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Have you bobcat hunters even been watchin your dog come screamin by you barkin its head off knowin that the track is now heated up and the dog is running to catch and all of a sudden the dog stops, cocks its head sideway, looks off into the blue yonder and takes off sprinting jumpin in the air and then silence and then an explosion and we got a cat bayed up? Long question, I know but help me out here fellas. Try to understand what I mean not what I type.

I wont go into a bunch of boring storie or nothin but I would like to tell you about a thing that happened to me once. I casted this gyp down the edge of a timber and she took off with this male dog I had at the time. I was watchin them road racing for about a 100 yards or so when all of a sudden I could tell this gyp was not racing anymore but payin attention in the timber, jumpin lookin and poppin that noise. I watched her race down the edge for about a half mile and then dive in. I heard her scream and then nothin. All of a sudden, here she come back right at me and within 20 yards dove back in the timber and all hell broke loose. Out shot a coyote and she rolled it and had it bayed up. The yote ran back into the timber where her and the male dog bayed it for a bit and then killed it. I have lots of stories like that but just wondering if yall ever seen anything like that?

This Last season we had a cat race that was interesting not the same as your talking about, but I got to watch a Screw up.

Last year we came across a Track that had just crossed the road, Deep snow, We got out of the truck and My wife looked down and saw the cat walking through the timber. "sure thing!"

Well only one dog would take the track... for some reason my male didn't want to go, I don't think he could smell it since the first dog knocked all the snow in it. He was excited (probably by the barking of the first dog) and ran up and down the road like an Idiot but wouldn't step off the road, (really pissing me off) I knew it was Fresh, But he was acting like I was setting him up on a trash race.

Well maddie, the little female was running good behind the cat. And was running parellell to the road, we were just walking down the road and listening to the race. That cat came up to cross the road about 30 yard in front of us, and about 20 Yards behind my male dog Basically, in a 100yard span we had that cat completely sourounded.

When the cat saw the dog on the road, it just froze, sunk down and turned around on the back track towards the dog running it.


about that time the Male Caught wind of it, and started going down, but ran into my female. Both ended up on the road looking at each other and me like Where did it go...

After they checked around some on the road they did go back down and catch it, But for a Split second I thought a "sure Thing" wasn't such a Sure thing anymore!

But it just makes you wonder how many times stuff like that happens in the woods that we never know about..

Buddy

My Jake dog does that alot, I mean he cuts off the trail and runs strait towards the cat or fox. I usualy don't get to see much of the run though due to thick brush. But just last week I got lucky and saw the whole race. I was out early and came across a day or two old mtn lion scat, called the dogs over and said "Seek! Seek!"

I didn't realy think they would take it because its been super dry but to my surprise Jake took off like he was trailing! So I was thinking maybe its not as old as it looks... about 1/4 mile we hit the top of the ridge and Jake is still going at a decent trailing pace, my other dogs are sorta following him and seem to be getting excited too but no one is barking yet. From the top of the ridge I can see across to the next ridge so I decide to stop there and just watch.

Jake trails down to the bottem of the gully and stops and gives 3 fast sharp barks, then his head snaps up and to the left, I followed his line of sight and see movment about 100 yards from the dogs. Its a darn grey fox... not a lion Its not in season but they take off strait at it. Jake doing his little jump in the air thing so he can hear better and I can see the fox trying a big circle but the gap is closing, when they were about 25 yards away they opened up likly because they could finaly see it. Fox popped up a tree almost as soon as they opened hard.

The brush is so thick on most of the hills here that you realy can't see much close to you but some times you can see the far ridge better than the ridge you are standing on. I don't think the dogs could see the fox until they got close but they could sure hear it. The hill sides are covered with dry leaves and even a mouse makes a racket running on them this time of year.

ive had something like that happen several times when i was walking with dogs on an old track--one time i was accusing dog of trashing-- was a fox track in same trail on top of cat track --- dog was going nuts but i kept her on a leash-


track looped around and finally - i found where cat had been bedded ---maybe 50 yards from where i walked by an hour before - course the cat was already in some ledges by then--

if i was with them when they had a red hot track - i wasnt watching dogs im looking for a cat

. reading what you didnt type -that could be most anything

- a coldtrailing hound may be too braindead by the time he has a hot track- might not even notice scent on the wind -or not notice quick enuff-

seen a few rig dogs that came off the truck-- looking for the bear , sometimes had bear caught or red hot while other were still working the track by the road-

some dogs just got to have their nose in a track --and some are amazing at what they can smell on the wind or in the air or however you describe it -
-

seen some stuff like that before that made me wonder if dog had a good nose or was just phsycic--

seen a few that would go a long ways on the wind just for an old track -
more than half the tracks they struck ,didnt cross the road -

dan---
that dog that winds that coyote a long distance and runs right to it-


will it cold trail reasonably well-???-



i wont say ive had just two dogs that did that --but have had two that really stood out from the rest-

could really grub when they had to-
take as old a track as i ever wanted to mess with
also great on the wind-


havent found bunches of them

dan---
that dog that winds that coyote a long distance and runs right to it-


will it cold trail reasonably well-???-


pete, pete, pete -- you play nice now you hear

I dont think you should be askin questions you already know the answer to. HAHA!



I will answer your question though. No, she could not cold trail or at least she would not cold trail. She was too hyper to really be good at much of anything. I didnt keep her in the end. Her momma could do it all though. Her momma was one of the best dogs I have ever seen at just about anything she ever did. She could and would cold trail and the stories I have about her pullin rabbits out of hats are way too numerous to get into. The little gyp in the story did get bred by a running dog though on accident and man did she throw a pup and a half. I would have loved to have seen her in the hands of a serious cat hunter cause I think the results could have been remarkable. She just didnt work out here in the long run either but not really of any fault of her own. I screwed up on that one.

I seen a running hound once that displayed some amazing abilities but it had nothin to do with what I am talkin about. He was a track dog all the way, Pete. He was the kind that I know you hold dear to your heart and the kind I usually dont care for but he got good at what he did and as he got older he lost speed and agility but what he lost there he picked up in brain power and experience and he "KNEW" where he needed to get to and I liked that about him. I think about the possible outcome all the time if I could have put him over the momma to the little gyp in the story. It could have been exciting to say the least.

Dan,

You just described my late Gunner dog to a Tea.

One of the first times I saw him do this I thought he had gone nuts. We had been cold trailing a cat for several hours and we made headway on it but things seemed pretty slow. All at once the dogs sort of blew up and made a little run and then came up on a loss. I was setting there on my horse and Jeff Allen was setting on his horse next to me and we were watching this play out. Well all of a sudden here comes Gunner bounding thru the grass head up and not even trailing that I could tell. Sort of looked like a cocker spaniel does running in tall cover and bounding to see over it. I looked at Jeff and said what is that crazy spotted dog doing? He just grinned and said that old son of a bee has the cat figured out, they ran by it and
and he knows where it is now. Boom! about that time he had and it was up a tree and all over.Jeff raised this dog so he knew him, and over the years after that I saw he do it plenty. If a pair of lions split and he went on and treed the tom even if it was a good while later you better leash him when you leave the tree becasue he would be gone right back to where they split and he would go catch the other one. The dog was plain smart!

Smart dogs are definately the key to catchin game as long as they also have some heart and some ability. I wont feed nothin but a smart dog. I start huntin every morning when I wake up and have my coffee with my wife. It doesnt start when I load my dogs. I never realized that until a good friend of mine told me that just last week. He is right though.

Dan, I got lots of coyote storys, to bad thats not what I want my dogs runnin! Buddy's been there for a few races with me, between him and I we have some world beaters when it comes to chasin a yotes

Buddyw wrote:Last year we came across a Track that had just crossed the road, Deep snow, We got out of the truck and My wife looked down and saw the cat walking through the timber. "sure thing!"

When the cat saw the dog on the road, it just froze, sunk down and turned around on the back track towards the dog running it.


about that time the Male Caught wind of it, and started going down, but ran into my female. Both ended up on the road looking at each other and me like Where did it go...

After they checked around some on the road they did go back down and catch it, But for a Split second I thought a "sure Thing" wasn't such a Sure thing anymore!

But it just makes you wonder how many times stuff like that happens in the woods that we never know about..
Buddy

Buddy, wait a minute. You got a wife that hunts bobcats with you and she spots them in the woods?????????????

I want to quote a line from an intelectual classic film, Napolean Dynamite: "LUCKY!"

I guess we are supposed to marveling at smart dogs, but I gotta marvel at those cats sometimes. How does a cat like what Buddy described get un noticed by dogs. It is so amazing. I have seen it time and time again when it seems like the cat got away and they lost the trail, and you just know he is halfway to the next section but they "lost his track". Then I experienced one of those dogs you are talking about and I realized those darn cats are often right there. Not in a tree, but on the ground. They spend their whole life hiding, and they are such masters at it.

I had a similar experience to Buddys. I got to witness the "catch" and it was only probably 15 or 20 yards from me. Snow was chest deep on the dogs: two dogs. They are on him, I mean just about to roll him, and then suddenly all you see is two dogs running each other. I am staring at this dumfounded and then all of a sudden here is the cat coming back down the track which I am now standing in. The dogs have no clue where he is, or that he is just about to tree on me. Well, luckily that was not on his mind, but I was thinking it was because he was not interested in blazing a new trail. They eventually caught it because the snow was in their favor, but not befor he got a half mile on them.

Hey Dan, I bet you wish there were people on here half as crazy about coyote hunting as they are about cat hunting.

not color blind wrote:Hey Dan, I bet you wish there were people on here half as crazy about coyote hunting as they are about cat hunting.

Poor Guy.. i almost feel sorry for the bastard, He has to come over here and talk about coyotes to the Cat guys... He's just dangling that Carrot waiting for our Coyote Story's to start coming out! (100% Broke... yea Right!! )

Buddy

Along the same lines as David, it was snowing hard one morning but I loaded up anyhow and wasn't 2 1/2 miles from the house and I found a nice 40 track with no snow in it . I new the section and new it was a very small swamp that he was in, grabbed the shotgun (one of the few times) and sent one dog down the track. He was jumped within a minute so I walked in were I new the swamp narrowed down, I just missed the cat but seen the dog go through. Shortly I could see the dog coming full out and I though what the hell are you doing ya goofy bastard, that cat never came back through here. When the dog got 15-20 feet from me the cat jumped up from behind a log that wasn't 10 feet from me, how he got there without me seeing him I have no idea. Of course I missed him and then missed him few minutes later when he ran back by me and never seen him again.
Last winter had a big cat cross the road 20 yards from me but I new it was all open pines and he would have to come back across, when the dogs pushed him back across he walked rite up 10 feet from me before he seen me, then he just set down and looked at me then the dogs, got up and walked rite back through the dogs and crawled under a small bush, dogs running all around him until Luke winded him. My hunting partner Mike was only 30 yards to the North of me and he got to see the catch also. He said when that cat seen me and set down he knew it was all over. Just thought it was funny that he was walking past the dogs by feet but they had there heads down and never seen him, was like he knew it.
Lots of time's I've seen the cat closer to the dogs ass's then them his while circling .

not color blind wrote:Hey Dan, I bet you wish there were people on here half as crazy about coyote hunting as they are about cat hunting.

I know one for sure.

Let me get to an area someday where there are bobcats partner and you will see crazy for real. It'll be "back to school" for me but I'll make it work.

The thing is that I just like to hear about others opinions and experiences when it comes to "catchin" game. I can relate the same concepts to coon huntin also. Although most dont think about coon huntin in the same way, if you own the right kind of dog, she will show you the difference in trailing a coon and already knowin where he is as soon as she steps out of the box onto the tailgate. I let my little gyp out of the box one night and my old man let his walker gyp out and we leashed them up. My gyp already was actin like a tard and I knew why. Anyhow, my buddy was in his truck and he let his gyp out and put a leash on her and we started walkin to get about 10 or 20 yards from the trucks and cast them goin in one direction but I knew my gyp wouldnt be goin that way. We casted them and the two Walker gyps took off sailing and my gyp did to for about 3 jumps and then swung and got behind me. The two Walker gyps struck and within maybe 5 seconds or so about 250 yards behind us and over my left shoulder, my little gyp blew up and we all heard the coon squawl. She did not wind that coon cause we casted into the wind but she knew it was there. Dont ask me how she knew them things but she always did. I think she winded it when were drivin in and somehow kept that spot oriented in her brain from inside that box. I seriously dont know how she did stuff like that. I do know that about once out of every three casts there was gonna be a coon caught and killed before you could even get to her. She was not very sporting at all but she caught just about everything that could be caught in this country. She could put a red to ground so fast, you couldnt even blink an eye.

What I am gettin at is that I just cant see how some of that kind of ability could not be extremely helpful in a cat dog. And........yes Pete, she could cold trail with any hound I have ever owned but only BETTER! I was told by the man that bred and raised her great grandfather that he was the same way. He could cold trail with just about any hound but he KNEW where lions were and he would find them.

Good stuff here. I have a good Cameron bitch that pulls off catches like that. For instance, one time we had a lion trying to lose us up in the rims. We were on the dirt and it was hot out. We kept working the nooks and crannies, but would only get a hit now and then. All of a sudden she throws up her head and takes off down hill. At about 50 yds out she ran smack dead center into the lion and popped it up right there. Now the wind was at our back and there was no way she could have winded it or even seen it, because of the topography. What I think is that she heard it moving in the oak brush.
She has low set ears, but can raise them up to the top of her skull. I think she has incredible hearing, along with a natural sixth sense about cats and how they move thru the country. I think the average hound hunts almost totally by nose. The great cat hounds not only use their nose, but their eyes and ears as well. When all three of these senses are working at a high level, coupled with extreme intelligence, a magical thing happens.