Field Trial opinions....

[Nube4now]

Just curious as to how people feel about taking their dogs to field trials. I have attended a couple and really enjoy the excitement, networking and fellowship. My hunting partner however, said he will never take his dogs to " one of those things just to mess it up and have to start over.". I am at a fork in the road. Please help

[dwalton]

I would never take a dog to a field trial if I planned to hunt it for bobcats. A field trial teaches everything you do not want in a bobcat dog. Dewey

[azhoundhunter88]

If you got good dogs it doesn't mess them up so not sure about all that. I go to see friends and enjoy the family environment. Nothing wrong with them. It won't mess your dogs up its just excersize for them if anything. They are fun too.

[Redwood Coonhounds]

I have always field trialed my dogs, not all of them are field trial material, and some have been superstars at it, others will turn there nose up at it... That said, I'm a coon, fox and bear hunter and 99.5% of ANY bad habits I have in my dogs have come from running them in field trials. Tree jumping, barking when turning them loose, over running tracks/track cutting, and not checking a tree as well. Most of the time after a couple times out hunting I will have it worked back out. With dumb dogs that sometimes isn't the case. It's hard to mess up a beardog, but I can sure see the difference in them coon and fox hunting after a trial... If I cat/lion hunted, I probably wouldn't trial them at all. Good part here is trial season is usually when we aren't doing much hunting due too too much snow and rain. I do it for fun and fellowship, and winning a litte extra money never hurts my feelings. Over the years I have learned to not train pups on drags or practice drags, or work them treeing on cages/by sight, or to run too young of a dog on them. It took a while and a few bad habits later to realize that. Since then I've been a lot happier.

[Dale T]

I run mine on both without any problems, I try and run them on as much live game as I can before getting them going on the drags sometimes due to there age and when bear season opens that doesn't always work out I have a dog that just turned a year old in April so he was only 6 months old for the start of bear season we went but was pretty young, by the time our field trial season started in Jan. he was 9 months old he ran pretty good with the older dogs and won part of all three puppy race's he ran in, we will see how things go this fall.

[cobalt]

Field trialing is not hunting and hunting is not field trialing. If your dog can figure that out, which some dogs can, they'll be fine, if not, you may have issues to deal with.
I would not run a straight bobcat dog in a field trial either, for 2 reasons. First is there is no cat scent used at a field trial and second, I run my dogs to win.
People should go to field trials to support the local hound community, whether or not you you run a dog. It is a big money generator.
I agree with much of what Redwood said except the 99.5% part. I would put it at around 10% from my experience.

[kordog]

some dogs may benefit from a field trialing some ways most will not it is a poor excuse for the real thing especially using those scents .live animal scent is what a hound needs to run .when you watch a guy drip the scent over his boots when he is laying the scent trail then walk off from the tree leaving another scent trail you have to laugh .it is a good thing for houndsman to get together and to bring familys to for raising money for good causes.

[dhostetler]

I go to about 2 field trials a year. I don't believe field trials have any adverse affects on dogs except maybe if you take a young dog to a lot of them. I currently don't have any dogs that do very good on field trials but I go anyway as I believe its important to support Hound Clubs etc. and I enjoy meeting other hound hunters. I don't believe you have to have good field trial dogs to have good dogs, though I am sure there are people with good dogs that are also good field trial dogs.

I believe people worry to much about ruining there precious bobcat dogs. The attached picture is 5 year old June and I run her on bobcats, lions, bears, and field trials. I believe if you have a good solid bobcat dog you won't ruin them by running other game. She excels on bobcat and I would be willing to bet money on her against any bobcat dog out there. I believe its more important to keep your bobcat dogs in shape rather then just reserve them for bobcat hunting several months out of the year.

[azhoundhunter88]

Guy before me nailed it. If you have good dogs they know the difference and its just excersize for them. It's all for fun and the kids. I field trial mine for that reason. I stil run them on bears and lions just fine. It doesn't hurt them.

[rfeen]

Field trials are great you get to meet new people and support your local hound hunting people that fight for our rights. And one guy said that not real cat sent is used in these trials, I would like to say here in Montana we put on some really nice trials were we use cat sent and our drags are long. Such as for the semi finals with real cat sent on a drag we like to do about a 1.5 to 2 mile race, and then for the finals we like to do 4 to 6 mile drag. Please support your local Houndsmen Associations and keep our sport alive.

[mefishme1234]

got a family friend whose lil English female is a grand night champ and hell on cats.. he runs coo with her to get her in shape for cat.. He did try to run her on bear I hear with paul laney s plots and she didn't show much interest.. smart cat dog.. I wouldn't chase a bear myself..

[lynx]

Over the last 20 years I have run my dogs on bear lion bobcat coon and also field trialed them. Personally I have had very few problems caused by running drags I am not saying they take the place of live sent but are another excuse to get my dogs out of the kennel and I know they dang sure don't get to be any better sitting around .Right now hounding is on the top of the tree huggers list to get rid of. Getting involved and supporting your local Houndsman association is imperative. If we don't fight for the freedoms we have and stay united, good or bad habits caused by field trials will no longer be an issue. On this note, I would highly recommend field trials regardless of how good your dog does or doesn't do, the pros highly out way the cons. Running longer drags with less sent is much closer to the reel thing and something to consider. Montana is putting on some good field trials I went to two of them this year and had a blast. Keep the tradition alive one tree at a time.