Tell about how Extreme Temps Effect your hunting?

[Dads dogboy]

Hello Folks!

Hipshooter and I have been having a discussion about how Hot is too Hot to Hunt.

I would appreciate the rest of You All giving your thoughts on this and on the other Extreme too Cold.

We have talked before under Scenting conditions a little on how Temps can Hurt or Help your Hounds ability to smell, but this time please go into detail on how these Temps Extremes actually effect your Hounds. Also please tell me about what you all do to help your hounds cope with adverse conditions (carry extra h2o, doggy coats, special remidies, etc). Little things that you all do which may have escaped the rest of us, and can surely be of help. So any little thing that you might do to help out your hounds would be great!

Thanks for taking the time to share your expeiriences and thoughts!

Good Running to All!

C. John Clay
Dads Dogboy

[tman308]

Don't have a lot of specifics cause I just don't completly understand it but in AZ where I been hunting the dogs will be trailing along really well and then as the temp starts to climb they slow down. If they haven't got it jumped by 0900 then forget it. As far as what I do to help the dogs I find shade in the bottoms of canyons and take 10 minute breaks. Also try and go by stock tanks for some water. Another thing that has happened to me is I will be trailing through the bottom of a canyon and not realize how hot it is on top until the dogs trail up there and almost come to a dead stop. Scent sure is a funny thing.

[Dan Edwards]

I keep the hounds quite a bit on the thin side during the summer months. There aint nothin I can do to help them except to not hunt them if I know its gonna be dangerous. Here where I live if you hunt them when its not right, its too late and you will have a bunch of dead dogs. If that temp aint gonna cool off here and get down in the upper 70s or at least the lower 80s at night, you best stay home or you will regret it. Never ever ever run here in the corn during the day. Its not smart and you will kill your dogs. The only thing that may save them is that when they start approaching that extreme heat level, they cant run a track properly no more and it will slow them down some. Hopefully, if you are lucky and they are near water and they "lose" interest from being wobbly legged, they will get themselves to water and they will be fine then.

[Dads dogboy]

Hello Folks!

I thought you all might like to see Dad's Rig. Here are a couple of Pics with the Strike Hounds up. Dad used to road hunt his Hound exclusively, this is tough in the Summer time. Heat is our #1 nemessis so the white pipe you see over the headache rack is to carry extra h2o. This carrys about 12 gal which really helps us this time of the year we seem to never have enough h2o!

The Hounds work from the sides of the Waterpipe and the headache rack, when they strike and are put down most of the time they go behind the truck to find where the Cat has left the road!




Another aid that we use is to give a Hound in Heat Distress an Asprin. This sure helps to calm a Hound and aleviate several of the symptoms of Heat Stroke!

We also soak the Hound in h2o as soon as they come in if they are panting excessively!

As the previous post said, we also try to keep the Hounds on the Thin side. With some I am almost ashamed at how little I feed them as these Hounds seem to get Fat on thin air! We also hunt enough to keep them pretty Hard!

Rigging the Hounds has been a big aid in keeping the Hounds cool this time of the year.
Dad was always told that you could not Rig Bobcats in the South. But over the years he had several Hounds Rig out of the Box so he started putting some up. It darn sure works! We are not beating the Hounds up on the Rocky Roads here in AR by roading them all night. In FL. the roads are all sand so is not as bad there. Still Rigging is much better in the Summer Heat to save your Hounds for the Race.

Just after I took these Pics we struck the first of the Cats in the Hat Trick stories.

Hope thes Pics might help someone!

Good Running to All!

C. John Clay
Dads Dogboy

[macedonia mule man]

what town in ark. do yau'll call home? i lived in helena which is over on the miss river south of memphis. did't do any cat hunting then. i live in louisiana now and am doing a lot of hunting but running everything in the woods. i have seen one cat that they were running but it lost the dogs after two circles. still trying.

[Dads dogboy]

Mule Man,

We are at Glenwood, AR. We hunt here in Pike Co., Dallas, Co., Clark, Co., & Hot Springs, Co.

Dad used to hunt with a Late friend in the Hamburg, Crossett area. We used to have a Ranch in North LA. and have hunted all over that State. There are two good Cat Hunters now living in LA. Both have Dads Stock of Hounds and are good Hunters.

PM me your phone # and come make a hunt with us. You all should have lots of Game in the hardwood bottoms around the Bean and Corn fields!

C. John Clay
Dads Dogboy

PS you will see lots of Long Ears if you come see us!

[Dan Edwards]

Thanks for the pics partner.

[Waterway]

Do you ever watch the hounds, especially when they are hunting a lot. They seem to know the best times to hunt I think. If they are not real fired up most likely the hunting won't be to great either. Perhaps only a couple hours later or what ever they can be fired to the nines and the hunting will be great. My schedule doesn't always click with theirs, but I think it makes a big difference.

Mel

[Dads dogboy]

Waterway!

We had this discussion Saturday night while Rigging trying to find a Cat.

Dad's old bitch Ruby, who is one of the, if not the smartest Hound Dad has raised; can tell you when you go to load if you are wasting your time or not. Whether it is the Humidity, Barometric Pressure, the Way the Scent goes up her nose, what ever it is, she can tell if things are right. If She thinks the stars are alinged, the smells are good or what ever it is that she likes, She is jumping up and down on the gate barking and telling the World that she is READY to GO! If things are not right, she is laying on top of her house waiting for an engraved invitation!

For the last year Dad and I started marking down which way she was when we went. We sometimes ran a Cat when she was unconcerned about going, but it was hard striking and the Races were those one or two dogs running at a time Races(these were the Hounds right on top of the track, Hounds either side just could not smell the Cat so they do not Bark). No ROAR with every Hound barking twice when his foot hit the ground! Dad always attributes this to poor Scenting conditions.

We are going to go either way, but it is depressing leaving the Kennel knowing things are not good. But here in the Southern US, conditions can change during the night, from Bad to Good or vise versa. So we just have to try!

Just our Thoughts

CJC

[Mike Leonard]

Some dogs like some people have more acute or what I call more of their primitive senses aligned. Dogs ofcourse are from the predator family themselves so hunting predators with predators we normally find they will have their urges heightened at a similar time. Moon phase whether it is dark of the moon or light or just what circle it is in in it's access, along with weather, winds, and barometric prssures. All these thing are signals to wild animals and some domestic animals as well.

When i first really started hound hunting heavily I was in my teens. I met an old bobcat hunter who was well known in the local area for being pretty much of a guru when it came to hunting. He liked me and we hit it off. He seldom ever let anybody hunt with him but for the next ten years till he died, we were together just about anytime we could get loose to hunt. He slept during the day and did most of his hunting in the evening and at night.I could tell when i showed up at his place if it was going to be a good night for cats. If it was he would have his water jug, leashes, and light along with his spittoon setting on the front porch. I mean he was pacing around and ready to roll. We would run cats for sure and usually catch. But if I showed up and nothing was out here and I knocked on the door and his wife came and let me in he would be in his favorite chair reading a book. At first i was worried he didn't feel good but that wasn't it. No sense getting in a hurry tonight cats won't walk early. I would prod him on and whe reluctantly would go and we wouldn't hit a dang thing until nearly daylight and then he would liven up, and sure enough we might get a chase. Or sometimes he would say should have gone at noon, cats already moved today in the daylight. What? cats don't move in the daylight Leo. He would just laugh and say watch the housecats. He was seldom wrong.
Some nights he flat wouldn't go. Nope stagnant air tonight only the skunks will move. Hell you get out there wandering around in a night like this you might even get lost. I laughed then but later in life I found myself out on one of those night and it feltlike the night inself was shoving the breath out of me. I could barely breath I got faint my dogs came to me and laid at my feet and it was a very strange feeling I have never forgotten it.


As far as heat I sure know some dogs can take it a lot better than other and it has nothing to do with what color they are. We have a strain of crossed black dogs that can take heat as well as any dog I have ever seen. But just remember when them old dogs get their mouth wide open and that old tongue hanging out there about a foot long they are not going to be doing much good on a bad track.

[BlacktailStalker]

Well I'd have to say extreme temperatures effect my hunting in the fact that there is no hunting to be done when its 35 degrees C.
So the 4 legged critters can call it a holiday for now but they darn can be sure they WILL be climbing sooner than later