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When I was writing the exercise topic, I thought of this as well. What temperature do you hunt at generally for cats, and do you prefer a rain or dry, or fresh snow? I am getting where I could read the weather at home, and usually tell how it would be at my spots. I prefer 34 to 20 degrees to hunt, with 1 to 6 inches of powder snow at early morning. If it gets in the teens, or lower I noticed that some older tracks I could of ran if the temp had stayed up all night, were frozen and hard to get going. I also noticed if it was a fresh snow and I knew the next day was going to be clear, I would start hunting earlier(or late night) to avoid dripped out tracks in the daylight when the sun comes out.

Sorry I kinda rambled here, hopefully someone understands it lol. I am curious about the temps baregrounders of the coast and desert hunters use as a standard.

I prefer hunting bare ground but make use of the snow when it is available. 28 to 30 is best temperature for trailing but have caught bobcats down to 15 below, lion 25 below. If I am not hide hunting I try to stay out of the snow. I have seen enough snow for one life time. Dewey

What is the warmest temperature you've trailed a cat in as well? Not a I saw it and treed it type deal either please. Some trailing involved that the dogs had to work at please.

In the 80's in the desert of California and Oregon. Be very careful in those temperatures or you will heat stroke a dog. In the 90's on bear when I ran them, I keep my cat dogs a lot heavier than I did my bear dogs when I ran them. Dewey

Interesting information, you think keeping a dog down in weight helps them out in the heat or extra weight during the winter? My dogs I try to keep about just enough no ribs are showing during the season. I have seen guys with dogs with ribs barely showing saying it is optimal, I've seen some with alot of ribs which I think is unhealthy in my opinion.

unreal, i can tell ya one thing for sure. there is no way to prepare a hound for certain temps. even with two gallons of water tied to each side of the saddle horn you are tempting fate. those that claim different are truly leading people down the wrong road. and are more than welcome to show up here with in the next couple of months. and we will saddle up and head out with no water. and we will see how many hounds return to the comforts of home. the ones that make it back will be the ones that shade up every chance they get, as they are smarter then their owners. take care

If you are packing extra weigh how do you do on a hot day? I have heat stroked dogs in desert type country where there is little water. In the southwest it is a real problem. I coached kids sport soccer for 8 years. They gave us a chart with humidity and temperatures, it does not have to be over 70 if your humidity is high to heat stroke. Water and keeping cool make the difference. Your best dogs will go first. In the winter I start out having all my dogs heavy knowing by the end of season they will not be. A dog in good shape fed twice a day will hunt longer and harder. It takes a lot of energy to run there engines. If you see ribs or the back showing on a dog it tells me a lot about the hunter, he is not taking good care of his dogs. Dewey

dewy, i don't bother anymore when it gets that crazy hot. there was a time i thought there was a chance for conditioning. but had a nice young dog that was cold trailing pretty well and would hark to the other hounds when they opened get a stroke. and although managed to save her she was never wright again. she would hear the other dogs open and just cock her head side to side as if she had not a clue what all the barking was about. ended up having to put her down. even on a well planed loop, where you plan on going by tanks that you feel will carry water that they can drink from and lay down to cool off in can back fire if they are dry. a friend of mine lost a nice hound doing this last year. even though he drooped her across his lap on the mule she died before he could get back to the truck were there was water. so between the snakes and those high temps someone else is more than welcome to tree what ever they can during that time of year which is darn little. i'm not saying it is impossible. the only one that i know that does get out in close to the extreme temps is warner glen and his daughter kelly. and when i spoke to them they were taking seperate pack animals just to haul water. i don't know many that are set up to tackle that type of heat. take it easy!

That extreme heat I didn't think would be good at all. My main line of thought was October before it started being really cool weather, if 50 or 60 degrees was possible or not(not likely to catch one, but you never know!). It makes sense dewey about the extra weight bit. I really get disgusted when I see dogs showing bones myself, my dogs have access to food all day, if I think they are a little heavy I will cut them back some by separately feeding them on a dog house outside the kennel.

Well fellows here in the Southeast summer time hunting means nights inthe high 80s to mid 90s! Not just temps but HUMIDITY as well.

Condition, Condition, Condition that is the key to not having heat stroke with our Hounds. That and carrying lots of water....13 gallons is consumed quickly by 12 Hounds after a 2 hour race.

In Florida there is usually lots of water in the woods, anywhere from ankle to knee deep, this helps keep the Hounds cool but they never stop to drink till the race is over. When they come to the truck it is drink drink drink.

We now use the "Rehydrate" tablets in the water. Vacathunter told us about this and it sure has helped put the Hounds back in shape for a second race that night.

We are headed to Florida later this week, the 1st two weeks we will struggle as the Scenting conditions are always bad this time of the year, Game is not moving as much, also the Hounds have to adjust to Florida conditions. But after we are there a couple of weeks we will run one or two each night. Getting the Hounds in condition or shape means pulling thier weight down from what we keep on them in the winter. Howver this makes the Nutrition that we give them even more important, Fat over Protein is the key.

dewey i got a question for ya. i feed eukanube performance plus dog food and i bulk feed my dogs so they eat when they want some over indulge( pups mainly) but most seem to just eat when they are hungry. so my question is how do get your dogs to hold there weight cause i have 2 walker/trig dogs i have been battling this with. there ribs show from time to time and i dont like that i have been mixing up hamburger and rice and feeding that to them and seem to gain alittle wieght on and look good so i cut the hamburger and rice out and they loose it. should i switch dog foods or what.they all have been wormed and the vet says they are in pperfect health. whats the deal.

Dang it man my dogs get ragged looking fast. I can feed em meat, bread, dog food and a pound of bear fat every day and they sure show thin. In shape, but thin with ribs. I even rotate them when they get super thin. I think I use them normally, two or three races per day in snow and rigged or roaded on dry. I go out nearly every day. How much time off a week do you guys give a dog? Some of mine can hunt every day, others can, but get so thin that I give them couple days off to fatten up. They put on weight pretty fast in the kennel too. I worm them monthly cause they eat lots of cat poop. Individual dogs differ greatly I have noticed. Breeds, lines and even one dog to another. The best dogs are the worst "keepers" it seems. I think some of the high charged ones will hunt themselves to death if you let em.

I answered this post earlier but guess it disappeared in the complexities of the world wide web. Heat is a hard thing to judge with out being there personally. Humidity has its own effects. Then through in altitude and terrain it get more complex. The intensity of direct radiation from the sun is a huge factor. So ambient temps are a half hearted explanation as why a dog over heated. I've never seen a real good cat dog that was carrying fat and I think body type on the dogs part might be misleading. All my dogs have visible ribs to one degree or another. If their spine is clearly visible your nutrition is off. If the hip bones are prominent they might be slightly visible also although hipbone visibility can be misleading. Temps I've run dogs issue free on pine needles or dirt in semi shaded areas with temps over 90. With few issues. I've had hell during monsoon at lower temps. Some of my lion bred dogs over heat Much easier. I've had dogs in rock covered areas start suffering at 70 degrees. So its got much more variation then simple ambient temps. I've seen big heavy black and tans pure breeds hunted in mexico loose every ounce of fat in the heat but still pound away day after day in hot humid shady environments. But get sick as hell in cooler 70 degree direct sunlight type hunts.