BigGameHoundsmen.com

The thread about dew claws got me thinking about tree climbers. Whats the good and bad about it? I personally like the drive in my dog and I haven't broke him of it. I hope he dont get hurt though.

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk 2

Tree climbing dogs are bad news in my opinion. Climbers will cause you problems. I have seen hounds climb juniper trees and run a cat right out into the hounds on the ground. This causes a ruined cat hide or possibly getting a cat bite hound and possibly causing a serious infection. I have also seen cats make it to a rock pile and get into a crack and impossible to retrieve causing you to loss that fur.

For some reason Lions seem to make a hound want to climb a tree to get at it. Again it could turn ugly quick for the hounds on the ground. I have yet to see a tree climber stop climbing they only seem to get worse as time goes on.

I have a few that do it, and I hate it. There are alot of problems that it causes, my main concern is falling out of a tree, and it will happen.

All of mine but one do it. Related or not. I don't like it one bit, but have never seen anyone break a dog of it. Bout the only thing is they will stay down when I am around, and come down when I call them. I can't blame a dog for wanting to get what its after, and being smart enough to realize that it CAN climb up closer. It's been the death of a lot of dogs, and all of mine have had some close calls. But what can you do? I have seen it in all types of dogs, and it's not always a learned behavior.

I have a female that does it. I've tried lots of things to get her to stop and like Redwood said, all I can accomplish is for her to stay on the ground while I'm there and come out when called. She's had a few close calls, but none have been too serious yet. She did get swatted and bit and chucked out of a tree by a female lion one day. She had quite a few puncture holes in her neck and her ear got tore up, but she landed in a good sized snow drift and didn't break any bones. She got lucky and didn't learn a thing from it. Too bad....




Scott/

My feeling is the dogs LIKE to do it. Once they figure it out, they do it more and more.
I had one that would trail a coon through an apple orchard up the tree, to the end of the limb, then drop down where the coon did, even on a cold trail. Those were easy trees to climb, but he got better at it. Pretty soon he was shinnying up branchless trees like a monkey to get to a treed coon.
Its dangerous. They're all better at getting up than getting down. It sure is fun to watch a hound with the drive that causes that, though.
That coondog of mine that climbed was pretty careful to jump out uphill or into water, or whatever he could do to lessen the danger. In the worst case, he would jump down on me to break his fall. He never did hurt himself, but that was just luck and because he died young from other causes.

IMO it's not good.. I've only had one dog that does it and I HATE it.. She's fallen out of a tree 3 times.. she's broken ribs, her sternum and this past winter had an infection in her lungs (almost died) that they said could have been caused by one of her falls- or it could have been something else.. Nothing I've found can stop it.. I really have no doubt she will kill herself that way one day.. The farthest she has even fallen is about 60ft.. She got lucky on that.. she landed in some deep snow and ended up with broken ribs and more..

If you can break a dog off of trash you can break him off of tree climbing. I have done it and will not put up with a dog that climbs.

live to hunt wrote:If you can break a dog off of trash you can break him off of tree climbing. I have done it and will not put up with a dog that climbs.

I have 2 dogs that climb. I had 3 that climbed but as a 6 month old pup he fell 40' and survived thankfully didnt even break a bone. We were on steep ground and I think that broke his fall. He dosnt try to climb much anymore but will if the tree is right. What I ended up doing was buying a 100' of parachute cord and a dog harness to lower them out of the tree ( save hanging them by the neck). Obviously I can controll them from climbing once Im there but I Would like to know what your method is to break em so they dont do it when your not at the tree for 2-3hours.

live to hunt wrote:If you can break a dog off of trash you can break him off of tree climbing. I have done it and will not put up with a dog that climbs.

How did you do that? I have thought about it but was afraid shocking him as he climbed would be associated with treeing, then I thought about trying to teach him to sit and tree,
Then I gave him away after he broke his leg and one of his litter mates died from a fall.

We've talked this over time and again in our circles.
IMO you need to prevent this problem from getting out of control right outta the gate,if it starts,get to work and get your control back.
You can not hope to do this in a hunting situation when your dogs are at the tree hours ahead of you.You need to fix this problem at home where you can control the circumstances, if you can fix it at all.Too many guys forget that you need to work with these dogs away from the hunt too.
If you have a compulsive tree climber you need to keep it away from your young dogs,bad character corrupts good character.A climber will teach other dogs to do the same and pretty soon you have a pack of them.
If there is an easier way to deal with this problem I'm sure a lot of guys would love to hear about it.

Ya it sucks to come home and see my dog roosting in a tree. Lol. Ill start working with him on it.

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk 2

I have shocked tree climbers until they fell to the ground. All they did was stop climbing at that tree. I'm not sure there is a way for them to stop unless they eventually fall to their death. I wouldn't worry about them stopping treeing from being shocked. I have done it to a few bad climbers and it didn't hurt them from treeing, but it didn't stop them from climbing either.

John Wick commits in one of his books about tree climbers. Mr Wick claims he has yet to see a training method that would break a tree climber. I do know it gets worse as time goes by, because they get better at climbing.

If someone has a method to prevent tree climbing, I'm sure there is a lot of hunters that are all ears.

Unfortunately I hunt where dogs don't need to "climb." All they have to do is stretch out and they can be at eye level, lol.

This picture was at the last tree I had on March 2. The tree was at the edge of an overgrown creek bottom. You could not see the lion from the creek bottom. Climb up the hill a little, and there is the lion perched in the top of the tree...

With a widowmaker running right up to it, not 7 or 8 feet below the cat. Problem is, where the farthest dog out on that widow maker is 10-12 fee above the creek bottom. Kinda hard to keep them from "climbing" when all they have to do is walk out on a log.