Trailling Sents

[three rivers catahoulas]

I have a few dogs that will start a Bobcat track, but I'm haveing a hard time finishing them. I went to countless empty tree's last year, and they were all strange. The dogs would start them like they were red hot, they would go a little ways and shut up and act lost. I figued that those cats out smarted them. I am going to try some of them trailling sents, just wanted to see if anyone had any luck with'em?

[JTG]

If you can find somone with a Bobcat leave a beach towel in his living quarters. Or Trap one in a live trap and leave the towel in the trap for a couple of days.
JTG

[nmplott]

Grawes animal scents

[Mackdog]

The scents in nitelite seem to work pretty good, but cats don't put off much scent. When you use bottled scent, it makes it too easy for the dogs. I would suggest running house cats. They don't smell much, and if given enough time, can make for a quite a race.

[spruce mountain]

I agee with Mackdog drags are to easy for started dogs when it comes to bobcats.House cats are alot more of a challenge,so Ive heard

[bad moon]

hey three rivers, i have been wanting to try a catahoula in my pack where can i find one bred to use its nose.

[three rivers catahoulas]

So far all the ones I have seen have a fairly good nose on'em, it just a hunt to find one that will flat get gone and use it. I have found two differant types of Catahoulas, the old fashsion type and the cow dog type. I have tryed to keep the cow dogs out of my lines with little luck. I have some young males I'm keeping around awhile to see what they make, and I'll be breeding a male dog I have here he's out of my Salty Dogs Hobo X Hornito's Annie cross a few years ago, he's turned out to be one hell of a dog, that was by far the best cur cross I have ever made, I'm gonna cross him into a Fachahatchee bred gyp I have who is one of the roughest females I have had the privelage to have ,the Jessmons in FL have made great dogs, her sire is QuintCh of Ch Fachahatchee's War Cloud and my Hobo dog went back to a dog in OK named CK Hillbilly who was in the woods til 13-14 catchin hogs, and war cloud is one hell of a woods dog to. With Hobo being dead this is as close to a Hobo cross as I can get, these dogs should have great noses on'em and work out well in the woods. Now I dont know about lookin up LOL I have only had one that would do that, and she would only tree for a few minutes.

[beaverbill]

house cat's

[cathuntr]

are u sure there not puting them up a tree along the way and not locating them? ive had that problem with a few of my young dogs but figure out they wasnt locating and fixed it!

[three rivers catahoulas]

Ya know they could be but every time they treed it was in a real tight stand of tree's so god knows what tree they went up, I think they just went from tree to tree. Both these dogs are young, they have beter noses then they know what to do with.

[cathuntr]

well only thing i can think of is when u lay some drags beat the scent on and up the tree and if they can tree on that one tree, thats all u can ask of them till uve caught 20 or 25 bobs! i think they will come around! just my opinion!

[three rivers catahoulas]

I think your right, they'll do fine once they have caught a few. I really havent put them on enough to say they are screwwin up yet, I'm tickled pink they're startin'em, catchin will come with time, heck they are only 2 years old, and there startin bear, hog's and Cats of the box and off the hood. So I cant really get down on'em. I think there doin every thing a two year old should do. With age come wisdom. There runnin Bear & hog's from tailgate to tree & bay so there doin great on that end. They'll figure these little kitty's out pretty soon.LOL

[Mike Leonard]

Grawes as I have said in the past is the only way to go. Also if you want a plan to start your bobcat dogs using these you can PM me and I will tell what I do and if you have the right prospect it will work.

I can honestly tell you feral cats do real bobcat prospects more harm than good. Also these urine based scents from Bill Boatman and Nitelight and Cronk are an excercise in futility unless you use a gallon and then your dogs are really not trailing the true gland scent of the critter you want.

Remember: when using drags start where you want your dogs to end up. Why? think about it scent starts fainter at the beginning and the closer they get to the animal or the jump it gets better this keep them going forward.If you do it the way you would normally think yes they will blow up hot at the start and the further they go it gets weaker all the time.

[moose]

i also use grawes too.

[david]

Three rivers, the old bobcat hunters in the area I was learning to hunt had a saying: "the best way to ruin a good bobcat dog is to run her on bear". I have met a couple people who disagree with that, but in every case, they started their dogs on the bobs and then after a couple years of running bobcat allowed them to run bear.

I know nothing about hogs except that the ones on the farm give off a pretty good amount of scent. There have been times too when I swear I myself could smell a bear. Female bobcats give off very little scent. But it is not just the difference in the amount of scent your dogs are dealing with, it is the difference in the way the cats move, and the spurs and dead ends they leave in their trail. If I have a young dog on a bobcat, and he never makes a loose, I start to beleive he is no longer on the bobcat but on something that is a lot easier to follow, and I will get in there and find out for sure, and then do a little trash breaking.

Making looses on bobcat is just part of the deal. Often young dogs never will figure out a loose, and that is the end of the race that day. Your problem might be as simple as that. You dont have snow, or you could circle the area and find the track out of there and get them going again.
even without snow, you sometimes could leash up one of the dogs and walk him in a big circle around the area. If the cat is up, obviously, there will not be a track out of there.

You start to catch the cats when a dog gets enough experience to pick up those looses quickly, and some dogs get so good at it they really dont make looses to speak of, or they keep them down to seconds instead of minutes. These are dogs with a good mind, a good memory, and they begin to predict the movement of the cat because of having run so many of them.

I have never used the Grawes scent, but if I did, I would try work up to difficult and confusing tracks, and I would do this alot:

Instead of simply turning to the right or left, stop, turn right around, come back in my same track, and then with various distances, peal off to the right or left. Help your dog learn to pay attention to the point where the track peals off, even as he comes by on his way to the dead end, then help him turn around, and come instantly back to that point. Idealy, the dog will eventually ignor the dead end spur and catch that track pealing off. This is the kind of work that begins to produce bobcats. (It is a mystery how the dogs can be three minutes behind the cat, make a five minute loose, and then be thirty five minutes behind the cat. 3+5=35, right?)

Then, if you have any rock walls, or trees leaning on a wall, take the track up the wall, then carry the drag and make a big loop to get around the wall, or better yet, climb it if you can, then resume the track away from the top. When your pup gets to that point, lead him around to the top, and help him find the track away.

As I said, I have never used the training scents, and obviously, there is nothing like the real thing. But we dont always have time to spend half a day trying to locate a bobcat track, and another bunch of time to work it and round up young dogs from their trash race. I think drag training would sure be better than the dog sitting in his kennel bored.

Actually, any thing you can do to stimulate a dogs problem solving abilities can be helpful. You can do alot of things in the yard at home that will force a dog to figure out a problem also. A simple example is, I used to put different fencing problems up for my pups. If they could not figure out how to get through the fence, then they did not eat or drink, because the food was on the opposite side of the fence from their shelter. After they mastered it and got through without a pause, then I would change it from a "find the hole" problem to "climb over the top" problem, etc.

The coolest ledge training I ever saw was a wall with holes for the dog house entrances, but the houses were elevated and the pups had to learn to manouver narrow ramps and a narrow walk way along the outside of the wall. The holes were at least five feet off the ground.

Problem solving every day.

I dont bear hunt, and largely because of what those old timers told me. The problems a dog faces in following a bear are just nothing like the problems she will face following a bobcat.