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Sometime neccessity breeds adaptability. sorta like Ike said dogs that can do it all.

I remember reading about Lester Nance's orginal White River King. Back in the depression and slighlty post depression years coons were very scarce in many areas of the mid-west.(Most of them probably had gone in the stew pot). So they hunted a variety of critters for hide money. He said old King would run fox or rabbit by day if he wanted him to and coon at night and never bark on a rabbit or fox track once he knew what he wanted. I think once a dog figures it out he will do what he thinks you want.

My old Big John dog was a great coon dog if you wanted him to be he could catch lay up coons that most never knew excisted. He never had much love for coon hunting but he would sure catch them if that is what you wanted to do. He was as good as lion dogs get and seldom did they escape. Bears oh my! No telling how many bears he caught alone, rigged or freecast didn't matter. Chaser would have a better idea but it was many tons. Bobcats? You bet! In fact given his personality and even though he was regarded highest probably as a lion dog bobcats might have been his true passion, but we never spent a lot of time on cats alone. He was the thinking kind of dog and they really seemed to turn him on. But he was a one dog pack that would hunt them all. Not many will to his level. I sure haven't had any since.

Unless you are a competition hunter or have a crap load of dogs, most people should have dogs that can run a variety of game. How many species is debatable,but it should be a few.

When I read this I had a different idea on what the question was. I like to have dogs that will run a few diffrent (desireable) critters. They all need to run bear, but some will run cats or yotes (or try to anyway). And some won't and they stay home. I'd like for them all to be interchangeable but that isn't the case. Each dog has a preference or knack for doing well on certain critters. I just pitch them out, see how they do and sort them through. I'd like to have that dog that is better than the rest on all critters but I've yet to find it.

The second way I thought about the question is how dogs do on certain parts of hunt. Some are born trail dogs while others are gritty or fast or rig like a fool. I'd like to have dogs that do it all better than the rest from start to finish, but from my experience those dogs are few and far between. And if you lose one or get one hurt like that without having a replacement your success really suffers. Most times I've got a mix of different traits and qualities and together they do pretty well. It sort of depends on what I've got at the time. I've kept dogs before that wouldn't stick around long now, and I've also got rid of some that at other times I would have loved to have. It just depends on the circumstance.

I got to thinking about this post a little bit more and I might have another twist to it see what you think.

I think after a period of time big game hunting with hounds most hunters have a tendancy to prefer one species over another and probably as time goes along the select their dogs more along the lines of the dog that works vbest for them where they are for the species they prefer to hunt most. this doesn't mean they quit hunting the other but they lean more towards one of another. Even outfitters who have to run say lion, bear, and cat usually excell on one ov er they other or they have enough dogs they split packs up to handle this. Say Van Johnson for instance is a good example. Van has to hunt them all and he enjoys them all but I bet if you got a hammer lock on him and tickled his feet long enough he would concede that he prefers one over another. But then Van keeps a bunch of dogs and you usually won't find him out running bears with his old dry ground lion dogs very much. Or that cat dog or two that excells probably isn't going in on the wild hogs and such.

I know from my perspective I use to hunt all of them excluding hogs never did that one. But due to time , space and inclination I no longer hunt bear or coon, so I am not so much worried if the dogs I have are great at that. I mostly just hunt lion when I can or when I am called to and I select my dogs around the criteria for that. And even though they are scarce as hens teeth around here now I can't turn down a good bobcat track so they better at least try. LOL!

I think it has alot to do with the specialization issue.
You don't see many General Practictioners for Doctors nowadays.
" Jack of all trades, master of none "
I personally won't even let my cat dogs so much as smell a bear track.

I honestly dont' have the space to keep or the money to feed individuals. A dog that dosen't do it all spends alot of wasted time in the chain, and room and bord ain't free. If I go they should be able to also.

I want 4 number one dogs that will catch whatever I don't break them off of.......and can do it individually or by themselves.............consistently and in "style"


Sure is nice to dream..........

i think that a dog that will do it all is good if thats what you want out of your dogs ,but i want a dog thats good at the game i hunt its the same as if i was to breed i would look for the dog that would have a high standed or only hunted the game i hunted , dogs that do it all i do not think help the breed and in the end will bring down the breeds standed as a hunting dog
Ian

LBell wrote:I honestly dont' have the space to keep or the money to feed individuals. A dog that dosen't do it all spends alot of wasted time in the chain, and room and bord ain't free. If I go they should be able to also.

Ain't that the truth! I'm lucky enough to live where we have year round lion seasons, so I suppose a guy could keep some straight hounds on lions. But what a waste that would be to turn your head on bear and bobcats..........

Personally, I believe a veteran hound can not only tell the species it's after but probably the sex and whether it's ever treed that bear or lion before. And if that old hound switches onto a different track he damn well knows it. A really great hound will lock down on a tom lion or boar and run it through other lion or bear tracks and stay put on that animal (the one it was put on).

Yup, us poor boys out west probably better use their hounds on different game if they're gonna get much out of them........

ike