Decline of the bluetick hound.

[Mt. Dog]

I have raised and hunted a few fullblood Cameron hounds. Some have worked well, some havn't. I am not a pro trainer by any stretch but I spend quite a few days in the hills after lion and bobcat. Had a Hammer bred Dean dog that was slow, but always had something in the tree when I finally drug my slow rear end there. Crossed him with a Bam-Bam bred walker from Doug Meyer and kept a female that has been a pretty solid cat catcher for me. I bred her to a PR Cameron male. sold some and kept one that has been catching some cats on her own since about one year. She wants to be fast but when she makes a big lose, she will make the circle and look again. I think she will make it, to satisfy me.
I have heard some horror stories about Camerons and some great successes. If I Had to make a choice, I would go with a half Cameron, but then I pay for my dog food.

[Moonshiner]

My pup is supposed to be second generation Rambo and Utchman bred, what can ya tell me about those bloodlines?

[drew]

I have a male that is 1/2 Rambo and 1/2 utchman and he trees very well, but is silent on track. A lot of people like that sort of thing, but it doesnt really fit me. He goes good, but just doesnt seem to have the drive that my female has who is 1/2 smokey river, 1/2 Cameron (as i understand it Rambo is out of smokey river blood i think).

Anyways she strikes good, has a lot of drive and he fits in perfect because where she lacks on the tree a hair, he fills in. Both dogs have great temperment though, the female that has some cameron is just grittier and has more drive, the benefit of the male being so tight lipped is that he is not a me too dog and if he tree's you can count on somthing being there for the most part.

The father of my male was a dog named Bogie who was i think pure rambo and was supposed to be pretty fast, but that trait didnt fall on my dog. he's really big, can run really fast but doesnt trail very fast. Female is exact opposite, small and trails fast. i have a pup out of them and i am a little anxious to see how he turns out. Anyways hope this little bit helped.

[Moonshiner]

well so far on just the drag ive done, my male trails silently, by trees real hard. Hes pretty big and his dad was at least 90lbs, and he is fast, but still a youngn so hopefully he will get faster, he is also real smart and easy to train.

[drew]

sounds like he should do good for you. my male i started on drags and he would do about the same like you said, but he ran a live coon 10 times harder and with more excitement than a drag and that could turn out the same for you. I know this post started out about the decline of blueticks and i would just say that i have been really pleased with mine.

I know that sometimes there are just born naturals, but i think the most crucial part about training a pup is in the the older dogs that it runs with. that may be common sense but if someone you hunt with has a tree fighting POS, or a dog that false trees or runs a lot of trash, i just wouldnt hunt my pup with them.

Trash will happen, but i met a great lion hunter that never has to trash break dogs, he just filters the young ones in between the older dogs. He said that he rarely has trash problems because the only thing they run is cats and that all they know from day one. i'm farely new at hunting hounds, but i enjoy getting all the knowledge i can from the guys who have been around the block. Anyways sorry if this is all too familiar.
Blueticks though .... Love'em...seen some great walkers and red bones that i would love to have, but so far i have been happy with my blueticks. I posted some pics of my male and female on the bluetick forum when i was selling some pups, you could see if our males look at all similar, sounds like they have similar blood.

[Gary Roberson]

Judd Cooney called me yesterday and was asking me some questions about coyote hunting to be used in an article for FUR-FISH-GAME magazine.
I told him that I had not been calling lately but had been running my hounds a little. Judd was an old houndsman when he worked as a Game Warden for the state of CO. He got to talking about hounds and competition hunting. I let him have the floor as I wanted to see what he thought about that game.
He agrees with most of us in that the hunts are no way to judge the abilities of a hound and the hunts tend to favor the type of dogs that most of you biggame hunters would not feed. Dogs that cannot or will not cold trail, too independent and too aggressive around the tree. In my opinion, most of the guys who have gotten into this game in the last 20 years don't know what makes a good dog. It is not their fault for thet are programmed to think that the dogs that win the competition hunts are the one you want to breed to.

[Jim Meacham]

One gentleman out there in Idaho would happen to be Mr. Ralph hatter running them old Vaughn/Sabastian dogs. You know them old slow loud mouth ones. But I wouldn't by anything else. Actually I can't say that because I have one upson and two Hammer dogs. but the rest are vaughn and sabastion. I also have a plott and run with a few new style blue dogs and a couple of walkers on coon and bobcat. Them vaughn dogs put it on them other dogs about 90 percent of the time.

[cougarhound]

this has been some good reading,very informative, etc etc, i myself love the big dogs especialy the blue's.

[HoundDawg]

Miguel,

What's up with this talk about the "decline of the bluetick hound"...? I guess my buddy didn't get the Memo... because his pack of blue dogs has seen a helluva lot more bears than anybody else around here!! They can decline after this weekend if they want, but they better be showing us a few bears here the next couple of days.

I remember back when I had some blue dogs. I could actually catch something then. The decline I've seen isn't in the blue dogs, it's in my own kennel.

Here's a couple of bear dogs that never got the word about the decline.

[Mike Leonard]

Bear dogs? Ha! Ha! this is an old post. Sam was a blue dog but I don't know if you would have called him a BLUETICK?

I am so far out of the loop anymore I am not sure a bluetick could find me on the wide circles I turn these days.

Dawg

[HoundDawg]

Bear dogs? Ha! Ha! this is an old post. Sam was a blue dog but I don't know if you would have called him a BLUETICK?

That picture was a couple of Tony's dogs. And you are right, my blue dogs were kind of a mixed up bunch, half red anyway and some of the littermates were solid red.

So I doubt the diehard bluetick guys would have claimed any of them as their own.

But I recall awhile back Truman had a little blue pup that came off your place and he was one good looking little SOB. (Much like myself)

I got a little blue pup down at the farm right now... I know one thing that hasn't declined with the breed. Their mouth. That bitch hasn't shut up since the day I brought her home. No wonder Tony was so anxious for me to come and get the dog.

[Mike Leonard]

Well Dawg that little Blue pup was out of a bluetick female for sure but his father was Little Blue who is still my lead dog at 11 years old. His mother was a redtick mixed up lion hound that i raised and his father was a walker spotted dog that came out of Jeff Allen's horsetrailer. LOL! Inside joke for those of you who know Jeff.

anyway I will say my first really good hound was a registered bluetick ( Vaughn/smokey river). If i could have found some more like him it would have saved me a lot of time and money but i went thru dozens and never found another like him even of the same cross.

wonder what ever happened to that blue pup?

[razorrb]

LOL!!! The ol' horse trailer trick.

[Oldmanindeepsnow]

YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME eather you dont get out much or you have a small circle of blueticks you hunt with. Or you like to stir the pot with a big spoon. And how do you get a hot nosed hound you cant breed out the nose.
Sombody has to much time on there hands

[cobalt]

Amen