ever have a good dog get worse?

[bobcatjack]

i found some real fresh tracks today and put my dog on them, she smoked the track out of hearing and i started making my way to her when she come back on the track and run it backwards for miles. i was pissed, my guess is the cat treed and she didnt figure it out and ran the track backwards, i should add this isnt like her. anyone else ever have anything like this happen?

[twist]

if she is an experianced cat dog this in my eye would be unaceptable start running a training collar on her and if she would do it again correct her real fast as this could become a real problem if left unatended. later, Andy

[waylon]

I had a red dog once that didnt like to tree much at all and he would rather run a back track, I corrected him several times. He quit it and would then just tree until you got there then go look for some thing else to run, the minute he saw you getting close to the tree he was gone, I culled him one night for it and that stoped him from doing it from then on . I think if I had stopped it before i did he MIGHT have made it. I am with twist here get an e-collar or whatever you use and stop it quick or it will only get worse

[MadCatter]

Had a similar incident the other night, except she ran it into a swamp of cattails. Eventually (within 20 minutes), she came back out on the same trail in. There were no trees out there for a long ways. I could hear her breaking through ice and splashing in water. This is as excited as I have ever heard this dog. It was cold and she was wet, so I loaded her and moved on. Now I'm wondering if I should have kicked her butt and put her back in there??

Sorry Bobcatjack, didn't mean to jump your post!

[pegleg]

lots of post about cat hounds back trailing.one piece of advice make real sure it is back trailing before you correct them. cats often run in circles and those circles aren't round so if you cannot absolutely determine the hound is indeed running a back track think about the amount of correction or if you should correct at all. a cat that refuses to leave one area can look like all kinds of hell when the dog is indeed unraveling a hard track correctly.

[bobcatjack]

she definitly backtracked, she never was a super tree dog, most all our cats are shot on the ground, ive never had her do this before, culling is out of the question, she is my buddy and weve had too many good times togeather, i will feed her until she dies, im hoping it was just one of them days

[NorWester]

It's been my experience that sometimes when the scenting conditions are ideal a hound will take the backtrack on a loss. Meaning, they can't find the game and the scent is still so strong on the line they came in on the dog just can't seem to lay off it, so away they go
An e-collar correction and cure? I don't know I've never given a correction for a hound taking the back track. I think that's something they need to be able to figure out on their own and if the dog is half way decent, they will. If not you have to re-assess what you're dealing with.

[twist]

A training collar is the only way to break a dog off of this, unless you are fast enough to run them down and correct it they will not correct themselves it will only get worse as time and age go on. later, Andy

[Dads dogboy]

bobcatjack,

Listen closely to Twist and Pegleg. They ae giving very good advise.

This is unaceptable in a Bobcat a Hound! No exceptions. Judicious use of the E-Collar can correct the problem. Just remember you will not RUIN the Hound by shocking it...the damn dog is already RUINED by back tracking!

If the Hound is your friend for life then make a pet out of it if you are not going to break it...or else you are going to spend lots of time in the woods communing with Nature and not much time takeing Pictures of Bobcat in Trees.

Just my thoughts!

CJC

[david]

make real sure it is back trailing .

I just love this thread because I can relate to every single post on some level. I have used Waylons method and it is very effective. I have used Norwesters method as well, not by choice, but you would be amazed how many cats have been caught off a back track. I cant always figure it out, but I know a top bobcat hunter, that Norwester also knows, who had a legendary dog that caught more bobcats than most. She caught quite a few cats off a back track. She would work it out. I know it seems like a black and white issue, but might not be.

I have had some embarassing moments when I was disciplining a dog for doing this, when it turns out the dog could smell bobcat tracks better than I can. One in particular I remember, I kept turning her around, and she would reverse it as soon as she could get free of me. I was about to pull my hair out and scream bloody murder when I noticed something. There was a faint almost invisible track on the crust going her way. The track I was trying to get her to run was deeper but older. There have been many times when a track could eventually be seen going both ways, and I just have to trust the dog. The dog is usually right.

Sounds like you are 100% sure she was going backwards though. I think all the advice given is sound advice. If she is an otherwise great dog, file the event in the negative column on the evaluation sheet in your mind, and press on. If the sheet gets too heavy on the negative side, you will probably need to leave her home or hunt her alone. This is not something you EVER want to pull a pup into.

I will be curious to know if she ever does this again. Good luck

[david]

Man, I guess this is the perfect opportunity to torture you all.

Here is a verse of a song I wrote about a dog that just happens to be called Jack

"Jack is going backwards, forget about the gun.
Jack's on the back track and he wont come
He's a cat dog, boys, and he don't ever miss
I aint never seen him do a thing as stupid as this
Jack's goin backwards you better blow the horn
Cause he's off to Californy where the cat was born.

I dont know If he's ever coming back
I aint never seen him do a thing as stupid as that
Jacks goin backwards you better blow the horn
'cause he's off to Californy where the cat was born.

im hoping it was just one of them days

Probably was. And it aint the first one of those days...

[liontracker]

Look at those tracks very carefully. I've had several instances where a cat made a track and it froze. Then later the cat went back out of there on it's own track, track for track on top of the frozen ones. There was no way for my to know or see this. Only the hound could tell what was up until the cat peeled of and started a fresh line.

[bobcatjack]

thanks for the advice, we have killed more than 50 cats with this dog so she knows how to do it right, it was 100% backtrack, im no pro- cat hunter so if she isnt perfect thats okay, we have many successes, ive never owned a shock collar but would use one. a friend of mine had a great hound that was responcible for the deaths of many cats then one day right out of the blue after 8 years the dog took off on a deer, it was a isolated event so im hoping this is what happened in my case, for the most part im just happy i got a dog i can chase cats with.

[Dads dogboy]

bobcatjack,

That is all that matters!

CJC

[twist]

[quote="Dads dogboy"]bobcatjack,

Listen closely to Twist and Pegleg. They ae giving very good advise.

This is unaceptable in a Bobcat a Hound! No exceptions. Judicious use of the E-Collar can correct the problem. Just remember you will not RUIN the Hound by shocking it...the damn dog is already RUINED by back tracking!

If the Hound is your friend for life then make a pet out of it if you are not going to break it...or else you are going to spend lots of time in the woods communing with Nature and not much time takeing Pictures of Bobcat in Tree


great words Dads Dogboy read and then let soak in. later, Andy