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I got my first hound about a month ago, a 1 year old walker. I spent the first 3 weeks or so just working with her on becoming my dog, making sure that she knew I was boss and trying to get her to follow commands and such. Then I worked her into trailing bobcat scent using the training method I found on this forum. After several trips out I was pretty satisfied with her ability to follow scent. I bought a used astro 220 with a couple dc30 collars. Today I took her out to an area that I've seen several bobcats in, and let her show me what she was made of. She kept running way too wide for my liking but came back every few minutes almost like she was "checking in". After hiking around for a few hours and not finding much of anything I picked up and decided to take a drive. I was looking at mud and snow patches looking for tracks to no avail. on my drive back home I noticed a track on a puddle that didn't have tracks on it the first time I had driven by it. I let the dog loose, and she tore off on the track like she was shot out of a cannon. After about a mile and a half I could hear some pretty serious baying going on. I was sure that she had caught the cat. When I came up to the tree I found my dog 6 feet up in the tree baying at absolutely nothing. The only thing I can figure is that she must have had the cat in the tree at some point, it jumped out, and she was still convinced that it was in the tree. I had a great time and am waiting cut the snow to fall on Saturday so I can give it a more serious try on sunday. If anyone has any insight into what might have happened at the tree I'd love some possible solutions.

nevermind......i went back out to find a magazine that i had dropped and reinvestigated the tree, i couldnt take the simple answer of "it got away". I climbed up into the tree where she was baying and found quite the little hole deep down between 3 branches. I now believe the cat was holed up hiding and i just didnt look hard enough. I am now comfortable with saying that the hunt was a success and I was the one who dropped the ball, not my dog.

I cannot say for sure, but you could be right. Bobcats usually find the best spot they can "hide" in a tree. If you have a tree climber like you said, this dog could possible pressure a cat out of a tree as well and being inexperienced got hung up there. Sounds like a good start either way!