"Im sure the game runs as fast as the hounds are capable of making it run!"
Very well said Mr. Robert!
CJC
Why do the dogs run at the same speed/effort the animal runs
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Dads dogboy
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- Location: Central Arkansas
Re: Why do the dogs run at the same speed/effort the animal
Good topic and a lot of good input. I have not ran cat in the brush country of Texas, Arkansas or any of the south east, but plan to next year. I have caught them from Colorado west. As Stated cats run harder at night on a empty belly than ones trailed up in the day time and jumped out of a bed. If cats are hunted hard in a area they can get hard to tree or if they are run a lot with dogs that don't drive them they learn to stay a head of the dogs. If a cat is staying in a tight area dodging and holding still he can make a dog look bad. If he is not pushed hard he can walk or trot all day in front of the hounds. I feel I must have the easiest cats to tree as there is of any in the US. If the dogs don't make a lose most of my cats are treed or caught in less than 20 minutes of a jump race. If the dogs are making loses, the cat can stay on the ground as long as he wants to. A hard running cat that has gotten away by hitting the roads, going through bluffs, staying in heavy cover running tight circles can make dogs look like they can't catch a cat with all its legs broke. The dogs you run, the scent conditions, the area your running in all play a factor on your races. I feel very few people have seen a strait pack of cat dogs run cats. It is a totally different than running cats with dogs that are ran on coons, lions and bear. Not saying that they can't catch them. With that said in cat hunting ever once in awhile a track just blows up making me going away wondering just what happen. Just about the time I think I have it all figured out I realize how much I don't know. I have talked to Dale Lee several times about hunting when I hunted Arizona and yes he believed cats could hold there scent and I have seen bobcat do it several times, or a least something that the only way that I could explain it was that the cat held its scent { which impossible]. With holding there scent to me is something that is different than a cat hitting a place that the scent does not hold. Bobcat hunting is the biggest challenge in the hound hunting world. May we all own a top dog. Dewey
Re: Why do the dogs run at the same speed/effort the animal
Very good topic, and reading. All you fella's. CJC, I was just curious. When you wrote about the distressed cat spraying scent as it crossed the road in front of you. How did the dogs react to the track when they crossed that area? Did they move right through unfased, did they bobble at all, like on a lose? Or maybe try to locate a little before moving the track out. Thankyou. John
Rowland-Walkers
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Dads dogboy
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- Location: Central Arkansas
Re: Why do the dogs run at the same speed/effort the animal
John,
The pack hit the road, Barking twice every time their feet would hit the ground.
They took the track up this graveled road 60+ yards and turned into the Clear Cut right behind the Cat.
She squatted and ducked and dodged for the next thirty minutes in an area less than an acre in size. All you could hear was a ROAR when a pickup was made; she was leaving so much scent that loses were only brief interruptions of the ROAR!
CJC
The pack hit the road, Barking twice every time their feet would hit the ground.
They took the track up this graveled road 60+ yards and turned into the Clear Cut right behind the Cat.
She squatted and ducked and dodged for the next thirty minutes in an area less than an acre in size. All you could hear was a ROAR when a pickup was made; she was leaving so much scent that loses were only brief interruptions of the ROAR!
CJC
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RezDogRendezvous
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Re: Why do the dogs run at the same speed/effort the animal
Thanks for this topic!! It's not to often I catch a post that isn't a pissin match. Keep it up!
Re: Why do the dogs run at the same speed/effort the animal
Great thread. Thanks to Tom Tom for starting it, and all who replied.
Back when I was trying to find my first successes with bobcat, I spent a lot of time with Ray Mears. He was pretty broken up and could not hunt, but we spent many hours together taking care of his dogs and talking. I remember him sitting on his porch with me and explaining how the process of starting a dog on bobcats without the aid of another dog. He told me several things to watch for in the snow. He told me that Males will urinate under pressure and this is about the last thing they do. Once they do it, they will be caught. I followed his direction, and eventually treed one in the light snow. I followed the cat track to the tree, just as Ray had told me to do. Sure enough, about 150 yards before the tree, I saw the urine in the snow. And sure enough, it was a tom. I would have thought it would be females that do this, but I have never seen it from a female.
Yes, Slow and Easy, I am exclusively a keyboard hunter. I have not hunted in five years. This is how I stay alive. Survival is the only reason I am trying to write a book also. I quit the book idea a couple years ago. I went months without coming here to the board. Then I started to feel like I was about to float away. So I am just here for something to grab on to.It sure has helped me to come back for a little while. Thanks to all for allowing has beens on here.
When I first found this board about seven years ago, I was hunting hard. I presented some thoughts back then that were not too popular. I kind of learned to avoid the subject. They were theories as to why my dang hounds for many years could run a bobcat ALL DAY and not catch it. They rarely tree where I was hunting, and they need to be stopped on the ground. I had never discovered the Southern bobcat dogs. Did not even know they existed. If I had found them, I think everything would have been different. But I had not. So I formed these theories and went looking for dogs that would test the theories for me. In the process I found the best dog of my life. My first coon dog turned cat dog treed her first cat after around 100 trys, and caught her second after about another 100 trys. This dog caught her first solo bobcat on her fifth track, and never dropped below 50% after that as long as I was around her.
Why do the dogs run at the same speed/effort the animal runs? It is a great question Tom Tom. It is a many faceted issue.
But one aspect may be this:
My theory was that the dogs did not catch the cat because they did not want to. Not because they needed more grit, but for a much deeper reason. But something deep in their genetic make up kept them from closing the gap. The hiding cat is another topic and has been well covered. I am simply talking about dogs that never close the gap.
I will try to find a piece I wrote for my imaginary book and post it over on the book thread. Looking at that stuff after it has sat for years, it sure looks goofy now. And it is just opinion, but might give Tom Tom additional fodder to chew on.
viewtopic.php?f=72&t=23659&start=30
Back when I was trying to find my first successes with bobcat, I spent a lot of time with Ray Mears. He was pretty broken up and could not hunt, but we spent many hours together taking care of his dogs and talking. I remember him sitting on his porch with me and explaining how the process of starting a dog on bobcats without the aid of another dog. He told me several things to watch for in the snow. He told me that Males will urinate under pressure and this is about the last thing they do. Once they do it, they will be caught. I followed his direction, and eventually treed one in the light snow. I followed the cat track to the tree, just as Ray had told me to do. Sure enough, about 150 yards before the tree, I saw the urine in the snow. And sure enough, it was a tom. I would have thought it would be females that do this, but I have never seen it from a female.
Yes, Slow and Easy, I am exclusively a keyboard hunter. I have not hunted in five years. This is how I stay alive. Survival is the only reason I am trying to write a book also. I quit the book idea a couple years ago. I went months without coming here to the board. Then I started to feel like I was about to float away. So I am just here for something to grab on to.It sure has helped me to come back for a little while. Thanks to all for allowing has beens on here.
When I first found this board about seven years ago, I was hunting hard. I presented some thoughts back then that were not too popular. I kind of learned to avoid the subject. They were theories as to why my dang hounds for many years could run a bobcat ALL DAY and not catch it. They rarely tree where I was hunting, and they need to be stopped on the ground. I had never discovered the Southern bobcat dogs. Did not even know they existed. If I had found them, I think everything would have been different. But I had not. So I formed these theories and went looking for dogs that would test the theories for me. In the process I found the best dog of my life. My first coon dog turned cat dog treed her first cat after around 100 trys, and caught her second after about another 100 trys. This dog caught her first solo bobcat on her fifth track, and never dropped below 50% after that as long as I was around her.
Why do the dogs run at the same speed/effort the animal runs? It is a great question Tom Tom. It is a many faceted issue.
But one aspect may be this:
My theory was that the dogs did not catch the cat because they did not want to. Not because they needed more grit, but for a much deeper reason. But something deep in their genetic make up kept them from closing the gap. The hiding cat is another topic and has been well covered. I am simply talking about dogs that never close the gap.
I will try to find a piece I wrote for my imaginary book and post it over on the book thread. Looking at that stuff after it has sat for years, it sure looks goofy now. And it is just opinion, but might give Tom Tom additional fodder to chew on.
viewtopic.php?f=72&t=23659&start=30