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I was wondering if the best bobcat getters were silent or open. the poll will show the percentages, but whats your opinion. What kind would you rather have? full open or silent or quite chops or ???

I prefer them wide open,Where I hunt we don't have real good roadsystems like other parts of the state,a silent dog can be to hell an gone before he ever jumps and opens.

IMO If you are hunting with hounds and want a silent dog you are hunting hounds for the wrong reason. Get a game call, and some traps if all you are after is the cat.
A lot cheaper.

I think a silent dog has alot better chance of sneaking up close enough to put the cat up fast. Right now I only have one dog that catches consistantly and he trails silently until he gets close enough to hear or see the cat, then he is choppy loud barks until its treed, then he will whine, howl and bark until I get there. Most of the runs are over fast. Once its jumped, 30 mins or less. The terrain here is very steep with alot of dry leaves covering loose gravel so there is alot of noise if an animal is running.

Jake is not a pure hound, his mother was a walker and father was a black lab. I have only heard him do a real houndy sounding bay a few times early on when he was under a year old. The older dogs he runs with are silent so I think he picked that up. Maybe if he was run with open dogs he would have been open...

Big N' Blue wrote:IMO If you are hunting with hounds and want a silent dog you are hunting hounds for the wrong reason. Get a game call, and some traps if all you are after is the cat.
A lot cheaper.

You know what they say.................

Jake is lookin good!

Dan

To each his own.

In these hard economic times, just trying to save him some money. Dog food is expensive! LOL

Big N' Blue wrote:Dan

To each his own.

In these hard economic times, just trying to save him some money. Dog food is expensive! LOL

HAHA! Outstanding response brother. Fellas like you make coming on these internet boards way too much fun. I laughed me arse off.

Me personally, I cant hunt period without a dog but I dont like em mouthy.

Well Dan,

I am embarressed to admit it but the only ambition I have in life is to hear another good race. Glad nobody took offense because none was meant.

I hate a silent dog,
U don,t know what he is doing till he trees, u never know where he is.
They are hard to train
I go the hear the dog work & correct him if need be.
U never know if silent dog is running deer, bear, rabbits, ETC.
U can get by running coon as the race is usally close,
but Cats, coyotes & bear they are worthless in my opion.
If u are a hide hunter on coon I say ok.

love your opinion there Big'n'blue. I had a couple silent trailers and culled them. They were loud on a tree through. I got a couple of loud on track dogs going now and am a much happier man, but these dogs don't tree like the others did.

I would have to think that it is how well you know your dog. The two dogs that I run are silent compared to others. The last lion that I caught there was only three to four single bawls it wasn't theat exciting but the cat was caught and then hell broke lose. This same cat was ran by two very good packs of hounds caught once but jumped and was never seen intil the day I caught it. I not braging by any means (sometimes the blind squirre gets the nut)but I honestly think that I caught it by suprise, but it was worth every minute of it.

I had a little female bluetick that was a real good cat dog. I never was close enough to her to tell what she did when she put up a cat, but on coon she would open right away on a track and bawl all the way to the tree. But if it was a real tough chase like in a cornfield or cattails you could always tell when she was about ready to catch the coon because she would go silent. Usually within a few minutes after that you would here her fighting it on the ground. I always kind of wondered if she didn't use that same technique on cats. Well anyway I like a dog thats open on track(but silent when its not on a track). Ross

roscosrokons wrote:I had a little female bluetick that was a real good cat dog. I never was close enough to her to tell what she did when she put up a cat, but on coon she would open right away on a track and bawl all the way to the tree. But if it was a real tough chase like in a cornfield or cattails you could always tell when she was about ready to catch the coon because she would go silent. Usually within a few minutes after that you would here her fighting it on the ground. I always kind of wondered if she didn't use that same technique on cats. Well anyway I like a dog thats open on track(but silent when its not on a track). Ross

A friend had a mtn.cur/walker cross like that,he would open every breath on a track until he saw the bear/cat then he quit barking and ran to catch,he pushed so hard once he caught sight of the animal he forgot to bark.he was a good dog though

I would much rather have a dog going wide open on a track, but my dad had a half lab half plot and he ran silent. He was always hunted with another dog that trailed open these two dogs worked extremely well together and soon as you heard Yeller open you knew the end was near for that race. The other hound we got from Mike Root near TorC. they were as good of a pair as my dad ever ran, and they put up lots of lions.