locating

[merlo_105]

What Mark said don't over due it, when the dogs are at there peak of going hay wire that's enough. And only do it a couple times. Hope that's all that's needed to get them treeing. I don't believe Locating is a tough task I think the will to locate is hard to come buy. But helping them Locate doesn't hurt a thing a lot is lack of confidence. IMO.. A dog can strike a cold track 150 ft up hill off the road from a moving vehicle but it can't smell a Hot Cat 60ft in a tree riddle me that.

[barksalot]

The behavior of scent and air currents that carry the scent is a riddle that I will never understand but the answer to your riddle may be that cold drifts downward and hot scent (air) rises.
I have a female that strikes squirrel and coon from the rig and locates and trees squirrel and coon that are laid up and not been on the ground (at least not recently) but cannot locate a cat after a hot race. Why?????

[al baldwin]

I have noticed bobcat that are difficult to locate are usually cats that have circled over & over the same area then I assume jumped high on the tree. Add to that a couple young speed burners running the front & your locator running a covered track, sure adds to the task of locating. One reason I always admired the hound that could make a couple trips around the area then fall treed with the cat on the correct tree in a stand of trees very close together. Sure there are numerous other situation that add to the location problem. Bobs that just try to out run the dogs in direct line are seldom tough to locate in my experience. Al

[houndman5]

Thanks everyone for the tips and info.

[david]

Depends on age of dogs and difficulty of situation. There are ages, and situations where I would be thrilled if my pups showed end of track as yours do, and stayed 30 to 40 feet from the tree. 30 to 40 feet is closer than some tree barkers I have seen would stand depending on air currents. I would be tickled to death if it was a situation where the cat had a launch into a tree above nose level for a dog.

Congratulations on some fine young dogs.
If they are tree bred, I would let them come to tree barking on their own.

I would ask those with the powerful tree dogs who might be critical of your dogs how often they have walked to an empty tree. Never mind. They won't probably tell you. (The cat was probably there. those cats sure are hard to see. )

[dwalton]

Locating a bobcat tree for young hounds or hound that are run on off game is very difficult. You can have a hard tree happy coon hound that will false tree a lot on bobcat or you can have a hard to fine dog that is a expert on locating a bobcat tree. A lot of dogs that tree bear , lion and coon do not locate a bobcat tree. I run a cur dog with my running mix dogs for the tree which is also good track dog. My dogs locate most of the bobcats but will miss one once in a while, some of those I can find just from knowing what the dogs are doing. Most of the hard tree dogs that are under a year old I cull because they will be tree happy by 3 years old. Some breeders of bobcat dogs have better tree dogs than I do. That said I still tree 40 to 65 bobcats a kill season. I want good tree dogs like everyone else but it is far more important for a good track dog than a tree dog to catch most bobcats that one strikes. I don't expect my bobcat dogs to tree until they are 2 or 3 years old and have been on hundreds of cats. That said some tree from the start and some never tree. Bobcat hunting is the ultimate game for hounds it takes a special hound and a knowledgable hunter. It takes time for both to learn. Good luck with your dogs. Dewey