training cats

[coastrangecathunting]

i have trained cats to be catty. is what i mean is i have ran the same cats over and over for years . trained a ton of dogs in the same area . by treeing and letting go or by running and loosing them they have learned alot of tricks . i usually start them in the same spot within 100 yrds or so from the last time and going the same direction . if u start them going the other way or in a different spot and get them out of there normal race they will tree faster. i think they panic and get scared so to speek. if they get to where they have lost the dogs in a log jam or a bluff, run roads they just poak along and never get that nervious . but if u get them out of there comfort zone they tend to line out and make a run for it which is there down fall. have u noticed this or do u think im full of shit. they get in shape too.

jc

[twist]

BINGO you hit it right on the head jc. So for what its worth I dont think you are too full of sh-t. lol Andy

[Dads dogboy]

JC,

This should be a good thread!

As it is a Two part Question, lets hit the Bobcat Part first!

We, Mr. Harold, and Glen try very Hard to conserve the Cats who live in our Home Hunting territories. Good Hounds produce one negative…fewer Cats to run. Both Mr. Harold and Glen have Packs of Young Hounds who have progressed to the point that they “Expect” rather than “Hope” to catch every Cat that they jump.

We are like you in that we have places where we are the only Bobcat Hunters so we try very Hard to leave the females. They do TRAIN quickly, finding a Pile, Hole or Tree when the Heat gets to Hot!

We get tickled when some one comes to Hunt with us....we will be rigging and tell our Guest that there is a Sow Cat who lives just off the next intersection. She will run for 20 minutes or so then climb, or some similar story

Most of the time that is what the Guest thinks it is “A Story”!

Now there are some Tom Cats who have gotten lucky over the years. There is one in Florida whom we call the “Triangle Cat”. You may hit him any where in the Club but he will try to get HOME and run in a 5 acre thicket at a 3 way intersection.

We have hit this ole Boy as far as 5 miles from this intersection and run him over 3 hours(most of the time he is closer so in under an hour and he is home), at times you would think that he had better be reading the “Fly, Climb or Die” Menu. Yet he always hits some water, a rock road or one of the other “Bobcat Tricks” in his bag to buy enough time to keep heading home.

Once he gets there he will run for 25 to thirty minutes and let you and the Hounds think that he is going to DIE, yet at just the right moment up the same Tree he goes.

Sooner or later the Scenting conditions are going to be right, he will wait too long to start Trotting or make some other mistake, but till then he is a Great Cat to have in the Inventory and we will be SAD to see him gone!

Part two of the question: You being full of Shit!

Well you are in good company as I was told recently that some Folks on hear feel that way about me! So I think that I am in GOOD Company!

[SECOND NATURE]

all that i can say about training cats, is I have trained a lot more than i have gotten in the last ten years lol. and i hope to have the good fortune to train a few more in the years to come . Larry

[Alabama Cathunter]

John, you are right a trained cat is better than no cat at all. We have all trained a few cats or if you are in a hunting club that runs deer dogs they train some cats for us also. My hunting club up here in Alabama we see the dogs after cats several times a year. I was glad when I finally got them to quit shooting them. Good hunting!

[Warner5]

I had a big responce wrote up the other day and didnt realise I wasent logged in also forgot to save onto word. I'm a cat dog geek, not a computer geek. I could see how hunter's out there could read this and think we are full of B.S. With that said we live in a great place to have hounds, the cats are getting a little sparce but they will come back. Where I live, There are 3 cats within 10 minutes of my house. I might not get a jumped cat race every time out, but my dogs will get a nose full of cat. For me running trained cats is very enjoyable. It also gives the hunter a great tool for determining the progression of his dogs. Adding or subtracting a dog will change the race showing you the strenghts and weeknesses of your dogs. A hunter will also notice what ground is the best for catching the cat. Antisapating a bad spot and seeing which dog moves through it best is fun to see. Will write more later. John.

[david]

JC,Now there are some Tom Cats who have gotten lucky over the years. There is one in Florida whom we call the “Triangle Cat”. You may hit him any where in the Club but he will try to get HOME and run in a 5 acre thicket at a 3 way intersection.

I dont know if that was the triangle cat we hit, but you got some cats that would make a coyote jealous. I think as soon as they figure out it is clay dogs and not deer dogs, they just line out for the next county. I dont think I have ever seen a bobcat cover 2 1/2 miles so quickly. I would say that cat was definately trained and knew just exactly how far that highway was and about how much time he had to get there.

When I was trying to figure out how to hunt years ago, a cat hunter finally helped me out. He told me where I could always find a cat but never catch one. He said I would have it all to myself because everyone else stayed away from there. No one could catch a cat there. Those hills were hunted by some of the best known cat dogs in the Northwest. The ones that got away from those dogs were the ones I had to play with. He was right, those cats were trained. But I could always get one going and work my dogs when I only had a short amount of time to train dogs. It did them a world of good. Finally, like JC and CJ said, we got one in the right place at the right time and got him treed a short distance before the rock bluffs. what a memorable day that was.

That place sure taught me not to kill my cats close to home. If you know you can get a track going within an hour of leaving your door, you will go much more often when you know you don't have a lot of time. It makes a world of difference in the dogs. If I want to kill a cat, I like to get far away from home.

Jcathunter tells of a "pet cat" that climbed a tree at the first sound of the dogs. Boy what a gift to have around at pup training time.

Grayfox tells about a gray fox that he had like that too. He could run it almost any time he wanted to get his pups going. It was there many years and he did everything he could to protect it. Then, some one he had helped went back there without him and killed the fox.

Those trained ones are sure worth trying to protect. Dan McD offers a trapper the price of the pelt to take a picture and release it out of his traps.