The Ultimate Bobcat Dog, PART ONE...

[Dan McDonough]

Big, fat pups!! All 7 are looking good. They all feel like small boulders and already seem tougher built than any pups I've had before...very interesting!

[Dan McDonough]

Here are the males 9-2-13:

[Dan McDonough]

The Girls:

[Dan McDonough]

7 1/2 Weeks old 9-24-13:

[Dan McDonough]

The lurcher pups are 7 1/2 weeks old now and all have survived. I've given them two wormings and their third is tomorrow. I'll wait one extra day since today they received their first vaccination. They have been weaned for just shy of two weeks and I'm certain that all of their mother's colostrum is out of their system. They have been charging the gate when I come to feed and play with them so I figure it is time to start taking them out for walks but not without vaccinations first. Two are going to OK., one to ID. and another near here. That means that I have two left and quite honestly, I'm glad to have a few to keep back for a little while longer. If you've studied the last litter picture for any length of time, you've likely noticed that they all pretty much look alike. I can tell you from close observation here at their pen, that there isn't much difference between them. The lightest colored one seems to have the most stag-type body of the group but not by much. The male with the odd pattern to his face was a little timid a few weeks ago but is a real treat to be around now. All of the rest have been pretty even acting the whole time.

I'm a little torn when I try and think of which male to keep for myself. Part of me wants to try and pick one that tends towards being one-manish...like the old gypsy dogs that used to do all sorts of fantastic feats for their owners. Another part of me has been culling out the shy-gene for so long that the habit is hard to shake. I would like to be able to pick the pup that is the most well balanced in it's build and a touch longer than tall. The problem is that all of the pups are pretty much the same. I wanted to stick with the dark dogs in the beginning but in all reality, a white dog may be a big advantage when chasing cats in the winter. All of their noses are dark and their footpads too.

It's going to come down to intelligence. I have a battery of tests to give them after they have all had the chance to spend a little time getting used to the house (that is where I'll give the tests). Not that I'm hoping that there are any dummies in the bunch but I sure would like something to separate them quality wise and make the decisions of which to keep a little easier.

If anyone has some off the wall ways to pick out a pup I'd like to hear about them. Maybe it will add to the pool of information and help pick a male to go with my female.

[david]

Hey Dan, have you ever heard of anyone studying right brain/left brain dominance in dogs? I had a psychology prof tell me once that you could tell the dominance in people by which way a person tips his head when he is puzzling/thinking over something. The dominant side pushes the other side down so a left tipped head would be right brain dominant, he said. I notice both in your litter. Never heard of anyone studying it in dogs, but might be interesting.

[Dan McDonough]

Ok, so I went out and talked to my pups. I made some noises like unto a dolphin or a small whale. That got their heads going pretty good but they tip them both ways, back-and-forth, back-and-forth. Maybe that's why B.C.'s are so smart...they use both sides. Two of them only would tip their right side down. I made a note in their files, we'll see if there is something to this. Maybe the ones that only tiped right side down will only be able to catch a cat the circles counter clockwise?

[outlaw13]

Just curious about the pups and how they are doing. I bet they have grown and progressed a lot in the last month.

[Dan McDonough]

I still have the 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th pups out of the last picture. I had them swimming nicely around the time that the last picture was taken. They have gained about 50% more in size and I'm starting to see what they will look like when they are older. They are lengthening out some like their mother and I'm glad for that because that's going to translate into speed. I'm hoping they will top out right around 24"-25". That will keep them big enough to tangle with anything and small enough to get through the woods and swamps well while letting them handle deep snow well. That seems to be the ideal size up here. In more open country I would wish for 25"-27". I have them scaling small fences but not to often because I don't want to stress their joints out on the landings much but they've passed jumping 101. I'll go much higher with that when they've passed their first birthday. They are harassing the chickens relentlessly so I've put those up in the coop for the winter early and have them on feed instead of free range. If I break them from the chickens I won't be able to catch birds with them when they are coming up and I like to run everything while they are young. I showed them their first barnyard cat and they had an unusually good response to it. I'm leaving that alone for now. They are scrambling around and playing throughout a two mile walk before they act like they are getting tired. I am currently working with them each alone right now so it's taking up a good part of each day. I would like to get down to two of them. One of the guys who was getting one got hurt and cancled and I have not put out a new ad to sell them so I've get to get on with that. Four is a lot of extra work while I'm training four young leopards and keeping the old dogs tuned up and running the stags and whippets once each day for about two hours. The other day I found a flock of geese in the fog. Very interesting! What happens is not what you would think would happen. That was with the whippets. The coats on them dogs aren't good for this climate and I'm considering selling them also. I need to lighten the load. Thank god for cell phones or I wouldn't be able to do this with family obligations. After I eat a sandwich, I'm going to take them to a giant log pile and hide a stuffed animal tail with bobcat scent on it in there. I'll sit on top and see what happens. It should only take about an hour.

[Dan McDonough]

11-24-13:



It didn't take long for them to figure out the deer gland in the hot wire basket. All four of them are gamey and it's been on my mind to keep them out of areas where they might find tough game to go after...after all they are only 3 1/2 months old. I've walked them through just about every kind of place I can think of and, and like kids, if I bring along some food and stop for an hour a couple of times, they can comfortably handle day long excursions. They are starting to show their speed-dog muscles and have been showing their boarder collie brains for some time now. Deer-gun season is on here so we've been sneeking into the city parks and skulking through the town neiborhoods looking for squirrels and rabbits to try and catch. They are a few months off from actually being able to catch much of anything but they certainly like trying. It's all fun and games right now but I can see these dogs becoming VERY useful!

[Dan McDonough]

For anyone wondering if I saw the post about the cat dog from Argentina, YES and it's driving me nuts!!!

[JustinKeller]

over 3000 views. I'd say you have a few of us interested. keep the info coming. I like to listen to the dogs but after the jump I want my dogs to have the speed to keep the pressure on any thing thing that I can legally catch.

[Dan McDonough]

I've learned some very interesting things studying the old world dog knowledge from the UK. Like anything else, I've had to put in as much time looking for the right sources as I had to put in to actually read through or talk to the sources. The best books are NOT cheap and laying out the cash for some of the best and most recommended books has slowed me doesn't. It's going on 14 years now since I started researching these dogs. It's been a secondary thing because the leopards have been first on my priority list for a majority of that time. I do wish I spoke and read German because I think there is a HUGE treasure trove of information to be found there in Germany. I'm seriously thinking about learning German to do just that. Prior to all of the communists, German knowledge was the high point in nearly every area and most certainly in the area of breeding. The more I dig, the more I think I will hit a wall without studying what the Germans have to say about dogs.

Are there any German speaking/writing individuals that have a leg up on this already?

[Dan McDonough]

Left the pups home today but took mama out. I ran a fox with two leopards and Streak, mother stag to my lurcher pups. She just about ended herself. The leopards jumped the fox back in the thick stuff near a lake. Streak went to them but on her way the fox bolted out of cover and made a mad dash for the den hill I was standing near. I started raising a fuss and making some noise which only sped the fox up but Streak trusts me to call her attention to runnable game and she popped out of the thick stuff in time to have a run at the fox. She put it in high gear and while the fox beat her to the den (big head start), Streak made up ground on that fox and just about snapped her neck hitting the den hole on the hillside!. She was stunned and seems fine now but she sure put 100% into giving it a go. If she was in hard shape I think she would have caught it. It was a sight to see that dog make up that much ground. That's likely to be the best "almost" of the year. I've never given a dog a massage but I feel like I ought to rub that dogs neck tonight or something, it was a little bit on the brutal side of things. Those stags are TUFF MOTHAS'!

[dchartt]

How are the pups coming along Dan?