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hi all, you may have seen i posted about getting my boy a plott pup to train on cats. well he told me the other nite he wanted to put him on coyote. he has been told he'd be lucky if his dog wernt killed. i know they can be but is that a normal ocurence. the pup slept with him till he was full size its like his little brother lol. im thinkin i wont force the issue its his dog. just wonderin how often any injuries happen.we can still have fun on yotes an i can get a cathound in the future. sorry about all the questions but i have never been cat huntin thanks

dogs do get injured hunting just about anything. Depending on where you are, they can get hit crossing a road, on train tracks, crossing a swift flowing stream, on thin ice, or by the game itself--even coons. Some lion hounds live to a ripe old age. Some don't. But anyone who said he'd be lucky if the dog didn't get killed probably wasn't a hounder.
I hunt my two--that sleep in the bed with my husband and me--on bears. I don't worry too much about them getting injured by bears because I believe that most injuries from bears happen after the game is wounded, and we just chase, we don't harvest. However, I do worry a lot about the hounds getting hit by a vehicle or shot by a cranky landowner.
Not sure whether you're more worried about the cats or the coyotes? People usually turn out several dogs at once on either cats or coyotes. That is safer for the dogs.
Hounds love to hunt, and sometimes they die or get injured doing what they love. Its a risk we take every time we turn them out. I'm not sure that coyotes are much safer than cats. Depending on where you are, they sometimes pack up and can injure a dog running alone pretty badly.
Your best bet would be to get the boy as well informed about the risks as possible, and hook him up with some experienced hounders to run his dog with. Let him go hunting with other people's dogs a few times, so he knows what its like and how much the dogs love to do what they do. If you tell us how old he is, we can recommend suitable books, etc. too. If he is old enough to understand the risks, I'm sure he'll enjoy training the dog and going hunting. A little savings account to help pay for vet bills wouldn't hurt either.
We're all heartbroken when we lose a good dog, but most of us take some comfort from knowing that the dog was doing what it loved to do.

Just saw your other post saying you're in Waldoboro ME. I spent some time there in my youth. My coon/bear hounds run bobcats here in the Catskills occasionally. Bobbers are dang hard to hold on one tree, and not likely to turn on your hound in my experience. Its too easy for them to jump tree to tree, which can make for a long hunt. They are tough critters if the dogs bay them up on the ground, though.

My bet is the hound's biggest danger will be the porcupines in that area. As I remember them, they are huge! There's going to be at least one long session pulling quills!

thanks for the reply emily, ive been running beagles an hounds for quite a few years im up on the dangers. road kills ect. ive only ever seen coyote chace a hound at nite. i just wondered if cats were more apt to fight. i mostly shoot the yote before the dog gets there, some dogs will fly right in to a bayed yote mine doesnt.just gets a taste when there down. my boy is 10 an been huntin with me several years. matter of fact he shot his 1st yote on his 10th b-day. i let him skip school so he could take a gun his first legal day.before that he has seen several kills an what not. me personly i refuse to worry about any injuries to the hounds what happens happens. i might get hurt too. just dont want the boy too upset if his 1st hound gets tore up. and i know zero about cats so thought i'd ask. i know a cat can kill a dog just not sure if a fight was common.any info helps though and i thank you kindly. ive been bear hunting just once with hounds that was great my friend got a 215lb. it was really cool watchin the bear in a tree.

and about the porkypine lol ive pulled enough quills to make a quilt lol. i shot so many of them darn things omg. i wrap the dog up in an old blaket, sit on him an cut the quill they pull easy that way. probly u knew that trick anyhow.

I had a neighbor out chasing bears here last summer that had a hound split on a coyote (she was also used on coyote). That yote ran the hound to his buddies, and she came in with four yotes on her backside in the daytime. Since we aren't allowed to carry during bear training season, the hound owner had to beat the yotes off her with a stick. That made for a pretty big vet bill, and she may never run fast game again.

Sounds like your son is old enough to understand whats happening. If I recall correctly, Big Dan in Where the Red Fern Grows is killed by a bobcat. It could happen, but the odds aren't worse than they would be for most big game. It is harder to run bobcats than just about anything else, however. It might be a little frustrating for a youngster. Sounds like you're the one who wants to put the Plott on cats. Coons might be more appropriate for a ten-year-old. Wouldn't want to frustrate him and have the desire to run the dogs burn out!

There is always that possibility but in my eyes it should be no more at risk chasing bobcat than coyotes. In all my years of bobcat hunting I have never had a dog killed by one but a few good war scars. later, Andy

sounds like the same risk's either way. it was my sons idea to try cats after i showed him tracks just happened to find pups for sale close to his birthday. i love to hunt so the idea sounded fine to me. im gonna let him choose , i figure its his dog its his choice. this way i can tell him good info. i think the yote training will be easyer for sure havin a hound already, saves a lotta walkin lol. im pretty sure it was a couger in where the red fern grows, we got 2 books an i think 2 movie versions. with 4 sons an 3 still at home everything is hunting related lol

Great post there Emily.

How much does that Plott weigh? Does he come from a bear fighting line?

I myself have never given much thought of the possibility of my dogs getting hurt by a coyote or bobcat. And they never have. I got hurt a lot more playing football than my dogs have ever gotten hurt by these two animals. I worry about traps and roads and I beleive that is where most good bobcat dogs are killed or badly injured. There is a lot your son can do toward breaking his dog from putting his head in a bucket for beaver meat, or walking into a cubby set, or dirt hole set. There are coyotes that become nearly impossible to trap. You can make a dog that is nearly impossible to trap.

You also can help him break his dog from unfamiliar automobiles. Stake him by the road, and give him a hit on the training collar every time a car comes by. Ideally, stake him where he has a chance of hiding. If he is as far away from that car as possible, preferably hiding, then he gets a free pass. If he is near the shoulder of the road, he gets hit with a hard shock.

Boy, I sure WISH I knew a big coyote that would turn on a dog and whip her. If I was shocking the dog at the same time, she might get the message to leave them alone.

I know there are coyotes caught by plotts when the snow is deep, but if it is not, I dont think you have too much to worry about. Deep snow is when I hear about Plotts killing coyotes. I seriously dont think you have anything to worry about if the Plott has any size at all.

Every once in a while I have someone tell me how a bobcat layed on his back and ripped at a dogs stomach with his back legs. It is at that point that I begin to doubt they have ever caught a bobcat. It is a bad judgement on my part, because they well may be telling the truth. But I can only judge by my experience, and I have never witnessed anything even romotely similar.

With one dog, if he manages to get a bobcat bayed, the hard part will be keeping it bayed. That cat will slip away every chance it gets. And the most amazing part is, your dog will then loose it and have to start all over again. I dont know how bobcats accomplish this, but it is extremely common. They spend all day every day hiding and being invisible. They are MASTERS at it.

In my experience, a big coon will hurt your dog more than any bobcat I have ever witnessed. A dog can be extremely tired and beat up after a solo fight with a big coon. In my experience, bobcats are very fragile by comparison. I actually really wish they did not die so easily, because I never want my dogs to kill them, but they do. But I have never had a solo dog be able to hold a bobcat in one place long enough for either one to do any damage. Two dogs can be a much different story if one of them is a header and the other a healer.

One thought for your son to consider is that many bobcat hunters do not allow their dogs to run coyote. Working a cold bobcat track takes tremendous concentration and work on the dogs part. If he is easily distracted by a much easier coyote track, you will likely have a real hard time catching a bobcat. The other point to worry about is after the cat is jumped and the dog gets thrown and has a hard time lining out the track again or locating the cat in a tree. A hot coyote track at this time will also end your bobcat hunt for the day.

thank you all for the time and info. my boy has decided to try him on coyote, red is approx 40lb. not a big dog tall an lean, he may muscle up im not sure. he from a bear line not sure about the fight.about the only time i see coyotes caught they are wounded, most times there's several hounds on them an they run anyware from 50 ft to several minites ahead of the hounds. i run my walker alone quite often an he's not big or very fast. if one bayed i dont think he would fight. it will be interesting to see if the plott likes the yotes.as far as a coyote that would fight, spring with pups........ some of my friends hounds have been chased out of the woods,i only know of just once though.i like to finish off the coyote before the hounds get there let him chew a bit. be my luck he'd get an injury an b out the season if i left him a wounded one to fight. other friends let the hounds finish them.now i just need some snow cover its to crusty to run and a bit to windy today about -15deg with the wind chill.btw i belive there are a few guys around with hounds that catch an kill. i've never hunted that way not sure what they run for hounds. i like burnin gunpowder seems more fun too me. thanks again.

We hunt Bear, Bob, and Yotes with our dogs. Very few injuries at al have ever come from a Bob or Yote. Did have one get a couple of bite holes today from a yote doing battle. Still that is very rare. A few scratches here and there is about all. Bear on the other hand is darn right dangerous. Dogs get killed by bear every year. I carry a stapler for just that reason. Cannot say i have ever heard of a dog getting killed by a BOB.

If you have a dog that will take a DEEP bite in the chest area, and hold it, the fight will be over in five seconds. Such dogs are not very numerous. Large coons are tougher than bobs.

briarpatch