BigGameHoundsmen.com

Well said Warner

Stirring the pot and trying to understand something are two different things. John

To me there is alot of difference between a tight mouth dog and a silent dog. I have always thought the silent dogs were used for squirel hunting the only time you here them they are treed and a tight mouthed dog that can run a bobcat is leathal. When I say tight mouth that is to me not an every breath barking track dog or babbler as they are waising alot of time and energy that should be focused more on the catch. If someone did have a total silent dog on cats I do agree it would be hard to get a pup to fallow along and learn anything. jmo Andy

Can someone in Oregon with a silent dog please take me along this season? I've never hunted a dog that doesn't make sound on track. I have one that sings a 30 second bell on track that is pretty tight mouthed. She can tell you the story too. I always figured she had to catch her breath the rest of the time. If my blue dogs are breathing in cat, the mouthy bitches are bawlin on the exhail. Maybe I need to get them a muffler? I've been focussing on moving the track more than sneaking up on them. I've had some cats winning, so I'm ready to learn new tricks.
Sean

I am also curious where all these silent cat dogs are at. John

i have only seen the one coyote dog that was totally silent.then i see one that would bark on track once in awhile until it saw the coyote then it would be silent once it saw the coyote. then ive seen a guy who had some bearhounds that wouldnt bark until they were looking at the bear if the bear broke and run they would go silent again until they were looking at him. i sure as heck have no reason to lie about what ive witnessed.its really not that big a deal.

kordog, ive seen dogs bark there head off till they seen the bear then they were silent . lol.

jc

yes ive seen those type dogs too . sometimes they beat you back to the truck . .

I agree that much of the fun of hunting with hounds is listening to the chase but consistently catching bobcats can be a different game than running coon or lions.

I used to have a hound that seamed to easily tree bobcats. She would silently cast around checking for scent until she hit a trail, then she would bay two or three times as if to alert me that the chase was on – then silence until the quarry was treed. I too don't know how to train a silent hound-- she was good about coming when called and didn't range real far so I was able to just go out in the woods and let her do her thing. I didn't have a tracking system at the time but never lost her. She either had something treed fairly close by or we could go home when she checked in (which she would do every 15 minutes or so).

My main hound now has a beautiful bawl and sounds off every time she catches a whiff of scent. I can tell where she is and what she is doing almost every minute of the hunt. Unfortunately, bobcats can also tell where she is and what she is doing. She consistently trees coons but bobcats run her ragged!

Still --- both her and I have a heck of a good time every time we go out -- and the hunt just wouldn't seem complete without the hound music!