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Thanks orbowhunter!! That was exactly what I was looking for. How hard is it to train a dog to rig bobcats? I mean do you think this would work in the south east? How many cats do you guys have per square mile? We have approximately 1 per square mile where I live. I would love to try this, but not many doing it in my area. Anyway, thanks for your input!!

Tim

Hey Tim,

I am by no means even close to expert, I have been lucky to have a couple of good mentors, and a good dog to teach me.

There are some very good bobcat hunters on this forum with decades of experience. And I would tap into their knowledge.

Some of those guys are Mike Leonard, Spanky, Ezra something from South Dakota(sorry), and some others.

As far as training a dog to rig, I have heard many different theories on this. I took the advice of others and bought a finished rig dog from a hunter (jcathunter) who hunts in the same conditions as me. I spent many hours talking to him on the phone after buying his dog, and I didn't catch my first cat with that dog until about 3 months of hunting him. I listented to him, and went down to just Gunny and my young female that was striking coons and treeing awesome already. I paired those 2 up, and now I am getting results. I think too many young dogs is a common mistake people make, and I was no exception.

I made alot of mistakes, but listening to other houndsmen helped me get on the right track and catching cats.

I think the most important thing in hunting cats or any game, is having dogs that handle well, and you be willing to learn from them. That I know has helped me the most.

I believe, from hunting with other dogs and talking to other guys, that rigging comes natural to the dog, I know some will disagree, but thats what I feel. He smells his target game, and his response is to bark hard. I tried all the training deals, like putting a critter in a cage and driving by, putting up scent on a rag in the trees and driving by. I was unable to get my young pups to strike anything off the box. Heck, they were just learning how to stand on the box while driving down bumpy roads, let alone hunting off the box.

By getting the finished dog from Jason, the younger dogs have followed his lead, and have begun to honor his skill. That female in the video is less than 2 years old, and has started to rig cats recently. In my mind, she has a ways to go to make a rig because she is only rigging in response to my lead dog. I hope as she matures, she will begin to rig cats on her own. I hoped I have upped the odds of her making it because I started taking that dog in the woods at 6 weeks old. The red pup in the video is only 7 months old and just starting to make trees. That was only her second race where she made the whole race. In other words, get those pups in the brush early and give them the best they can be given to make the grade.

As far as the SouthEast, whole different story. Different conditions and terrain. I would try to meet someone in your area who is successful, and try to ride with him or her and listen to their advice.

Or, read Mike Leonards well written post on training hounds on bobcats on this forum. I dont think he mentions rigging, but his advice and knowledge on cat hunting iand training is dead on, and helped me a bunch.

I do not know how many bobs per square mile, but our bobcat populations in Western Oregon are high.

Hopefully, somebody will have some to add on this subject, and get you going in the right direction.

Nice cat and pics. things are off to a good start on the east side of the mountain too. we got one on opening day I took it off the stretcher to turn it but it is a day early so the pics suck but here they are. hope your season continues to go well.



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Nice job,

Pelt looks nice for this early in the year. How long is that cat?
Looks pretty good. Any word on prices this year???

Good luck this season, and thanks for sharing the picture.

Marc

The cat was surprisingly good for a dec.1 cat. it is about 40" long fron nose to base of tail. My guy is saying we can exspect a $400.00 average on our cats here. I don't know how that translates to west side cats.

Tim,

another good way to start cats is by roading your hounds. A lot of times cats will cross the same place year after year so if you just road the dogs through that stretch of road there is a good chance you will start one. I usually mix it up a bit- rig for a while then road for a while. A person can cover a lot more country with a good rig dog. Hope this also helps. You got a lot of great information earlier!

Great information for a new guy. It is much appreciated!!

Tim

We just got back from a week of hunting down south. Not as much luck as you guys but we did manage to wear down the dogs pretty good..

Thanks to a couple of Don's dogs smart enough to turn a track around with allot of pressure on the back track, we did manage to see a cat Saturday..

We trailed a couple yesterday morning.. Don't think we got the first one jumped before it was heading to an area that I didn't want to catch a cat in.. and the second cat went up into the crusty ice and torn up what little dogs we had left... so we packed up and Headed home this morning. I'm Hopeful that the dog will heal quick for another quick hunt or two before work monday!

A bad week of Cat hunting was still much better than a good week at work!

Marc, glad to see gunny all healed up looks like your off to a good start. Our season opened the 1 of dec. and I have cought a couple good cats already price is suppose to be great on cats again this year. later Andy

well in washington we can run couger if you draw a permit hopefully will be getting a permit for bear for weyerhauser

well guts the way i got my dogs to rig is to put them on the box and have someone who can drive the truck and you sit on the edge of the box andpet them and encourage them dont know if any one has done this but it worked well for me but not every dog will strike off the box i have three that will and 2 pups so i trade the pups in and out they both strick anything they smell and rig great