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I want to know ones opinions on this hunting strategy. Do u guys who let your dog strike and jump off and run freely think that when ur dogs strike 15 times in 5 miles and unload and load back up that ur striking a bobcat everytime. I would have to say one will never strike that many of any animal ever in that little distance. unless trash

if a cat walks a road for a mile and pisses on 6 bushes on that road , my dog will strike those 6 bushes 3 days later. so yes when my dog strikes its going to be a cat 99 percent of the time.

jc

i agree with you jc, lions are even worse. if you hunt your dogs enough you know when there striking or just f...ing off and a lil buzz or tone will usually end that.

If the dog is striking a lot and is straight, don't let them back up on the box. Keep roading them for a couple hundred yards. They are more likely to start a track honestly on the ground if there's one there. If they do it all night or day, then you got some babbling issues and or too many inexperienced dogs up. This is a common rigging issue where it is a matter of figuring out what the dog(s) is thinking and then correcting the behavior. This is where experience with dogs comes in handy and even then it is tricky. Good luck.

B

a dog that rigs old tracks can be a pain in the ass . u have to stop and watch them run back smell a bush, tell them to load up , and start driving again. that took about 2mins. when i hunt a new area i might do that to 3 or 4 different cats . even though the dogs cant start them i know those cats are there and can come back and run them on a later date. as far as it being a bad charectaristic i guess it depends on what u want out of your dogs. i would rather rig tracks i cant run than drive by tracks i can run.

jc

JC: I agree with you a good strike dogs will hit every piss bush that it goes by. I broke a dog from striking piss bushes years ago, it was one of the best cat dogs that I have every owned by the time I got done with it it would not strike a bobcat off the box. Be careful what you expect out of a dog you may get what you think you want. Dewey

Dewey, I ruined a good strike dog on cats the same way years ago. There is a big difference in a dog when it is striking a track than when a dog is just barking on the box. If you hunt a dog-s enough you get to know a runable from a unrunable strike and you can choose to stop or not (there are exceptions to that too, conditions,scratch,wind stike etc etc) There is also a fireing order in the dogs on different aged tracks that can tell you alot. I have a couple dogs that will hit every carcass and gut pile they smell. Aggravating yes but i start guite a few cats off them this time of year especialy. Anyways the strikes i like the best are the ones when i cant tell who hits it first and by the time i hit the brakes they are all headed off the box before i get stopped! Lol

I recently had the opportunity to hunt for two weeks with two gentlemen in a area with a very hi cat population four different rig dogs were used. The dogs knew there business and these men knew there dogs. We struck several cats that we could not start from the ground, load dogs go again. A rig dog warming up a track on top of the box is something to see. having the knowledge of when and when not to send dogs seperates houndmen from the rest of us.

A good way to test if your rig dogs are striking cat scent or barking to get on the road or etc, take them to an area you know cats are not using at. Then if you are striking a bunch with no track advancement odds are they are nusiance barking. With the good box dogs I have owned when in an area with heavy cat sign I just let the dogs road. Lots of times you can find a scratch or etc if you try. Found that to work well for me. I am no not sure if cats can be boxed all areas. But I know for sure not all dogs learn to rig. Dosen/t mean they are not good dogs, over the years seen & heard of others that just never caught on. A good box hound is usually in demand in this area & will bring decent money even if it has some holes in it. The best way to get dogs boxing is to haul them so they can get a nose out of the box from a young age. If it is in them it should come out. Have known hunters who let them box from inside the pickup cab in the cold winter. I/ve owned good box dogs that I could tell by how excited they boxed if was a runnable track. But the best two I owned boxed just as excited on an old scent as a hot one making it impossible to tell without letting them on the ground. Just my experience. Good luck Al