Az High desert

[merlo_105]

Well there it is a guy who catches Bobcats in Arizona. With two English dogs taboot.

[johnadamhunter]

“......I think it’s more about the right individual dogs, more than the breed......”

I couldn’t agree more. Tell me about your dogs and what you like to see in a bobcat dog.
John


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[Wht]

Well, as I said, Smart, fast on track, cold enough nose to trail in adverse conditions, must be a STRONG track dog. Must be a great locator, I think that's where a lot of guys miss. Most use "dry ground" bloodlines, which are typically used for big game, and aren't great locators, they don't need to be on big game. AND, possibly most important, they need to have the focus to stay honest when game is scarce and tracks are hard. You need the right dogs together also. If two dags are competing with each other, they will overrun loses, and you won't catch. If one dog is babbling, same thing can happen. I've had both happen repeatedly. I identified the problem, changed dogs. I have raised and/or tried 16 dogs over the last 5 years to find 3 that suit me. I guess in short, they just need to be great all around hounds, that's why we do it.....

[mark]

I have wondered ever since i joined this site if the only thing to run with dogs was bobcats everywhere on the planet,would there be more bobcat dogs?

[johnadamhunter]

Maybe there would be ,Mark. Take a look at modern bred coondog as well as running dogs. The night hunt and running dog trials have transformed many breeds. If your gonna compete, you gotta have the type dog that can win, they breed for that dog. In a night hunt no points are given for a dog’s ability to trail. Most running dog trials are held in pens with lots of game so finding game to run isn’t a problem. For the most part, I guess we’ll just have to breed what we want or buy what they don’t want.
John


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[Wht]

I would agree John. If the dogs you need don't exist, start with the next best thing and manipulate through selective breeding to get what you need. Well, in theory anyway lol.
You also asked about my dogs. My lead dog Clyde is a 4 1/2 year old English coonhound. He's a competition bred dog, kinda... His sire, Taylors Rasputin has a world title in the nite hunts, but he's old blood. He was sired by Woodstock's Grizzly via frozen semen. Before I bought any pups, I did a ton of research, and Grizzly's name was mentioned many times in old archives in reference to throwing very cold nosed dogs. Clyde's dam was heavy Lightfoot breeding, a line often used out west for big game hunting. So I bought 2 of those pups, a Goswick(old dry ground blood) bred pup, and a Steve Smith(more dry ground stuff) bred pup. I trained them myself, on the dirt, with no older dogs to help. They all got the same training. The Goswick dog was just too dumb for me and I gave him away as a pet. One of the English dogs and the Smith dog, wouldn't focus and stick with a tough track to suit me. They both were sold and made bang up bear dogs. Clyde was a different story. I had him out for one of his first introductions to following horses, when he took a track, went 600 yards across a canyon and treed. He was 6 months old, and had three coons in the tree. At 10 months old, he treed his first lion, on the dirt, by himself, and another a month later. he and my # 2 dog started catching bobcats when they were around 18 months old. He's cold nosed, fast, accurate, very smart, pretty honest(still has occasional issues with fox and coati). He's not perfect, he's way too big and not athletic enough for my liking and our extreme terrain and requires at least 1 or 2 days off after a hard day in the woods. He babbles some on real cold tracks. And he can have an attitude with other males here at home. But, he's the brains behind our whole operation.
My #2 dog Timber Almost 5 years old is out of a Mike Kemp bred female, sired by, and I quote "some big walker dog". Seriously, that's all I know!! Been here since he was 5 months old. He's very athletic, fast, fairly cold nosed and really covers a lot of country, gets out there good to move things along. He as great endurance and agility. Timber, Clyde and I have been a team for 4 years and catch a ton of game.......for AZ that is.
The 3rd dog I'm hunting this year, Mater, is a 17 month old son of Clyde, out of a world class competition female. I know, it sounds crazy, but this dog is a BEAST! He NEVER walks, he runs. And he only picks his head up when he jumps, and that's usually the first time you hear him. Often he's 200 yards ahead of the other dogs when I hear his extremely loud fog horn squall, twice as loud as the other dogs. That means he just jumped the cat, they usually don't get more than 100 yards when that happens. Before Mater, our jumped races could and often did last 1 1/2 hours or more. He has been trailing silently, ahead of my 2 older dogs on dirt bobcat and lions tracks for several months, sometimes as much as 400 yards .Gotta love the Garmin map page! I saw him trail a lion on the dirt, and I mean super dry dirt, backwards for over 5 miles when he was 12 months old. He was alone and still on the track when I got to him. He averages over 60 miles a week on his gps, and is always ready to go. He's pretty athletic but still too big.

[dwalton]

why you sound like a man than can read his dogs, knows what it takes and hunts hard. I had a old timer years ago tell me behind every good dog or pack of dogs it takes a good hunter, I would say you are one. Any thing can be done with hounds with the right dogs and the right knowledgeable man behind them. Thats anything anywhere. Dewey

[twist]

I don't believe any one is doubting it can't be done! But consistantly in my eyes isn't 6 cats in 6 months. If one hunts his dogs enough in any conditions you are going to put a few up it's just that simple. Andy

[david]

[Henefer-hound-hunter]

[Wht]

[twist]

I sure read it wrong my apologies. Andy

[Wht]

A little video a friend of mine made, from footage he gathered hunting with me this fall.

[david]

That was beautiful. Great music for it! great footage, good editing, beautiful dogs and wild animals, awesome scenery. Give him a bunch of money and tell him to do some more of that; like a full length documentary. If money doesn’t work, give him a pat on the back and tell him he’s appreciated. I really enjoyed it.
You and your dogs are rock stars now.
“Born ready”. Perfect.

[david]

I watched it again and found a problem: The title: Dry Ground Hounds. Any cur man might say “I have a problem with the title unless you edit out that little four legged reason you pressure bobcats to climb before they can get into the rocks.”

He might be wrong. He might even try not to think it. But he won’t be able to stop thinking it if he has caught cats in the rocks with a cur.

I still love the video though.

The opening shot is absolutely killer! My favorite shot of the whole video.