. They can not get the front end honestly so they cheat and steal it from the hound that honestly has the front end.
I am no expert, I haven't caught anything on the ground since I started back with the broke dogs I have now but I am old enough and hunted long enough I know what I like and how I want it done. I want my hounds to catch the game but not just any way they can, I want them to do it as honest as it can be done.

[david]

You don't have to tip toe with me Scrub. You are not my only Freind who sees things exactly like you do. I guess cheaters and theives are just more entertaining. If not for cheaters and theives, what would there be to watch on TV?

I love a tight track dog and like to have one. But I already watched that show, and I know how it goes, and can describe it ahead of time.

[scrubrunner]

But there is always puppies David, watching those pups start to click and the hope one of them turns out to be the ONE is the most enjoyment to me. Oh yeah, and the last 20 minutes of a fox or cat race when the hounds get him in the short rows. Haiiiii Stub!

[perk]

Scrub 300 yards behind the game can certainly still be running him, I know you have seen cats, deer, and foxes the dogs were that far behind and still moving the track well, especially if ascending is correct.
I like honest dogs, as far as track runners, giving mouth in correct spot, not barking out of place off track, but I guess I like a dag that wants to get up under him or will help. That being said I have given way more credit and respect over the years and still do to the dog that's in the thickest stuff grinding and turning back, and making him go and following where other dogs are failing to do so.
Agree on pups love to see that click and see who is gonna be the one.
Lastly a pack is a team. Everything has worth. Would Rickey Henderson have been (arguably) the greatest leadoff batter of all time if he had hit singles and waited to do it honest and be hit/hunted into scoring position, I think his worth was the ability to stea/cheatl his way 3rd base. Thus getting closer to the goal, scoring!

[perk]

Also scrub please note I'm not talking about a pen dog cutter and swinger who does it bc that's all he knows and in the end gets no results... that dog is trash for what I do

[macedonia mule man]

Apparently it doesn't make much difference if you have drifting, swinging, track running or winding type dogs. None of them catch and kill many cat or fox on the ground in a fair chase. I've hunted with what is supposed to be the ultimate in bobcat bred dogs and they never came close to a catch. Actually never had what I call a good race. As I've said on here before, the only cat I have seen caught and killed on the ground was by a pack of I believe 5 deer dogs while deer hunting. When some of you boys fell that you have what it takes, I wish you would come down or over here and show me how to catch and kill a cat on the ground. I've had several that we're going to do that but so far it hasn't happened.

[undertheradar]

Please don't mistake me for an @$$. Because I am not, but with a comment like that it kinda sounds like you have never seen good dogs.

Trust me when I say this, I don't have [yet]
a pack that can catch a piece of game by themselves. I've only been back in the game since May. BUT I have and will again one day, catch a hand full of cats a year by myself with 8 to 10 dogs, in thick ground like what's In your type of country.

Sounds like to me you would have a serious eye opener if some of the veteran cat hunters of VA & NC ever showed up in your neighborhood. I know some guys that catch 3 to 6 foxes on AVG when they go hunting. Sound like a lie? Its not. They are so good a damn bobcat won't last 10 min. I promise ya. Again I envy those guys and I'm not talking about me or my dogs.

[scrubrunner]

Radar, I knew some guys that was doing just what you say those guys are doing, they caught almost every grey fox they ran in less than 2 hours. Said a gray couldn't run any longer than that ahead of their dogs.
They brought em 100 miles over here to my woods, we jumped a fox for them, in a little over 2 hours we had boxed every thing they had, they left with their tail between their legs when they boxed their last one. We continued to run that fox for another 6 hours and holed it.
Game is not always the same everywhere you go even though the woods may look similar to us. Muleman may have a similar situation where he is. Those fox in my woods were run 4-5 nights a week, they were tougher than the hounds. Those woods are gone, it a housing development now. Where I hunt now only 25 miles away the fox can't take near the pressure those fox could.
Here if a fellow caught 1 every 10 times he went he wouldn't have anything to run.
Perk, I know the game is 300 yards ahead a lot of times, just had to pick a little.
It rained here a little this afternoon, the first time since the hurricane, fixing to load em up and go find a fox or hopefully maybe a cat.

[undertheradar]

No doubt scrub. A fox can sure be a tough one to get after he been educated. These boys accou,t for everything they get after. Its either holed, treed or caught in less than an hour. I like tough game. Gives me something to run with scarce fox

[perk]

Scrub hope you can find one to run tonite. We was supposed to be rainy and wind blowing today I decided not to take the Fox dogs out today, went deer hunting with a bunny, but sure enough was a decent day to be outside, dang weatherman, made the wrong choice today

[scrubrunner]

Perk, had fox going at 8:20 last night, I had 5 head, a friend that I run with sometimes was there, he turned 4 to em. We caught em off the fox at 11:45, I had to go to work this morning. Sure hated to stop it but I ain't tough enough anymore to work all day hunt all night and then work the next day like I could when I was young.

[floridacathunter]

Hey Scrubrunner, glad you are having some good running. Did you get any rain, early this week? We spent the weekend in North Fl. Hunted some, no luck, too dry. It sprinkled some on us, coming home, Monday. You mentioned " getting old" , to quote my dear old Dad, "getting old ain't for sissies, but considering the alternative, it isn't so bad"! Hope to see you soon.

[Dan Edwards]

[scrubrunner]

Floridacathunter, it sprinkled just enough right before dark wed nite that the bushes were wet, wasn't enough to even measure. It's as dry in this scrub as I've ever seen it, deer dogs can't even run a deer right.
Ran a fox last nite about 45 minutes then it got away on a road that a deer hunter had dragged right ahead of them. Trotted em a hour or so after that but didn't do any good.
Fixing to try it again tonite, going to wait and go a little later, maybe some dew will fall. I don't know how the guys hunt the desert country, got a lot better dogs than I got I guess.

[dwalton]

I have caught several cats on the ground both in western Oregon and Central Oregon and the deserts of Northeastern California. The most was when the dogs were hunted hard and in top shape. The best year they caught 19.8% of there cats on the ground. I have heard people that have never caught them on the ground hunting the same areas, some of those guys that have hunted with me are now hunting only dogs that I have bred. Dogs that catch on the ground have to be hunted hard ,in shape and able to move a track. There truly is a difference in dogs and how each of us hunts and what we are willing to hunt or put up with in a dog. Most of us are limited in time we can hunt, where we hunt and to be willing to go out of our familiar area of hunting. That limits our knowledge or the ability to see what goes on in different areas with different conditions with different dogs. Each to your own hunt what works for you in the area you hunt. Finny Clay spent three days hunting with me in the Northwest and I spent 5 hunting with him in Arkansas and Texas. He had good dogs for how he hunted and he gave me a huge compliment " you know you have pretty good pot lickers come down to Florida with your dogs, they would do good down there" I wish I could of made it down there where there is a lot of cats and hunted with him. Each of us needs to hunt what works for ourselves in the areas that we do hunt in. If your dogs suit you and catch what you want thats perfect. Good hunting. Dewey