Roy Sparks - Starting Fresh

[Roy Sparks]

Friends my two current hound teams trail our lynx, jackal and leopard.Some hounds are more particular when the choice is either jackal or lynx.They all love leopard they get besides themselves and even the hounds that dont have such good noses do suprising stuff on those big cats in terms of trailing - Wicks Hounds.

I have a faster hound strain ( Wicks Hounds ) that are intended for pressuring jackal as they cover a lot of ground and do so fast, some of these hounds make good cat hounds to.But that is not their intended purpose.Our teams comprise of both cold trail hounds and the pressure hounds which stay in the cold trail pattern while these cold trail hounds are doing their stuff.At times where scent is holding better they pull ahead and shorten the distance the cold trail hounds respect the experienced pressure hounds and will honor their call.When the trail heats up the pressure hounds come into their own and will do what they are bred for, they really put the heat on and are normally the dogs that jump and pressure the cat to hole up or bay on the ground or tree.Some of them do not use their voices but that has never been a problem as the cold nose hounds are not far behind and hold the line anyway.

When a cat knows hound voices and starts moving off before being jumped these quite hounds often get up on that cat and before it knows it has two or three really mobile hounds on its tail.When chasing on sight these hounds do use their voices and especially so when they are holding the target at bay.They have shortened many hunt a for us which saves the other hounds in minimising them from being worn out.Especially important when we have like 3 hunters in camp each wanting a trophy male leopard in 14 days.

I now have some promising young cold trail hounds that I want to introduce to only cat trailing.I have some good old hounds that have a preference for cats which I intend to use to help these youngsters get started.

I want to imprint the cat signature into these new hounds brains.I read Mike Leonard's advice and like what he has to say, its more or less the way I started my original hound pups but I think Mike has taught me a few lessons that make sense.

Does Mr. Grawes lures for hound training purposes work and if so where can I get hold of this stuff.Does anyone know how I could make it myself, hell I'm sitting here in Africa it's going to be some chore to get this stuff everytime I need it.

Would appreciate some input.

Regards - Roy Sparks.

[Hipshooter]

Roy,
Very interesting Post
Tell us more about your hounds

Here is address
Grawes Lures
PO Box 306
Mahpeton ND 58074-0306

[DerekE]

Roy,
Ever use running walker type dogs on those jackals or lynx?
Derek

[catenaround]

the phone number to Grawes Animal Lures 218 643 3292 hes in north dakota.give them a call and talk to him great guy probly help you out