All good bobcat dogs will make a lion dog.

[Mike Leonard]

I think even I have been guilty in the past saying this, but I no longer beleive it to be true. In most situations they will work, but especially for bare ground guys where can the true bob dogs be more hindrance than help?

[Big Horn Posse]

I have seen hounds leave smoking hot lion tracks to switch to a bobcat track that the lion crossed paths with. So I say not all good bobcat dogs make good lion dogs and not all lion dogs make good bobcat dogs. Guess the same could be said with bears and coons and vise versa.

[Bplott]

From what i have seen most any dog that can catch a bobcat will flat smoke a lion track...

[houndnem]

You guys both nailed that one, but you didn't leave anything for me to say now.

[Mike Leonard]

You folks nailed that one up quickly. I love a true bobcat dog and that is one who will choose a bobcat over any other game to trail, but this can be problematic when you are trying to catch a lion. Especially on dry ground where you are working many times with a fairly old track and the dogs really have to bear down and work very hard to keep the trail going. Many times in these situation you wil have losses becasue the scent just doesn't hold equally on all ground. These are usually the times when I have some bobcat problems. The dogs cast about trying to pick up the loss and get the line going again. Most true bobcat dogs are busy driven hunters and that is what you want but if he or she hits a fresh bobcat during this quest to regain the old lion trail then that old lion trail is forgotten and he summons the troops come on boys I got the real thing!

It is usually difficult to get them shut down after this and get them back on the lion track and go on and catch it. Difficult I said but not impossible, but it will cost you some time for sure, and then at times I wonder if it is really fare to that little dyed in the wool bobcat dog. It probably isn't a big probelm to those who snow hunt and don't suffer tremendous losses unless they get on the wind whipped south slopes or the track is really old and iced down. Usually if the dog can continue the line then even the bobcat dog will stay hooked on the lion track. If you have a particular lion you are trying to catch either as an outfitter, or and ADC type person, or even a sportman after a trophy cat it can be frustrating.

This is why so many lion hunters break their dogs off bobcat just like they do coyote and fox. I don' t go to that extreme , I just take my lumps if it happens, but lot of old timers would sure get on you if you had a dog in their pack that kept trying to start bobcat tracks.


There are usually more bobcats in a given country that there are lion but it is usually only a problem on fresh bobcat tracks.

[Bplott]

You have some good points there mike....I have personaly seen one plott dog that has sence past that would stay on exactly what you put him on weather it be a lion, bear or bobcat. It didnt matter if he crossed anything else or not he stayed on what we put him on and we always planned on going to the tree cuz he never missed. He was an awesome dog. Dirt, rain, snow, bear, lion or bobcat. Prolly the best good i have ever seen...

[Mike Leonard]

Those determinded stay on the track dogs are priceless. I had a little black brindle plott I called Hawk. I got his a 6 week old pup from an old guy down in southern Arizona. At the time I was about out of dogs and was doing a lot of traveling, and this little black dog and my old bitch and my saddle were a lot of times what I had with me. Well I started Hawk on coons becasue where I was living we had quite a few down behind the place. He figured them out quick and was a very good coon dog and also was super inj the tule swaps and fast running water. I switched him over some on lions and bobcats and he did really good on them as well and was a good cold trailer and very determinded. If I found a track an it was smeallable old Hawk would just camp out on theat track if it took him all day to move it. He was very easy to break off trash and I had very little problems with him even the usual prokys and skunks were one time and that was it. When I put him on bear it was like a duck taking to water and he excelled on them, but he was a balalnced sensible little dog and he hunted what I wanted him to. He never went hog wild on bear and if I needed him to slow down right in the middle of bear season and walk out a lion track he would. Not many like that sure would have liked to had a few more like him. Too bad somebody wanted him so bad that they stole him and he was never seen or heard of again. I went back to that old man and bought a littermate sister to him and she was a good dog but nothing like old Hawk.

[Bplott]

There is nothing like a good dog like that mike sorry to hear someone stole him from you. I often wish i could get back some of my old plott blood like that BUT sometimes you dont realise what you had untill its gone or you get in a bind where u are in a place where you are not able to raise pups. I have some good plotts in the blood im running now and i guess it will just take time to see if they will be anything like that old dog.

[Mike Leonard]

There is an old saying: You never miss the water till the well runs dry.

I am trying hard as are my partners not to let that happen with our Nance dogs. We are seeing progress but it is an every litter situation. Thank goodness I have help because about all I want to do is cut a lion track and go on....

[Bplott]

I hear ya i am about the only one left here in utah that is breeding and hunting this line of plotts and that is kinda tuff to keep a strain of hounds going but i cull hard and keep hunting them as much as i can. They do really well for me. Of course i might be a little stingy with these dogs; but thats ok!

[Mike Leonard]

Bplott,

You are not hunting any of the old Gordon Pace line are you?

[Bplott]

Nope my dogs came from Martin Ballard he lived in Price, UT.... They are out Leroy Haug and Roy Styles bloodlines. They do me a realy fine job...I have 3 8mth old pups that are realy turning it on. I entered them in tree contest couple weeks ago and all 3 had 110+ barks per minute... Gota love them young ones like that

[jube baker]

Yep happened to me last winter, we had 7 dogs on a hot lion track and were all going then 5 left the lion track and 2 stayed with the lion, we ended up with the lion and bobcat that morning.

[Mike Leonard]

Jube,

that is a great ending to split race. LOL!

Most of mine find me wandering around trying to gather up dogs and kicking rocks, LOL!

[jube baker]

HaHa,
shit i know how it is trying to get all them dogs back, aleast yours comw back mine dont