Loving it!

[tradslam]

Am I the only one who loves hunting and working younger dogs? I started cat hunting years ago with friends (their hounds) and then progressed to getting my own hounds after moving here to Colorado. When I got hounds, I did what almost every houndsmen said to do, buy a finished dog and a started one. So I scrimped and saved and coughed up the 5k to get the dogs I liked from someone I trusted (called a ton of references) and bam started catching cats!

A few years go by and honestly I kinda started getting burnt out, hard to explain with friends always saying how great 'my dogs' were (I would say they were good but not great). I kinda felt like a free loader........Well I sold those dogs to a few guys and bam they also started catching cats also.

Now on goes the research again to get a little different style dog that fit my, backpack foot hunting style. After bugging guys from across the county I landed on the little black dog the 'stephens cur'. I ended up with three 7 months, 2 months and ended up picking up another pup a little later. So now fast forward almost a year and they are 18 months,14 months and 11 months.

I've had more fun hunting this summer and early fall then I've ever had! All I've been able to do so far is chase coons, lay some scent drags but man am I a happy guy. They've progressed so much I can't seem to fool them with a drag. They tree fantastic which I think is mostly do to letting them tree squirrels all summer (lost count of the total trees they made) and so far they've only had one split race which ended in a treed bobcat hide with grawes (2 dogs at this tree) and a treed squirrel (one dog). I'm not encouraging the squirrels anymore now that they have the general idea down.

I urge the guys just starting out to not be scared to start with a pup(s), just plan on going for a lot of walks and covering lots of ground and its really amazing what they learn with some interaction with the right game.

Now I do know I'm not going to put up any big numbers of cats this winter that my old hounds would have, but the handful I will catch will be better then a 100 with the old started dogs I bought.

[tradslam]

Some of my dogs treeing, from this mornings training session.

[Jeff Eberle]

A buddy of mine had one of them little black dogs years back. Caught bears , lions and bobcats with that dog. He barked a little to much for me but in the end he would have the game. Not to many of them on the west side . I know Don in Idaho breed and ran them not sure if he is still at it. Where did you get yours ?

[merlo_105]

Thats awesome, Keep up the work and it will pay in the end. Looking forward to hearing how they do for you threw out the season...

[tradslam]

Got mine from back east from Mark Wilson, I did talk to Don and one of his buddies. They are a different dog for sure, a little yippie compared to a hound. They are smart and egger to please, and they dont get a second look from the crazy hippies that complained about me to anyone that would listen.

[funstuff]

that just put a smile on my face. glad to hear someone else does the hunt for themselves and the dogs, and not worry what others think. i take a little fox terrier with me most days, and when the snow has a little crust she runs circles around on top of the snow, so funny. and when she trees, she can climb straight up a big pine and whine with the best of them, all for fun. have a great winter.

[Old dog]

tradslam...lol I noticed the same thing when I started carrying my kemmers cross country... the liberals went from them dogs looked abused to those sure are pretty dogs!! so the liberals changed their opinion of me but I sure as heck didn't change my opinion of them lol

[tradslam]

I hear ya on the libs! I just like to hunt, and not be bothered by them. The curs make that way easier. Old dog how are ur curs doing

[tradslam]

Ttt

[Old dog]

tradslam my kemmers are suiting me and primed for a great cat season soon as deer season gets over with. they didn't embarrass me when I ran them with some hound guys this bear season. a couple hound guys got humbled on the riggin abilities of my young male lol

[tradslam]

Good to hear!

[brantpalmer]

When your young dogs catch their first cat on their own it feels better than any race with a purchased finished dog, I think anyway, I've never bought a finished dog.