The Ultimate Bobcat Dog, PART ONE...

[Dan McDonough]

We're going out for a Christmas fox today and maybe bobcat if there's time. Merry Christmas to all.

[twist]

What bobcat dogs on fox!! Andy

[john porter]

Well Dan, how did the hunt go? Cant wait to get a few more months on my cross so I can see what I got going. The 8, turned 10 weeks old today and are running and exploring every chance they get.

[Dan McDonough]

The hunt did not materialize. I roaded the dogs through one of the very few good spots for grey fox around here and did not get a single promising tail wag. We only got out for a few hours in the daylight so I'm going to go out later tonight to the same spot and try to get something going while I still have some freetime. There was not one fresh cat track on the whole loop that i could see either. We've had some weird weather here and the animals have changed the were they are traveling quite a bit. So far that has been to my advantage but not on this day.

[Dan McDonough]

Well, at least my friend Floyd Green's girl friend is on the ball with the camera. He sent me this nice picture of a brother to Tommy and Vicki named Ace. Floyd has Ace in with his pack of hounds in the S.W. hunting lions.

[Dan McDonough]

You just have to love that double suspension gate!

[Dan McDonough]

Here's another:

[john porter]

That's one awesome looking machine. You got something good happening here Dan.

[not color blind]

That sure looks like a running machine.

How many cats have you had them on, and how are they doing on them?

[twist]

How many cats have they treed so far? Andy

[Dan McDonough]

They have not been on many at all, I'm the mommy at the house for a while. I'm getting out maybe three days a week but still getting out some. They have put their first one in a tree but had difficulty locating it...not a word out of them about it though. That's not the whole story on that but it's all I'm willing to tell until I see more. I think they will catch quite a few critters on the ground if they are alive very long, They have snatched a few things out of trees, does that count for anything? What I'm really waiting for is the first time there is a difficult, circling cat and a decent turn in to it. I don't really want them to catch these things on the ground regularly so I'm hoping that they get chewed on a little and back off. Tommy is all in but I have hope that Vicki will have a little more pull back in her. As of today most of their best moments have come when they were out together but I'm going to start turning them out one at a time and see which one rises and which one falls.

If that goes as well as I think it will I'm going to have to start thinking of part 2 really quick.

My next move will be to get one trapped and fool with it in a tree. They are not natural tree dogs but I'm going to see if that matters all that much. It wouldn't be all that much of a big deal if they will learn it quickly...after all they are half border collie. What if we don't need a "tree hound" to do this? What if it was just a matter of learning. Treeing and locating are definitely a separate thing and how tree hounds locate varies a fair amount. I'm going to find out. Watch out because this could get real interesting before Spring hits.

[merlo_105]

Dan, How old are them two prospects now? How many is not many? Is that just turnouts on tracks or caught cats? Wouldn't you get a better judgement running the two together side by side. Situations and turn out's are going to be different in each race so not having them there competing together is going to be tough. Also are they running with your Leopards and your just turning out when the critter is jumped or are they in there on the trailing as well. Were the leopards there when the Prospects didn't locate and tree? Anyways interesting topic, hope all is well and things go smooth. Keep us updated.

[twist]

I am one to believe a bobcat hound has to have natural ability bred into them to make outstanding cat dogs. Also I believe a dog can be taught to tree but for them to be masters at locating and treeing in timber big enough for the cat to hide it has to be bred into them. I believe you have a lot of work ahead of you best of luck. Andy

[Dan McDonough]

I'm staying away from the mention of numbers. Mostly to keep from attracting attention to my activities and partially because it's been discussed to death that there are just not as many cats treed here as in other parts of the country. At this point it's also few enough to not really matter and once I get started, people will keep asking and once it gets past 5 I'm likely to not remember the right number. I've only kept track of one season in recent times and that was the last year I hunted my Rachel female for a full season. We only get one kill tag for one cat about every 9 years at the moment so unless I hunt for others I am just walking away from cats one after another. I hate to say it but it's getting kind of boring in a way and I'm working pretty hard to switch over to grey fox and not worry about bobcats for the most part. The only reason I have for chasing cats right now (I have found several new pockets of grey this year) is for this experiment. In all reality, if my dogs do well on greys, I'm sure they can make cat dogs so I guess it really doesn't make a difference.

I like to run all of my dogs solo about half of the time just to see how they handle themselves and to keep them making their own decisions. I judge my dogs more heavily how they do alone than how they perform as a team mate. I like the one dog one animal kind of way of doing it.

I hunt my dogs just about every way you can think of except for off of mules. I don't like hoofed animals and hoofed animals don't like me. Any how, it keeps me from getting fat.

No, there were no other dogs present when the lurchers didn't locate.

I hope you'll try making one of these for yourself one day. They are a lot of fun and not like any other dogs I can think of.

Andy- If I had to pick one dog in this world to have to teach something that wasn't purely natural to it and hope that it could perform that task to an acceptable level it would be the border collie. The interesting thing is that if you have one smart enough they may just be able to perform that skill even better than the natural simpley because they are thinking and are likely to find other clues and uses them. I can't say that will be the case yet but I can say that I doubt I'll be without one of these lurchers ever again.

[twist]

I have had border collies for 20 yrs as my farm dogs yes they are extremely sharp dogs and yes they can be taught to tree by sight and when other dogs are treeing they will join in. But if one is depended on sight treeing here it would make for one poor season. Also it takes a fairly cold nosed dog here most days just to get the cat up and running. So in my eyes the ultimate bobcat dog if any has to have a good nose with great locate and tree ability along with some brains. If one lacks any of the three its not ultimate. Good luck on your adventure. Andy