gray fox vs. bobcat dogs

[Everlast]

That's what I've always been told by the older guys I hunted with.............

[mike martell]

good stuff guys. here is what i have experienced. my senior dog is two years old this june, second in command is also two. been to about 250 trees, the second in command about 150 trees. i start them all from scratch.no veteran dogs,start by trailing coon, then switch over to bobcat, lion in montana, bear out of the country, grey fox as of about two weeks ago. even allowed them to tree grey squirrels as puppys. they self taught themselves to rig.to me it is just a matter of persistance.

i have a theory. the more game you run the more you up the odds for coyotes and such. rig dogs and coyotes are just a fact of life. evidently must be a canine thing.after 40 years of hunting i have concluded....as long as i can contain it to just the dog overloading its pea brain and check themselves.... i'm ok. anytime you have young dogs competing for the top you will have some sort of problems. study the dog and as they strike all of a sudden if they could talk they would say...oh man why did i do that....boss is not going to be happy...i'm getting put down and shocked...the ability to recognize this and correct it as it occurs is the most important thing in my book. this is the reason i like to rig my dogs off the hood. i can watch the body language.

treed a bobcat night before last. yes at night...( dogs have to be fairly straight to do that)last night dogs bumped and checked a coyote... note to self.....log this down and look for payback set up down the road soon...rigged and treed a coon, rigged a bobcat and couldn't get it lined out. life here with young dogs is a roller coaster ride....why not add another form of trash to the heap....grey fox. besides they think they are getting away with something is why they took like a duck to water....exposure to the game is the key to success and over time i will minimize the off barks....maybe..

[Everlast]

Mike,

sounds like you have a passion for raising and training young dogs just like me. Like you, my oldest and best is about 2-1/2, next best is about 2 then (3) at 12-14 months old. Once I get the young dogs about 3-4 years old and they are long since a "finished dog", I get bored and sell them and buy or raise more young dogs to train. I love the challenge of training young dogs.

[Va cat hunter]

The dogs that we hunt on the east coast run fox in the summer and cats in the winter. Same dog does both. Mine have prob. been cat hunted more tho because i usually take off Jan and Feb just to cat hunt. You will get a whole lot more out of a fox than you can a cat. Most cat races that we have dont last 20-30 min. sometimes 10 min will take it. A good fox race you will get 30-45 min out of him and maybe longer if you get on one of those educated grown ones. But my way of thinking if your dog can run a grey and catch him then a cat dont stand a chance.

[slowandeasy]

+10 those greys are double tuff
good luck !