Rigging bobcats

[hoyter]

For those of you who mostly rig bobcats off of a truck or other vehicle. Do you feel as though the dogs are striking a track or smelling a laid up bobcat when they strike off of the rig.
Thanks

[al baldwin]

I can/t count myself as real bobcat hunter now days, in the past I have trained some very good rig dogs. The good ones I owned rigged bobcat scent of all kinds, yhey rigged every piss post in the country, cold bobcat tracks, hot bobcat tracks. However, no watter how good they are at rigging they sure can miss some bobcat scent & in my experience it is easier for a dog to rig a piss post than a hot track sometimes.

[Bluedog88]

I think mine are usually scenting the cat. let one off the rack and ran nose up to the cat and caught it.

[macedonia mule man]

It looks to me , dogs are rigging air current scent. It might come from a track, or the animal or whatever it messed with.

[hownhunter]

My dogs strike the best when it is a red hot cat or a pile of cat shit in the road that they love to eat.

[dwalton]

rigging bobcats  is a long topic all of the responses that I read i think are right depending on how you hunt and the type of dog where and when you hunt.  Demoss in washington was the first that I heard rigging bear as a teenage I hunted with a top bear hunter in western oregon his dogs just started rigging bear on there on a hole new way of starting track opened up. Tom barns was probably the first cat hunter to rig bobcats. i started trying to rig bobcats with a good rig for bear but she never did. One of the young dogs in the early 70' i notice that would get real excited on the box but not open putting him down we had a good bobcat track. Fast forward 55 years i have had many good rigging dogs for bobcat. they vary some will hit only hot tracks smelling the bobcat it shelf some will hit a week old piss bush and some will open on everything. I have seen dogs rig a bobcat across a clear cut go 400 yards to the far edge put there nose down and trail a cold track they could not complete. I have seen them strike and go a 100 yards to smell of a scratch with droppings give a tail wag and come back. By knowing your dog by how it acts on a strike as to what you have. In my opinion a good strike dog is worth its weight in gold for the time and ground you cover to get a cat going. Dewey

[scrubrunner]

I’m not an exclusive bobcat hunter, I run more gray fox than I do cats. None of the hounds I’ve had in the past 10 years have had noses as cold as dogs I’ve had in the past. All the cats and fox I rig are pretty hot. The biggest problem I’m having right now is dogs rigging trash, they don’t run it if I turn them out but they open on it in or on the box.
I have a rig rack but hardly use it anymore, my experience has been they rig just as good out the side of the box.

[macedonia mule man]

I’ve noticed the same thing scrub, dogs seem to be a lot streighter on the ground than on the box.

[al baldwin]

Yes getting dogs to rig bobcat scent only was the hardest part training good rig dogs and I never considered dogs that rigged off game from the box then did not run it on the ground to be finished box dog. Those type were not fun to hunt with and refined was the term I used describe a finished box dog and that took patience & a firm hand from the trainer.

[dwalton]

I finished a rig dog once al you had a grandson I think i decided that if she opened on the rig that she should be able to trail it. Was I ever wrong I finished her to the point she would not open on anything. Heres what I think dogs open on the faintest scent hair trigger and jump down to see sometimes there got a good track ,a piss bush cat or coyote, a lion or what ever but they are not sure what until they have a chance to check out what they thought they had smelled. Fast forward 40 years a strait bobcat dog that is a good box dog will hit scent often mostly bobcat mine will hit a lion, coyote or what ever but when they hit the ground and get to the track it is easy to tell if it isa bobcat they will hit many bobcat from the rig that they never open just try to work a track that can't be worked. I consider my two strike dogs to be cold nose taking a track for miles before they jump the cat. They winded scent in the air and gone into the wind far farther you would think before hitting the track. dogs have far better noses then you can even imagine the key being able to communicate what we want and expect of them. Dewey

[al baldwin]

Dewey I certainly realize dogs could be broke to a point of not rigging at all and yes agree that would not be desirable. But I never had one that quite boxing after I corrected them for striking those coyote post. I hunted with some hunters that I considered better hunters than I, that allowed dogs to strike every coyote post When asking why they did not correct them they said afraid they would stop boxing. The Skinner hound was a hand full when young and yes a great grandson of your female. But with some patience and at times a firm hand broke him from striking those yote post and he still would strike on the old cat scents, to the point when I got into an area knew cats were using heavy would put him down to road thru those areas. Recall when Tom H. and I first starting hunting together He made a statement, when that dog strikes its cat, Sure can/t say that was always the case but he was a pleasure to hunt with and I had others before him I broke form striking those yote posts. Just speaking on what work for me, to each his own. Al

[macedonia mule man]

Al, did he have a different bark when he rigged the hotel?

[macedonia mule man]

Should have read yote
 

[al baldwin]

No Muleman he did not. Like Dewey stated it can down to reading dogs action, little luck and setting e collar on high and letting him no I was serious. Plus I kept a few yote traps set in my hunting area and gave all dogs a little reminder each time had a yote caught. No matter how well broke a dog was never hurt to remind them not to mess with yote scent. I was not the best hunter in this area by far, but it drove me nuts to have dogs barking off box on yote scent as there was likely at least 10 yotes for every bobcat. W hat made it extra difficult yotes & bobcat sometimes used same scent post. Al