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has anyone but me had a problem when running a bobcat ,if the cat gets a little distance on the hounds. then the cat hits a road and runs right down the road and the hounds have a tough time picking up the track

it seems to be a common feline complaint in some areas

yup even the best of the best have trouble trailing on asphalt

Are you talking asphalt or gravel? Either way i suppose its due to lack of underbrush or grass to hold the scent. I really dont know and im just guessing but, that is the only logical explination that i can come up with. I pretty much hunt snow for the most part and dont run into this very often. that is just this pups opinion

Roads can be an obstacle for the dogs. In the fall the cat doesn't even have to be that far in front of the dogs and it can make it difficult. Dogs can be trailing fairly well and hit a road, and act like there was never a cat there. I have put the dogs back on the box, drove around the corner, and have them strike and trail out on the track again. I don't have much of an issue with it in the winter but when the dogs run down the road kicking up a dust trail, the conditions are a little harder in my opinion.

Longear,

Hitting and then Running a Road is one of the Three worst tricks a Bobcat can pull on a Pack of Hounds!

It is also a Trick that once it has proven successful, will be used again and again by this Bobcat. The Cat may have lucked into doing it the 1st time, but the Cat is quick to learn that when something works…..keep on doing it!

We have “Spoiled” Cat that we have run numerous times, that know that they can buy some time to put the needed “AIR” between themselves and the Pursuing Pack by taking a ROAD TRIP.

If it happens to be Dry when the Cat hits the road; it really does not matter whether it is Paved, Gravel. Or Dirt….you can pretty much Kiss the Kitty Goodbye! If there is Moisture and you have an experienced “Cunning Runner” in your pack….well….sometimes the Kitty gets the surprise.

Good Running to All!

C. John Clay
Dads Dogboy

As John Clay said a cat hitting the road is what cats do, if they got a way once, it be comes a learned escape route. Some dogs are better at finding out what happens than others. Two things happen at a road, you can have a big run away where ever dogs go down the road barking and goes beyond the track, not good, cull or shock the ones causing the run away. The dogs take time to find the track when they do if it is 10 minutes or more to find some dogs won't take it, they came into the road on a jumped track so they are looking for a track going out of the road that is a hot track, by now it is not. There is one more thing that happens. A frustrated hunter picks up his dog. That's not going to teach them how to find it. I have walked up and down roads with the dogs helping them find it out. With help they can learn what to do. The other thing that happens is that I or you got in front of the dogs so we could see the cat cross the road on a jumped track. The cat seen us and turn off, the dogs over shot and came into the road. The cat turned and went down it's back track. The worst lose there is for a dog to figure out. Any of these things you can teach your dogs to over come. A good track dog cat smart can breeze through these thing with very little time lost. Dewey

I would have to agree with dogboy and dewey as this is a common trick for a bobcat to pull and a good cat dog that has been through the rutine can pick up this little glitch most of the time but in the past few years the cats have learned to run the road (snow conditions where tire track is in snow covered road) and stay in the packed track for a distance that is unbelievable and the dogs that are experianced at this will no way run the road far enough to find where the cat has made his get away. man I love to hunt this crafty bobcat.

Them slow dogs will sure educate them cats if u hunt the same place often

I like a little running dog in my dogs. Every body likes a fast dog but don't discount the slow dogs. I have owned a couple of slow dogs that could catch a lot more cat than a fast dog. On several occasion I have caught the fast dogs off a track and let the slower one on and caught the cat after we had been running it for hours with the pack. If the pack is making little loses the cat can stay ahead all day. A slower dog that does not make loses but makes all the corners and puts steady pressure with get the job done quicker. Dewey

Mr. Dewey,

Sorry to here about your Cousin at Leola! Also heard that Teddy Dale is having some health Challenges!

Great advice to Longear about the Cat hitting the Road and having a Hound Dog Runaway.

That NASTY doubling back trick a Smart ole Cat will pull….going right back in to the Cover….right between Hounds is the toughest for a pack to overcome!

Now about SPEED or SLOW……what we need is a Dictionary with “Bobcat Only” terms defined……maybe Buddyw can put one together for all the Genres of Hound Hunting!

To us a Slow Hound has no purpose as that is a sure way to give a Cat the AIR that it needs to pull a Houdini! Now a Track Running Hound who moves a track right along…never going back to Bark….always advancing the Track can exhibit what I will define as “Tactical Speed”. This type of Hound is vital in any Bobcat Pack anywhere in the Country the Short Tail is Hunted. In certain places (South Tx being one) you can be successful with just that Style of Hound.

Now in the Truly Thick Bad Country “Strategic” Speed is vital. These are the Cunning Runners who are always swinging out trying to Advance the Track ahead of the Pack and shorten the distance that the Bobcat is ahead. These are the kind of Hounds that will swing out when they sense that a Road is near and whack the Cat when it appears then put it back in the Cover where the Pack can handle it.

In Florida we have Toms that are wandering Romeos who will be a long way from home. We have had these Cats run as much as 7 miles down a road before leaving for a Pine Plantation to make its stand. In those 7 miles there was plenty of opportunity for the Track to get Cold and Stale.

Methodical (SLOW) Track movers would have = a Lost Cat.

Strategic Speed, backed by Tactical Speed, put him on the Box!

Just what we find where we Hunt!

C. John Clay
Dads Dogboy

John: Slow is a relative term. By a slow dog I mean one that can not run up with the lead dogs. If the lead dogs are over running a track or doing any thing that gives a cat breaks to catch his breath he can be a hard cat to tree or catch on the ground. A dog that is a little slower but does not make any loses with a steady pressure will tree a cat faster in our country. That dog may still be faster than most hounds. I doubt if I have ever own a truly slow dog. As far as how a dog run a track I think we are close to what we want in a cat dog. Fast, never smelling the same place twice, when they over shot a dodging cat they cut right or left to pick it up not going back. I may want them to be closer to a track then you, I don't want them to be over 10 or 15 feet off a track. I will have one in there that gets out farther but I don't them all to be that way or they seem to feed on each other and run a way from a track. I have hunted cats in a lot of places but not down south. It can really vary with where you hunt. I feel I have the easiest cats to catch here other than parts of eastern Oregon or Eastern Cal. When I hunt there the dogs run to fast and wide in the open country. They over shoot the tracks and trees there. It makes for a lot of races that the cats double back on there tracks when the dogs over run them. If the cat lines out they catch it on the ground quick. Dewey