Re: Reading your Dog(s)

[Varminator]

I'm done lost another post after spending and hour or two!!! I, SIGN IN type, save draft it says Sign in again I do and it's gone and so am I. Nice to chat with you and if my name is mentioned I may reply.

[mike martell]

Thanks, Al and Robin, YOUNG HUNTERS , pay attention!! Al has "The ear", but he's being modest. EVERYONE has missed judged their ears a time or two!!
Besides watching your young dog (pup no more), what tells are you looking for that helps you determine its a bobcat without seeing the track? What tells you Coyote? etc... When possible I love to road the dogs,It's my Big Screen!! Time in the Brush is the answer to most, "But" that's not the answers to my questions that may help "Speed up" the young ones schooled on BGH! ....LMFAO....

I too enjoy roading hounds simply to watch the reaction or inneraction when a coyote has pissed on a bush and is long gone, the males will strut around and piss on the same bush, I always thought of this as the reaction from one canine to another, I can go along on a roll and then out of the blue a coyote entices the nose of the hounds and they rig an off track, my world is different because of switch hitting the hounds on multiple species of game and if you watch a hound begin to wag or ring its tail and begin to act gamey, you have a cat. The body language is way different. Canine behavior is crude compared to cats.... Learning your hounds and reading them is a huge advantage....I also agree with Robin, the pup you raise is going to make the better dog.....

I manage to miss judge my ears all the time now and When I finally get a track lined out it is awesome to be able to hear the dogs jump...Most of the time I rely on the garmin....That's me below now when I do hear the dogs "jump"....

[mike martell]

Brad

When you get your post typed up and completed...Use your mouse to left click and hold right on the left side of the very first letter written....you will see the letters turn blue....Go ahead and highlight the page by dragging and when highlighted, simply right click and hit copy....Then hit submit at the bottom...If your post screws up you can always go back and hit paste again and not lose your entire post, you can repeat this until your post is accepted....If I can do this you can too.....

[Varminator]

Also, If a dog smells a bush about 18" or higher, with his or her head tilted up and under a little, there is a "Damn Good" chance it's a cat. If the bush is lower and he/she smells down there is a Damn Good chance it's Not. Thanks for the info on POST!

[1bludawg]

Brad,I did the same thing on my last post on this topic.I didn't have the heart to retype it all. I blame my dumb smart phone !Well I'm off to exercise my dogs .

[Varminator]

Most dogs will eat cat scat ( the Lord knows I hate that) and few will eat coyote scat.
So if you see the dog pick up the treat, get there and find the scratching or racking to help determine the way the cat is headed.

[Emily]

I was a classical musician long before I had my first hound, which may have helped. I found it very easy to "read" them as long as I just listened carefully. They have slightly different intonations for everything they chase--bear, coon, bobcat, housecat, the UPS guy, their favorite neighbor, coyotes, and even a special booger bark for snakes. After I knew what the first dog was saying, and learned what the second dog meant by listening to him when he was with the first dog. The length and quality of the silence between barks is as important as the bark itself. When they are on something unfamiliar, I can usually tell whether they think its a predator or something non-threatening. If its a human, I can tell whether or not they are eating.
Now that I am going deaf in one ear, I have a lot more trouble locating the sound, but that's what Garmins are for. The tree switch on my Garmin is always going off because of the steep grades in these hills, so I don't pay much attention to it.
My hounds live in the house, and they have separate sounds for "time for dinner," "play with me," "share your food," "don't leave without me,"etc. The range of vocalizations in hounds is just amazing. When the younger dog doesn't want to come in from hunting, the older dog has a special tone for reprimanding him and telling him to get his ass back to the truck.

[Old dog]

for the young hunters. a cat sprays upward and every thing else in the woods piss downward. this explains what brad is saying about smelling the top or bottom of a bush or branch. and like mike said, a dog reacts differently to cat scent than it does to canine scent. their reaction is what we call a tell. we all have been frustrated by a young hunter going along with us and running a young dog and not seeing the tells. usually it looks like his young dog is going to start ahead of the broke dog and his ego don't let him see what is really going on. most every dog has tells if you watch them, for instance I remember a dog brad had named Kelly. Kelly would almost get on her belly like she was going under a fence when she smelled a cat on the road then shoot off the road. when we seen her do that we knew we were going to a tree shortly. most dogs will tell you when they are about to screw you on trash when they first hit a track too. ever notice how ole blue will look at you before he leaves on a mystery race? it may be just a quick glance but he will tell you if you watch. or maybe the young dog is roading ahead a little and hits the track first. ever notice the old dog kinda stop just a little when he gets to the track? may just be a hesitation but he will tell you that this a start of a rodeo. the frustration comes at this point when I scold them back the kid is thinking I don't want to see his super star out do ole blue and he pouts for a hour or so. lol. this is more apt to happen when the kids young dog is really starting to figure things out it seem to me. any way, brad asked us to post about reading dogs and i think it takes experience to get a good handle on reading dogs. another example of the value of reading tells was the time my old dog lucky told me he smelled a bear on the rims of the salmon river. we we're lion hunting and it was late when lucky kind of slowed down and turned his head sideways for a second then went on. my boy had a young dog that was showing a lot of promise and she wanted to go on it but I scolded her and went on. my son wouldn't talk to me for a long time but he eventually told me that it was impossible to tell what a dog smelled just by watching him. so he agreed to go to the tree and get my dog if I would let his young dog start the track. long story short, he had to go almost to the river to the BEAR tree and didn't get back till almost daylight. he asked me how I knew and I told him that lucky told me it was a stinky old bear by slowing down and turning his head with caution. all dogs have tells imo

[come-hunt]

Wow! What an interesting topic, I've been reading dogs ( birddogs ) for years but they speak another language. Now that I have hounds, I'm learning a new language. Please keep this going while I learn.
I ain't no youngster but I'm not to old too learn.

[Emily]

The real problem is that each individual dog has his own "tell" for everything. Its hard to say what to look or listen for in general--you just have to know your dogs and learn from them. The older and better dogs love to rat on the youngsters, so pay special attention to what they are saying!
I bought my younger dog from the south, and he didn't know about bears or porcupines. It was a lot of fun watching him learn. The older dog actually put the younger on his first bear track without any coaching from me--started the track, then went to get the younger dog to show it to him. The first time that the young dog was on a porky track, the older dog came back to me and you could tell he was laughing at the youngster and telling me something funky was going on. Sure enough, when I caught up with the youngster, he'd been quilled.

[Varminator]

Old Dog, I never seen Kelly wag her tail on a track or scent. When she smelled where a cat had sprayed or catch-able cat scent, Her tail would curl a little and squat kind of like getting ready to jump then gone looking for it. She was tight mouth and didn't spend time tracking a cold track.
How I trained her to tree, was by using a bell to find her. Hard but worth it!!!

[al baldwin]

The real problem is that each individual dog has his own "tell" for everything. Its hard to say what to look or listen for in general--you just have to know your dogs and learn from them

Emily you are correct on that. I have an old hound at my place, numerous have seen him box a track, get off the box stand and kick with his front & hind feet, make a mark like a dog coyote in breeding season, then take off working an old track & several times jump and tree a bobcat. Can/t say for sure maybe a yote has used that same spot, however it is a trait he does often & no he don/t have a mean bone in him. And for the past five years or so i have hunted with him, never seen start a coyote & he does run grey fox. Al

[Old dog]

see what I mean mark about brad being more senile than me? i had to reread my post to make sure but i never said Kelly wagged her tail, i said she dropped down and shot off the road. this proves he is starting to show his age more than me but I still love him..lol man thinking of that Kelly dog sure brings back some awesome memories she was by far the best cat dog I ever hunted with, and she threw cat dogs too!!!

[Varminator]

Skip or Old Dog, I was just stating (because you failed to) that she didn't and most all dogs do wag their tail!! Sorry If it went over wrong and it may be the lack of the Brian Cells you where talking about earlier?..lol

[mark]

The easiest dog to read i ever owned was a 1/4 Trigg 1/4 Collie 1/4 Rat Terrier 1/4 French Blue female. When she came off the box and ran up to a bush she would stretch out like a pointer and look over each shoulder at the other dogs and shout (this is where it gets amazing) CAT ON FOUR!....... Reeeaaady BREAK! Sure made getting young dogs going a breeze. Wait a minute i think that may be a brian cell malfunction???????