How Long Did it Take You?

[LBell]

Ok, just wanting to know. How long did it take you all to get up and going with your dogs to a point were you were hunting on your own and making a fair percentage of catches of what you turned out on?? I am not asking those who went out and bought made dogs and got to it! But those who got started or started over with pups. Started from scratch and made a pack of dogs out of them. Me I am still a work in progress 18 months in progress .

[montananative]

well, im coonhuntin most the time but ive been in the game 3 yrs. i have a 3 yr ol female that was my first hound/dog of my own. she is just to the point now of lookin good in the woods, and can put coons up in most conditions.

now i have an 11 mo old who is comin along as well, and would like to be up to three dogs hopefull next yr sometime.

all in all 3 yrs to answer your question; three years untill i had what my mind thinks to be a coon dog. she was runnin coon by 1.5 yr, but three yrs till she is nearly finished out. i learned more from my first dog than i could have every imagined, now i feel more confident in gettin my new pup goin.

i was told time and time again to buy older, trained dogs, adn i may have had more fun right off the bat, but in the long run im proud of what ive done with my dogs, and wouldnt have done thing any differently

[BlacktailStalker]

Picked up my 2 dogs at 4 months of age.
Worked them on trainers for just shy of 3 months (around 15 trainers, 3/4 of those coons. Only never found one of the "others")
Had a really frustrating cat season during their age of 7-10 months but managed to get them under a few cougars and 1 bobcat.
Spring bear had them under 3 bears in the first week of opening and one was bit through the face and BOTH were terrified of bears after that.
Took almost a month of reintroducing them to bear scent by walking in to other trees and allowing them to have as much time as needed to get them firing on a dead bear on the ground before they'd BOTH finally commit to a race start to finish.
From their first dump outta the box around late april to the first week of June they treed 21 bears on 27 tries or so.
In those 6 failures they were ledged out 2 times, heat exhaustion once(pissing blood and puking bile) trashed after/during a 9 km bear race on 1 skunk (I say they quit that bear because the skunk was "easier" (Good times KKiKP ) quit one mean bayed up bear at 11 months, first for sure bay up that we confirmed as we saw it (had started it with 5 other dogs and were the only ones to stay with it for as long as they did, I was proud but they still quit)
And one we call the glacier bear as he ran a fallen tree across a ravine, gained an hour lead by the time we got them across and the rest of thats another looooong story but techinically I intercepted them and pulled them off several hours later and finally they also got schooled by this same bear again (ran the same route)
If there was a tree made there has never been a time either one of them didn't make it and always at the same time.

I could care less about bears and do it to keep them in shape (ok I lied I could care less about them before but man they are a LOT of fun) and so I can learn more, this winter on cats will tell all I guess. We have really sloppy wet snow conditions with freeze thaws every day so they still have a lot to learn/show me.

Today (I believe) they are 14 months old and my short hound history is just 10 months of that.

That being said I've had a lot of help from a friend, answered every question I had and had input on everything that I may not have figured out on my own as early as I did or gotten the potential out of my dogs as I have.

Starting out with 2 puppies was one of the hardest things I've ever taken on but I think it taught me a lot.
I hope to add third dog to my pack eventually.

Have they made it ? I bet most would say no because of how young they are so I'll say no too.

[pegleg]

time is relative it depends on many factors .game availability and species. hounds started with, your experience, and region your hunting in with a few other things thrown into the mix. So go as fast as these will allow but don't think it will be overnight. It took me four years before I could catch cats in AZ with any consistency and that was the easy ones.

[Big Mike]

Took me 3-4 years to able to catch with any consistancy. Went through a lot of dogs and miles and frustration but training and doing it yourself is the best way to go IMO

[nmplott]

It took me about 22 months to get some consistency. I beleive that if you asked how much it cost to get to that point our numbers would be outrageous, enough for some of us to look back and think...are you kidding I spent that much. I got my dogs has pups in fact each time I attempted to get anywhere I got pups, I went through several breeds and these Plotts that I have were the ones that were easier to train and had brains. From pups you have to feed them, keep thier vaccinations up and just play with them, then to get them trained I had done some work myself and had paid an outfitter to help with some more and then worked them myself again. All this adds up to some serious money.

Took me 3-4 years to able to catch with any consistancy. Went through a lot of dogs and miles and frustration but training and doing it yourself is the best way to go IMO

[Buddyw]

That's a Good question..

5-7 years and counting.. I've Gone through a few that wern't good dogs, and I've "ruined" what would have been a good dog in the process..

We pretty much had to start with a Clean Slate with young dogs two years years ago.. After we learned all the Bad habits we had caused our first couple years and dogs, and the old dogs were teaching the young dogs those bad habits.. It was easier to start from scratch again..

And Depending on what you consider consistant.. I"m still a long ways from being done.. I'm still weak on allot to do about cat hunting... (striking, Trash, and the hard races, and Locating.. Hmm.. Come to think about it.. that's pretty much the whole damn Cat race aint it.. )

[BlacktailStalker]

Buddy; how'd you ruin a dog, if you dont mind ?

[Buddyw]

Buddy; how'd you ruin a dog, if you dont mind ?

Mostly My lack of experience... and my Trash breaking ability.. I wasn't able to consistantly get and keep her on Good Game. She ran a Bobcat, like a Deer, like a coyote.. Full speed and not too many losses.. So I was always scared to Push the button.. "HOPING, It might be a bobcat..!! " it was always a crap shoot, and sometime she would show me the game and others she didn't...

Basically I've come to realize that this dog in the hands of someone with experience would have made a Hell of a Track dog at the very least. She could Pick up Loses like nothing.. If she would have been Trash broke at a Good age.. there's no telling what she "Could" have done..

Hard to trash break a dog that's been running trash for years and getting away with it.., Same thing with striking off the box.. If She wasn't so dang confused I garantee she would be my Best Strike dog.... But She needed my direction when she was young.. And I was doing everything wrong..

(she was hard headed, and smart too.. I remember a couple times that when I shocked her she would switch to silent trailing until she was out of Shocking range How that bitch knew what range my shocker had, I'll never know.. But I swear there were night when I though she finally got enough and was coming back.. Only to hear her open up on the next ridge.) As a Beginer... I just wasn't ready for that determination and drive.. and I wish I could have directed it better...

So.. I just wish she wasn't one of my First dogs... I wasn't ready for that caliber of drive and determination. She's taught me more than I've taught her... And she never seen her potential, because of my lack of judgment in the field.

Now that I've seen some other dogs, I want a Do-Over with her.

Buddy

[BlacktailStalker]

Frustrating I can imagine.
When you find another dog like that you'll know it and capitalize on it now.

[LBell]

I don't know what the heck I just did, but I hit the backspace and lost everthing I had just wrote and it was a long thought and I suck at typing, and no nothing was highlighted. If it comes up somwere sombody let me know please .
Round two I guess, I had two reasons of asking this one was to see about how long I had left . The other, in the begining I met a kid who to put the before typed long story short, had alot of dogs that all had his hunting buddies brand on them, his buddy could house them all so he passed them on to this kid so he could make money and still hunt his dogs. The kid thought he knew it all, but treated his dogs poorly and new little but made it a fact to critisize the knew guy and his two young pups.
Oddly enough that was probly one of the best things that could have happened to me. I learned what I would never become in this great sport, him and his freind. I realized that starting my own dogs on my own with a little help from those willing, was the best thing I could have ever done. I have learnd more about myself and my hounds then I would have buying made dogs that new it all already. I have learnd a few do's and some do not's, I can say I know what my dogs are doing and what there after by the way they sound, and the way they carry themselves when they come back. I have come to love hound hunting and it has become part of me because of what I have had to do up to this piont, like I tell my wife I have come to far to turn back now! I don't think other than to save a dog that i will ever get anthing other then pups and start them myself, its the most frustrating thing but one of the most rewarding when they bring something to tree.
I actually think I will always be a work in progress, I will never know it all but thats part of the fun I think sometimes. As far as the price goes as mentioned before I think I would make myself sick, the time,gas, tires, truck, box, collars,ect . I would be a richer man with a nice unscratched truck with a house with a neat lawn and animal control would have not idea who Lance Bell is . Thanks guys and I am sure there are more of you self made guys out there, lets hear it.

[Ike]

I buddied with friends and road along on lions and bears on and off for years before I ever took a pup, but hit the ground running when I did. A guide buddy gave my son a bitch pup which I ended up training and hunting. She went to her first bear tree and stayed all night, then finished on her first snow lion off a kill. On her second lion hunt, the old dogs took the backtrack from a loop the lion made and that 14 month old bitch of mine went and treed the lion by herself, and she never looked back.

If there was such a thing as a natural that LionHeart bitch of mine was just that. I worked her on coons all summer until big game season started and she hit the ground running by catching her own game..... But I knew or at least understood the game and where to find it as an observer before I ever fed, trained or hunted a hound..........

I also had a friend who was an outfitter and lion guide who answered any questions I had and pushed or fed my thirst for knowledge of the sport--everybody should be so lucky!

ike

[Buddyw]

Frustrating I can imagine.
When you find another dog like that you'll know it and capitalize on it now.

I'll probably try... I do have some Hard feelings about her also.. Kinda a Love/Hate relationship.

I'm not sure she didn't enjoy running game more than Tree'ing Game.. I just never really got the chance to figure that out with her with any consistancy...

[catdogs]

2 years, we were guiding, running every day regardless of conditions, that made good dogs (they were solid at 18 months) and was great experience for us!

[tntoutfitting]

Same for me catdogs, about two years, without tracking collars to boot and training pups almost as dumb as me (boy you learn stuff the hard way doing that!) and another two before I felt like I'd arrived, for sure me and my mutts still have there days......

Here's an easy way to tell if you're doing any good:


.....if folks are beating down your door (friends , family, clients...whatever) to want to hunt with you, you've arrived.

.........if anyone you 'beg' to go with you always has an excuse not to go, then your not there yet!