Hunts I remember. Al Baldwin.

[al baldwin]

For those who are not aware, Log is a line bred bluetick. Think I remember the breeders is Brett Williams, as I recall log has lots of old smoky river blood also recall a dog by the name of blue run gentleman in his linage. I will say log could sure grub up an old cat track, had one of the most unique voices ever heard on a hound. Most of the time he used that voice about right as he moved the track. When I first got him he would start a coon track, Tom broke him from that, can/t ever recall him running a deer. If any of the dogs ran trash he would quit hunting and come hunt you up, he never spooked up like most check dogs he just would quit hunting. Recall a few times he would fire up and head out very excited on an old scent ahead of the pack and we would tree a cougar, he seemed to really like cougar, treed better on cougar than he did on most bobcat. Saw him move an old bobcat track out ahead of decent dogs that were much younger than him more than once, after age had slowed him down. He was ideal dog to work the young female with I gave to Tom. If I was able to hunt would love to own a box full of logs and throw in a couple of those south Texas running dogs for speed. Al

[al baldwin]

As I walked today looking south could see Woodbe Bluffs, reminded me of the first bobcat my Belle dog treed. I had driven about four miles from town and belle & I headed out on foot, That area was just a area that I am sure most hunters would avoid but I did not know better. Really can/t recall the whole event, do definitely recall Belle ended up barking treed just a few feet shy of the top of those bluffs. Found a route at the time, did not know existed, made my way to the top of the bluffs. As I stood there I had a birds eye view of the valley the town of Powers sits in and I was elated to see a nice tom bobcat sitting on a ledge about 15 feet below me and Belle was barking just a few feet from the cat. Uncertain what I should do as I knew the cat could fall from the ledge when I shot him, however knew belle was not going to leave without the cat and she could fall off. Looking straight down shot the cat in the top of the head, cat fell from the ledge, Belle bailed off after him, both were now out of my sight. With my heart in my throat, hurried back down and found belle chewing the cat on a different ledge about 20 feet below the ledge belle was bayed on. Able to get to belle & cat and headed down that trail I had found on my way up with the cat over a shoulder, feeling like we had really accomplished something and relieved belle was not hurt. I can/t say for sure how belle managed to get that cat caught, don/t blame you if you doubt this story, but can assure it happened. Today would not even think about heading out on foot with a dog that was as green as belle. Al

[lawdawgharris]

I bet it did make you nervous when she bailed after that cat!

My old Clyde dog was a tattle tail too. I had only ever half scolded him verbally over a coon that he ran up on while hunting. There was a dead tree standing about 8-10 high and the whole upper part of it was gone. The coon climbed and was perched on the top of it. He was standing under it and would bark once every 15-20 seconds. I
Knew he was in the same spot but wasn’t being himself so I went to investigate. He was just looking up at it and turning his head side to side trying to figure it out. I said what are you doing? Get ahead! That was the extent of him trashing and getting in trouble.


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[al baldwin]

Beebout I never saw your post, suppose my first pack of dogs was when I was a bout 12 years old, they were just yard dogs, one of them was part hound and very open on track. Mostly they ran rabbits and did a poor job at that, i discovered how poor track dogs they were when a beagle showed up at our house that knew how to run a rabbit. Seems I always had some type dog long as can remember. Belle was my first good dog, think I got her in 1965, good thing she was a natural as she taught me a lot more than I taught her. Then I started adding dogs to help her. Got a big break when Tom Barnett sold me my first real bobcat dog couple years later. That dog was the real deal cat hound, quite a story goes with him, Tom had lost him when he was a few months old, at that time Tom had an old female that took his pups hunting as soon as they were old enough to follow her. Living in the woods Tom/s young dogs got an early start with that old female. However, I think they also developed some bad habits that were later hard to completely break them of. Anyway the dog Tom sold me went to a farm house, Farmer gave it to a friend of his that hunted hounds, they soon discovered that young dog was a natural. A very good cat hunter ended up training that young hound for the man farmer gave it to. Then it was sold to a very nice man for I believe 750 dollars, They had also bred the dog once and he had produced some very good young dogs. The man that bought the dog came and hunted with me and yes that dog did a good job and caught a running bobcat I was impressed, he also told me keep this under you hat we think this dog came from George Nelson. Lots people wanted some of George/s blood so I never really thought it came from him, and did not know Tom had lost a dog. I later told Clarence Berg about hunting with the dog and what a good job the dog did. I was not aware Clarence had told George about the dog, but, he had and George had make a point to go look at the dog. George knew it was not his dog, but he knew it was the young dog that Tom had lost few years ago. The dog had a model ear, tom had pictures of the dog that showed the model ear. After a court case judge returned the dog to Tom. Tom had several litter mates to the dog and really did not need him. I never thought I would get that dog, there were others who wanted the dog and one of those was Tom/s mentor. But Tom had told Clarence he wanted me to have the dog, few days later I borrowed 250 dollars and bought the dog. Al

[Beebout-it]

I had the liberty to hunt with two great beagle men when I was a kid, eventually had my own then life took me down a terrible path that led me away from hunting completely. But got myself straightened out and lucked into meeting some lion hunters when I landed in Montana. One day a buddy who was frustrated him and his wife’s dogs weren’t able to tree a bobcat for them asked if he could tag along to try and see one in a tree with me, he brought a few dogs and on our first road we cut a nice Tom heading in a decent direction or so I thought, the canyon was called ladder canyon for a reason apparently I turned out my 2 best bobcat dogs and he threw in one but his wouldn’t run it. Dogs take a turn into some terrible cliffs and spires and pop up treed. Harvest season had already closed but we clawed our way to where we could see my females on a knife edge rock rim. I said well I’m sorry I think they are just cliffed out and turned to see him grinning from ear to ear, I’m like what’s that shit eating grin about and he goes you don’t see the cat right there below them. Well the girls had bayed him sure enough and my plot I called tink saw us coming and decided she should crawl out there and have a closer look. No way we could go get her without risking terrible fall so I had my friend climb to the top to see if the cat would get nervous and make a move off of there. No luck so I hollered up to throw a few rocks over the edge , he tossed a few small ones to no avail and he can’t see the cat or dog from his position but chucks a decent chunk over and clips that cat between the ears and it goes to cartwheeling off the cliff falls about 50 ft right in front of me and I look up to see ol tinker in full flight ears flapping in the wind she hits and I think to myself welp no way she lives through that and just then she stands up opens and is off, my may dog having watched the entire thing finds an easier and safer route down and about 20 minutes later they have him bayed on a absolute vertical rock face but luckily the dogs were at the bottom this time. That damn plot was a terrible tree climber you would show up to her higher in the tree than the cat and when she forced it out she had no self preservation she followed no mater the height.

[al baldwin]

Beebout, I never liked tree climbers however bet that plot was a real game catcher.

[al baldwin]

Beebout, I never liked tree climbers however bet that Plott was a real game catcher. The nicest tree dog I have owned or hunted with was a female called sister. Sister was a great grandaughter to the old bell female, however she was bred with lot of house blood in her. She had a Houses Lipper type mouth and gave plenty mouth on track, at the tree she was a sit back tree dog with a nice big steady chop. She handled real nice, very good box dog, good cold nose. She carried a lot of the house blood that Sam Faulk & Willis Sutton brought to this area. Sister was also the skinner dogs grandmother. Got one litter pups out of her and a grade dog I owned called rowdy, I kept two pups from that cross they both made good dogs. Lost the male pup at a young age to a heath issue, the female was called twister. Twister was tight on a cold track, but she pushed hard on a jump and treed bobcat ahead of the other dogs. She was not quick to tree and real good about checking to be sure the cat was up. Lipper was not in sister pedigree but Houses Clint was up close in sister/s mother pedigree and Lipper was out of Clint. I assume that/s where sister got her voice from? The rowdy dog came from a cross that no one knew who the sire was, he was a real game catcher. Kid that owned him offered to give him to me when he was about four months old, I should have taken him, since bought him when he was about two years old, after hunting with him. Rowdy looked walker in color, a few local hunters bred females to him, after they hunted with him, he threw some good pups, that had his drive & desire, every litter had a couple pups that looked very bluetick. Story was his mother was black& tan walker cross. Rowdy had his faults, but, remember one day he treed three bobcats and for some reason non of the other dogs managed to stay with him. Kept him until he was an old dog and sold him to a friend. Sister is buried here on the place, along side skinner neither was never for sale. Just a little rambling. Al

[Beebout-it]

Me either Al, I’ve had more than one and it’s kinda funny for a while. But then you show up and they are 70 up and the lion is standing on their neck. Tink was for sure a game catcher, what she lacked in speed she made up for in unwavering persistence. Sold tink to a young man just starting out and he was having great success with her until she was killed by wolves, sad day.

[lawdawgharris]

Good stories guys


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[al baldwin]

Wolves and snake were never a problem where I hunted in Oregon. In the early days had to worry about the 1080 bait stations This hunt Tom Barnett, Charlie Thornton & I traveled over the mountainous divide for a bear hunt near the community at Agnes Oregon. We arrived at the local garbage dump, Tom said keep these dog quite while Belle &I check things out. Short time later Tom races back & dumps the box, belle had found a bear and walked it right past, Tom had forgot to take a gun with him. That bear bayed up almost immediately, recall I got a bullet in the bear, but in the heavy brush had made a poor shot and put the dogs in danger. As we followed the dogs trying to kill that bear, those dogs except belle found another track and decided it would be more fun to run a running bear that bay a wounded bear. Lucky those dogs came very near us and Tom was able to get them stopped and back on the track of the bear belle was baying. We knew from experience those dogs would do that and we saw it up close that day. Took a while but we caught up to the wounded bear and got another bullet in him, In my rush to get a final bullet in his head, turned an ankle bad. Think I had a couple dollars so treated Tom & Charlie to a soda at the world famous cougar lane store, with an old cougar hide on the wall. There was a large Myrtle Tree in the yard at the store known the Hidleberg Tree. A sign on that tree stated no work in Agnes today signed by Kenny Berk. Charley was borne and raised in Agnes and was a very good woodsman and super nice guy. Think it was his grandmother that was found as a small baby on the Rogue River Trail. I later read about her in the history of the Rogue River Indians. True story as I remember it. Al

[lawdawgharris]

Why do you think those dogs would leave the one track to run another? Obviously it wasn’t hotter, if it’s that they’d rather chase than bay, catch, or tree, they were already doing that. Do you think it was a particular dog that started that and pulled the others off with it? This happens in hog hunting a good bit. Especially with boar hogs, they will break bay and try their hardest to get to more hogs to brush the dogs off on. Sometimes they will get to the other hogs and hold up with them and sometimes they will run through them and not check up. It takes a pretty special dog to stay with a hog like that.


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[al baldwin]

Lawdawg those dogs were used to hunt multigame and I can only assume that was a running bear, suppose it could have been a coyote or bobcat that particular day. I think the reason they changed tracks was because a bay up bear is dangerous and some dogs realize that more than others. I hunted with a dog once that would not go on a large bear, but, if it was a small running bear he would run and tree it. And some of those dogs were much better on a running coyote or bobcat than Belle was. Suppose it all comes down to how a dog has been bred for generations. Sure can/t say it was one particular dog that caused them to switch tracks as that day was the only time i can recall we were that close to the dogs when it happened. It did not happen often, but a few times we caught two bear in one day because belle would stick with the baying bear and others switched and treed a running bear. Bear hunting was not my favorite, Tom was the true bear hunter. Al

[lawdawgharris]

That makes sense. I know that several have tried breeding the running dogs to the cur types for hog hunting. A large percentage failed because so many of the running dogs won’t bay or won’t stay bayed long enough because the thrill of the chase is over. A lot of dogs won’t stay bayed on sounders, especially if they are aggressive. Staying power is a big deal to me. A dog that won’t stick won’t eat much of my feed. Granted, there are circumstances that you have to account for. For example I had a female that was an exceptional dog by my standards. She was bayed solo and a couple coyotes got to messing with her and she came out. This is a dog that I have had bay solo for hours in the heat of the summer. I didn’t fault her for that. I have seen young dogs that weren’t quite where they needed to be in confidence yet leave a solo bay. I always tried to get them back on it and have another dog with them. Once that confidence is established you don’t have to worry. Some dogs aren’t ever going to be the staying kind. I know dogs have preferences too. My Clyde dog was bred to be a cow dog but was born to hunt hogs. He had zero interest in anything other than hogs from day one. I know of lots of these type dogs. I remember two littermates that were used dual purpose on cattle and hog hunting. They were both good at both jobs but one was better than the other at one discipline where the other was best at the opposite. You could just tell that they were more passionate about the discipline they were best at. I’m sure guys like Cajun that run bear and hunt hogs both have dogs that prefer one over the other. So I can see where dogs that weren’t real bear crazy would abandon the bear track for a desirable game that was hot. I have also seen lots of cow dogs given away for hog dogs because they would work cows as long as there weren’t hogs around. If they were working cows and got in the vicinity of hogs they would quit the cows.


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[al baldwin]

Just something interesting, son only lives about 150 yards from us his house sits very hear salmon creek. On a hot August afternoon he observed a cougar that seemed to be sneaking down the creek for about 75 yards. He called and i took the dogs down, expecting to have a hot track. The only dog that managed to open was the log dog and I walked them in the direction he said the cat left the creek. There was cattle in the vicinity, those dogs never found where the cat had disappeared to. Years before that incident, neighbor across the creek saw a cougar stalking the cows, he shot at the cat, spent a hour or so searching for the cat thinking he had hit the cat. Then He came over and ask if I would take the dogs over and look for the cat. That also was a hot august day, it was a little struggle, but the dogs did tree that one. He called the game commission and they came and got the cat. Another time a cougar killed a large goat at a neighbors place about half mile up the creek. some time later, a friend and I took the dogs and searched for that cat, unable to trail from the kill, I suggested we walk up an old grown in logging road a mile or so to a saddle were I knew bobcat always scratched. Talk about luck, as we neared that saddle those dogs hit a hot track ran about 75 yards and treed a cat. No we don/t have a large cat population, but they are a few that come thru. Al

[lawdawgharris]

Scent is a funny thing. I have seen dogs fumed on hogs that just ran off a pasture when we pulled up and they acted like they couldn’t smell it. Come back a short time later to the same spot and they acted like it was so hot that it was burning their noses. There are so many variables to it.


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