It is my opinion people have become way too loose with all the crossbreeding leading to even more junk then we already had. They think it's like mixing paint where anyone that has done this for awhile knows its not. I see it especially bad with the newer guys and their visions of grandeur, with time...

Just like most other things in life there are levels to this stuff. And there are all different levels of hunters and dogs out there. Nothing wrong with however you would like to do it as long as the dogs are taken care of and you are enjoying yourself.

Yup you right Perk, barking out of place is just a blanket term that covers all of those more specific things such as barking going to them, barking in the back, barking over and over on a covered track, babbling, and just not shutting up and getting to the front or shutting up on a loss. Like I sai...

Renegade I watch hounds like you do and like a lot of the same things. Ol Lawdog and I was talking about some of these things the other day. The two biggest race killers when your chasing cats in my opinion is constantly overrunning tracks and barking out of place. Nothing makes me more mad then dog...

There are dogs that rig and then there is a rig dog. Very different in my opinion. I have one rig dog right now and a few dogs that will rig. If she rigs we are almost always going to have a race. We jump more rigged tracks then we do tracks started from roading. Probably because in most cases she w...

Lawdog All great points and I could understand why people would want that, and how in certain situations that would work well. To each their own, not knocking anyone else or how they like to hunt. But I look at it differently, kind of like the old Packers teams under Lombardi, with his power sweep l...

Here is my own opinion and you know what they say about those. I have run both silent and open dogs. I was always told mainly by hog hunters and people who started out as hog hunters and switched to something else how important it was that the dogs be silent. But the more I hunted big game and the m...

What part of CA are you in?

I sure did enjoy your first post, as I went through the exact same thing when I went from hunting hogs to big game and tree game. Lots of gas and boot leather and lots of discussions with myself lol. I then finally started catching game then I moved, and started all over again hahaha. What lawdog sa...

I have run both silent and open dogs. I think your answer will depend a lot on what you want out of your hunt, what game you are hunting, and where you are hunting it at. I can only tell you my direct experience with both. If you are hunting hogs or coons silent or open doesn't matter as much to cat...

Welcome to the board. I have hunted most types of game with dogs and bear and cat hunting have been the most addictive by far so good luck with that part lol. Here's a post from a guy in MO/KS area. Not sure if he is still hunting but he probably can point you to somebody who is and can also probabl...

IMO drive and intelligence are two separate things. Super intelligent dogs can still kill themselves because they have too much drive. Sometimes the drive is so high it overrules their brain. Just like Muleman said, super smart people do dumb things all the time. There are very intelligent dogs that...

I've heard all kinds of theories on this from separating them out at about 3 or 4 months tends to make them more independent, also to prevent big brawls from breaking out when you are not there, to making it easier to manage their weight with feeding them all separate. Not sure if any of that is tru...

Thanks for the reply. Ive worn out the search function here and agree that finding people who do squirrel and coon is easy; squirrel coon and bobcat is rarer but exists... Is there a reason that people don't use them for coyote except decoying? I'll be an area where mixed ag butts up to big track's...

I think you have the right idea with the three types you listed. If you look around you can probably find someone who is using their dogs on at least two of the species you list possibly even three, though you might find it hard to find anyone using those breeds on coyote unless you are talking abou...