OW Hill's Sierra Line Returns West to Colorado

[BlkForestRBones]

Here's our new boy, Walter, from a frozen semen litter out of GRCH 'PR' Hill's Sierra Red Vindicator, a dog that passed away some years ago. His mother, CH 'PR' Sierra Legacy Queen of Hearts, is the only living dog in his pedigree. Our sincere thanks to Joanne Marcoux for letting us have a pup from this cross.

We have waited quite some time to get good Sierra blood, which is now rare and usually very diluted and far back in pedigrees. OW's Sierra line were cold-nosed California bear dogs. We plan to cross Walter to one of the young females we have with close Sierra blood. If successful with that litter, all four grandparents will go back to Sierra.

We also might be able to use some frozen Sierra semen out of Hondo to include another nice, deceased male in the mix. It might take some time, but eventually we hope to be able to offer real Sierra pups to Western big game hunters who missed them the first time around.

Here are two photos of Walter the pupcicle:



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[Mike Leonard]

Good looking pup! OW and I had many great conversations and I also owed Sierra Red Roho who was a son of his famous ACE dog. And yes they were double tuff bear dogs and I doubt if prettier hounds ever lived.

Good luck with you project and Happy New Year!

[Big Horn Posse]

Mike,
Yes, they do make some awesome bear dogs and good multi purpose hounds for lion, bobcat, and coon as well. But they do LOVE those bears! My old man that goes back to those old OW Hill lines has saved my butt from a few grizz last summer. Smart dogs that won't get themselves killed.

[BlkForestRBones]

It's good to hear comments about Sierra dogs from folks like you who have hunted them. Your accounts of these dogs and their ability is consistent with others who have owned this line. We're looking forward to seeing how they will do, except this time it will be lions in the Rockies rather than bears in the Sierras. They seem to do really well on coons, too.

[Big Horn Posse]

All of my original line of Big Horn Posse Big Game Hounds came from Piute Mtn Redbone lines that were originally Hill's Sierra lines. They are great multi-purpose hounds. Good on lion, bear, bobcat and coons. Take a look at the pics on my website. Those are all my old hounds.
http://wyomingcoonhound.tripod.com/big_ ... me_hounds/

[jgagne57]

Sure is a pretty pup ! It would be interesting to see some of those pups in a bear pack . Good luck with Walter.

[BlkForestRBones]

What a difference seven months can make. Here's a photo of Walter taken last weekend when he was exactly nine months old. He's already a load and keeps getting bigger. Big, blocky head and jowls (note the slobber between his eyes). He'll be the biggest of our males for sure. Big bawl mouth and steady chop. Cold nose. Always tracking something. Loves to tree squirrels and tracks and trees a drag with gusto. We have big plans for him as a stud dog if he continues to prove himself worthy. I believe he has the coldest nose of our hounds. We had a bitch in heat recently--kept inside away from the males--and Walter was up bawling all night for several nights after the other guys had cooled off. It's nice to finally get some sleep again!

[finch]

That's a handsome young hound, Phil. Gotta like that line of dogs. While I've only seen photos on line, that Vindicator (the father dog) looks about perfect to me. Glad to see you guys made it through that nasty big fire in the Black Forest. That had to be scary. I hope you and that nice family you've got are doing fine. The hounds, too, of course!

[BlkForestRBones]

Thanks, Tom. Good to hear from you. It's been quite a summer. You've been to our place so I'm sure you realize we were in the hardest hit area. The attached photo shows how close we came to losing everything. The fire fighters made a stand and saved our place. The forest behind us is gone. Neighbors on both sides burned down. The attached links show brief fire-related videos. The first is an 8-second video of the fire burning at the intersection of Black Forest Road and Shoup Road--about a mile down the road. We evacuated through that intersection loaded down with hounds shortly before this clip was shot. The fire moved very fast. We had 15 minutes to load hounds and grab whatever we could. The second link shows our neighbor's burned down place and other destruction on our road (Vessey Road).

I hope you and the blue dogs are well!



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/1 ... 24621.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx_KEvjKRsQ

[finch]

Phil,
UNBELIEVABLE! And I thought you were lucky before, with that nice family of yours and those fine hounds...well, what can I say? This beats all! Amazing! You know that big fire that burned Four Mile Canyon/Sunshine Canyon area, west of Boulder. It came within less than a mile of my property in Sunshine. But this was a really close shave you folks went through. Couldn't have been closer. My hounds are fine. Thanks for asking. I finally got Little Billy under some lion trees and my Belle dog, especially, looks like she's got the makings of a crackerjack lion dog. Just needs a couple more years. Keep us all posted on the progress of your dogs.
Best,
Tom
P.S. BTW, I saw a couple of pictures of your Walter's littermate sister, Faith, on-line and she's frickin' gorgeous. Even a bonehead like me can see why you have those Sierra dogs.

[BlkForestRBones]

Thanks, Tom. Faith is a pretty girl. Walter and Faith's mother, Dutchess, is littermate sister to our Nitro male, who you met while you were here. Joanne, Faith and Walter's breeder, briefly owned Nitro when he was a pup but was forced to sell him when she did a relocation. She is not Nitro's breeder, however. The Sierra grapevine is pretty small and not many folks are breeding or running these very worthy dogs anymore. They have an excellent reputation on big game and plenty of go power in the woods. This is why these dogs are a focus of mine right now. We have plans for another Sierra frozen semen litter next year from a different male to compliment Walter's Vindicator blood. We want to do our part to help keep this line around for future generations. Maybe a redbone is still in your future!

I put Walter on his first coon drag a couple night ago. I planned to trap a coon for him earlier this summer like I've done for our pups from last year's litter but never put the live trap out. Now, with the forest burned I'm not sure how successful I would be. This summer's events have been pretty crazy. I was in the ICU for a week and got out a few days before the fire hit. Things are definitely getting better for us now, though. The attached photos show Walt on his drag (please forgive my crappy camera and equally crappy photography skills). This was his first exposure to coon, bear, bobcat, lion or any scent. I saw a fresh road kill the other night on my way back from town and figured I'd give Walter a try on a drag. He's a natural. Tracked and treed like an old pro. He's catching a couple feet of air in one of these shots and showed a lot of intensity on the wood. Great mouth on him, too. Walter is in his puppy darkening phase right now. I expect him to end up a medium red like his father, Vindicator, or his grandfather, Commando (see Commando on a bear in the bottom photo). Joanne owned Vindicator after OW got too sick to keep him and he was her "once in a lifetime" hound. She tells us that Walter reminds her the most of Vin from the pups in his litter. My good friend Lori Mills at Sidearm, who knew OW and his dogs well, helped me make my selection from photos, and he's definitely a keeper.