when buying a dog???

[runemall]

I am looking into buying a finished dog i have been looking for strictly lion/bobcat dog. I am not having the best of luck in finding what im looking for, so my question is could i buy a good broke truck to tree bear dog ? would it take much to get him turned into a lion dog i have some pups that i have high hopes for and need to get them to some trees this year please give me some advise


thanks

[Jeff Eberle]

A good broke bear dog in my book means that it will only run a bear.. With season just around the corner you have three choices 1 Pay BIG MONEY for a Lion/Bobcat dog. 2 Find someone that will let you bring one pup at a time and hunt with them. 3 Wait for snow and start walking out tracks.

[fallriverwalker1]

just what are you calling a pup age wise . I have dogs that caught solo cats at 9 mos . bears at the same age you don't need an older dog . just go hunting find a track and turn them loose . if they don't start it help them /.most of the guys on here started that way / not the easyiest way but you'll learn a lot more about your dogs the hard way . not trying to be sarcastic that's the way I learned jim

[runemall]

thanks jeff for the reply i will buy a dog when i find the right one within the right distance from home. what do you mean by walking out tracks? are you saying to walk the tracks with my pups until it has enough scent that they become interested and chase it? I have tried to lion hunt a little bit but i have not had much luck as my dogs i had were coon dogs and they wouldn't run a lion track but they would sure tree coons.

[fallriverwalker1]

never seen a dog that wouldn't take a cat track a lion scent is a whole lot stronger than any coon. same as a bear . back in my younger days I have walked many amile eith my dogs teaching them to trail. had a grand nite female .that probably as many cats as coons

[Jeff Eberle]

Yes. But I wouldn't turn more then one loose, Too many young dogs may stomp out a snow track. I'd hunt them one at a time to start till they get the idea.

[fallriverwalker1]

jeff to this day I still only have two dogs that I hunt , have a 4 month old puppy i'll be starting this winter , never liked hunting to many dogs to hard to know which one to follow first / still have to many split races as it is

[runemall]

thanks for the reply's guys!!! and fallriverwalker1 im not bs'n i had turned my old dogs loose on cat tracks that were made during the night and i got there around 8 am the next morning they just would do nothing with the tracks i dunno why maybe they though they were not sapose to chase it im not to sure i would encourage them and i walked one 2 winters ago about a half mile and they just ran around pissing on bushes maybe they were just worthless hounds im not to sure but then again i could take them down to the river and turn em loose and they would tree a coon and if a coon ran across the road they would rig the hell out of it and then tree it when i cut em loose so anyhow i got these new pups and im ganna try to make it work come December hopefully i have good private ground were no one else can hunt and im ganna run the roads every day so i know exactly how old the tracks are.

[1bludawg]

runemall,buying a dog is risky business especially if you want a top dog on any game. I could probably write a book on people that got burnt buying dogs .A friend from Utah just told me about one last weekend .This has been said before but i would check the reputation of anyone that has a dog for sale .It will save you a lot of time,headaches and money .Your best bet is to get a couple of pups out of well bred,game catchin dogs that tree the game you wanna hunt.In all honesty you would probably have them trained before you found a good dog to buy .On occasion you can find good dogs for sale but they are rare!

[cory]

I'd just look for a nice pup trainer, something around 8-10 years old. usually you gotta pay anywhere from $500-$1500. I know it seems like a lot to pay for a dog you'll only get a year or two out of but I promise you that you'll be money ahead trying it the other way. That old dog will teach you and those pups more then any person could in that short amount of time plus you'll be catching game your first year into it rather then most likely your third year at least. I don't know what your pups are like but do the basics with trainers and such. just don't over do it with them and stay away from drags, those pups don't need it. If you need help finding a pup trainer let me know, I do know of a couple in Utah.

[BIGBLUES]

I have finished dogs and started dogs that I would possibly sell. Prices ranging from 1000 to 4500.

[southern fox]

My take on buying a dog ! no one hunts the same as you do, were all different with our ways and training dogs ! what suits you might not suit me , all dogs have faults , not a perfect one out there, we all over a period time look over the faults, and learn to deal with them , if there not really to bad ! paying big money for a broke dog is very risky business, when you haven't hunted with the dog a lot ! remember what suits you might not suit someone else !! happy hunting

[Kevin Jackson]

Where do you live in Montana?

[Dozer]

It seams this subject got a little off track with some. There is plenty of good dogs to buy out there. I would recomend not buying a dog unless you get to hunt them for 30 days. Anyone with any confidence in their hounds will give you this and most experienced houndmen that sell dogs will be able to match your style of hunting with a dog they have for sale. I sell plenty of dogs and they all come with a 30 day no questions asked guarntee.