Too Cold?

[tod watterson]

I've never had it too cold that I wouldn't turn loose .Caught a lion at -26 once, a real good dog that opened bout every breath normally . He never made a peep till he jumped it , just not enough scent .Caught a few bobcats at maybe -5 to-10 but haven't ran that many because it seems the bobcats just hole up on a ledge when it's that cold .Me an a Buddy of mine ran a bobcat once and they took it so far we had to go back to our trucks or run outa gas in the sleds ,my dog came through ok ,his dog froze a foot. Seemed like he came out of it after a few weeks but every winter after that when it got bad cold he would limp . Dog lived to be 17 and caught his last solo lion at 16 . I say huntem ,no matter what happens its better than dying on the end of a chain .

[twist]

A houndsmen that has valueable hound and respects his dogs has to be smart enough when to stay home and not hunt as hounds will do what they are trained to do no matter the conditions. Andy

[merlo_105]

I have never hunted in that kind of weather and would never hunt in that cold of temp. Wouldnt put myself threw it so aint gonna put my dogs threw it. I just couldnt handle it.

[corycheguis]

-33 in eastern montana...so would it be alright to run my hounds in these elements? don't wanna damage them

[snakerivercatman]

it was -32 here the other morning, and the lions had been up all night traveling. We had a good track cut but didnt dare turn loose on it til after 11 am. It ended up being a nice sunny day, still below zero, but nothing like -32. The dogs did a great job and we didnt have any sort of bad experience with the cold...however I think had we done it early in the morning we'd be nursing some sick dogs with sluffin feet. If a guys dogs are in good shape, and have good weight, I think it's ok to run in the -10's but I'd be afraid to do any lower than that. Nothing is more important than those athletes that make you look good if you ask my opinion

[J.T.]

it was 1 degree when i turned the dogs loose, and i run them fat in the winter, they were not treed for long when we pulled off and my lead dog 9 year old slow poke has been sleeping and not eating much since then. I brought him in the house so he can recover, i think he got too cold. The younger dogs are fine

[imchestnut]

I wondered about this so I looked it up and talked with a pulmonary specialist about it.

If your interested.
http://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10. ... qUaqVnn_IU
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22267570
http://www.all-creatures.org/aip/nl-19oct2002-sled.html
www.wageningenacademic.com/_clientfiles ... 200558.pdf

The way I read this and had it explained to me is, anything below about 15 F can possibly damage the airway or upper respiratory system of dogs/humans when exercised hard in those conditions. The exact threshold for temps is not known but 15 F seemed like the breaking point, which really isn't that cold.

I look at it this way, why would I chance ruining a good bear dog on a cat track in frigid temperatures that I don't want to be out in??

Just my worthless opinion.

[dhostetler]

Tue., Wed., & Thur. I hunted & the temperatures those 3 days were between -10 & +10 I treed 1 bobcat and 5 lions. I run 6 dogs and and none of my dogs were on all the races. The 3 days of hunting took a toll on the dogs. Saturday we had a tom wandering the neighborhood through yards and over porch steps etc. I took my best cat dog their were 3 other hound guys involved and they each took 2 dogs. The temperature was between 20 & 30 below. We had to pretty much walk out the track till the last 800 yards as the dogs would quit it and come back. Ice get building on the dogs feet and they were using there teeth to pull it out of there feet. One of the guys had a tag so he shot it. I wouldn't hunt under those conditions normally. When I got home I fed my dog a can of wet dog food and I believe she didn't get off my couch for 24 hours. I also think she may have frozen 4 tits.

[catdogs]

I just heard of a dog in the Bitterrroot that died on a lion run this week. Temp was -8 and the dog was at the tree for an hour and a half and died on the walk out. I think this is the exception and not the rule, but it can happen. Guys that run skinny dogs shouldnt run less than zero degrees. Good healthy dogs with some weight maybe minus 10. Get a tight loop on those cats and make sure the tracks are fresh. JMO I have also had females freeze tits and it was above zero.

[mike martell]

This is what my dog collars looked like after a hard running bobcat race. The cat went into a willow thicket along a creek that had a lot of ice. It cut the dogs legs up and iced the Garmin's and rendered them useless...Like Dean stated. I think more of my dogs and have them parked until it warms up. Also reasons to use beeper collars as well for safety reasons. This was in the middle of the afternoon with a temperature of 10 degrees above. Don't matter how many cats you catch....Takes a pile of cats to replace a good dog....Not worth it!

[Trueblue]

I wondered about this so I looked it up and talked with a pulmonary specialist about it.

If your interested.
http://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10. ... qUaqVnn_IU
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22267570
http://www.all-creatures.org/aip/nl-19oct2002-sled.html
http://www.wageningenacademic.com/_clie ... 200558.pdf

The way I read this and had it explained to me is, anything below about 15 F can possibly damage the airway or upper respiratory system of dogs/humans when exercised hard in those conditions. The exact threshold for temps is not known but 15 F seemed like the breaking point, which really isn't that cold.

I look at it this way, why would I chance ruining a good bear dog on a cat track in frigid temperatures that I don't want to be out in??

Just my worthless opinion.

I read your links and found them to be interesting and educational.Thanks for posting them.I learned the most from the last link.What I understand is that repeated exposure is a large factor in the amount of inflammation in the peripheral airways and that it is unknown how long this inflammation persists after the dog is removed form this type of training.This injury and the resulting inflammation was not observed to cause any hindrance to performance as it is typically found in the most elite athletes both human and canine.I'm curious to know if any of you hardcore cat hunters out there have ever suspected or observed that your dogs lung capacity had been damaged by hunting in extreme conditions ?

[muzzy]

lost a dog thursday found her monday still in the canyon and grubbin out an old bobcat track four nights of zero or below and the dog was tired and thin needs a few days of rest but otherwise fine i guess its all about conditioning as she is outside all the time

[HoundinIsLife]

I saw a lot more lion and bobcat tracks when it was negative temperatures that's for sure. I just didn't have it in me to turn the dogs loose. Those dogs don't deserve to be worked hard in those kind of temperatures we had here for the last couple weeks. Just my opinion.