CANT tree a cat!

[RezDogRendezvous]

My suggestion would be to lace your boots up and run with your dog. Without a lead dog your gonna have to take the spot. These guys that say you need a special kind of dog are full of it. You know your dogs capabilities more than anyone on this forum. Your the only one that will be able to decide that, after you run with your dog and see for yourself whether it's a problem with your dog or not. They're right about your dog never being able to catch a cat, that is, if you listen to people like that. Give the dog and yourself a better chance. Run with him correct him as needed and you will know what it takes to get one in a tree. Pop ups count as a catch in my book. I bet half the cats I've caught I've had to go in and correct the dogs or I was there right behind them at the jump and kept them on the right track. I doubt there's too many guys that can say their first cat dog did it from truck to tree all by itself from day one, or five, or ten. It takes persistence and patients, and gas money! Once the dog catches one, hunt him hard and in the same manner as the first one. If it was by himself or with another dog do the same. If I were you I would be so motivated by the skeptics, I think i would be completely out of gas money because I was out trying my ace off to put one up and prove them wrong.

[Dan Edwards]

I have to agree with foxcat. I dont think you have dogs that will consistently catch bobcats. Might just have way too much tree bred into them. Nothin wrong with that for certain games but hunting bobcat probably aint their game.

[Nolte]

Dan,

You hit it on the head. It sounds like these kids dogs have some go in them, but treeing a bunch of cats probably ain't in the cards for them. It's a tough go of it, to train a cat dog from scratch. Anybody who says different has never attempted to train one.

You'll recognize what it takes in a dog once you've seen one in action. Then you'll try the next 10 years to find another. Most cats are harvested/caught by cat hunters, not real cat dogs. They can pick up the slack in what their dogs lack. So I'd lace them up and follow the dogs to help them out.

[Dan Edwards]

Dan,

You hit it on the head. It sounds like these kids dogs have some go in them, but treeing a bunch of cats probably ain't in the cards for them.

That's just it. And...........it dont mean his dogs aint no good, it just means there is very little chance of them catchin cats. That can be said though about 99% of the hounds that are owned by members on here including all of mine that I currently own or that I have owned.

[Hipshooter]

Dan,
U got it right
Catching bobcats on a regular basis with dogs
is a dream for most hunters.
But every one catches one every once in
a while & then they think they have a hell of a set of dogs.
To catch a lot of cats u have to have a high population of cats to start with.
The guys that I know that catch a lot of cats, hunt year around and almost daily.
U can make dogs this way. Only a few states let u hunt cats year around.

[BlazeNBrat]

My suggestion would be to lace your boots up and run with your dog. Without a lead dog your gonna have to take the spot. These guys that say you need a special kind of dog are full of it. You know your dogs capabilities more than anyone on this forum. Your the only one that will be able to decide that, after you run with your dog and see for yourself whether it's a problem with your dog or not. They're right about your dog never being able to catch a cat, that is, if you listen to people like that. Give the dog and yourself a better chance. Run with him correct him as needed and you will know what it takes to get one in a tree. Pop ups count as a catch in my book. I bet half the cats I've caught I've had to go in and correct the dogs or I was there right behind them at the jump and kept them on the right track. I doubt there's too many guys that can say their first cat dog did it from truck to tree all by itself from day one, or five, or ten. It takes persistence and patients, and gas money! Once the dog catches one, hunt him hard and in the same manner as the first one. If it was by himself or with another dog do the same. If I were you I would be so motivated by the skeptics, I think i would be completely out of gas money because I was out trying my ace off to put one up and prove them wrong.

This is kinda what I was trying to tell the youngster. Keep dumping them dogs and help them out when they need it, just cuz they slick treed doesnt mean its over. You have no idea what that cat did once it was jumped. For god sakes they are chasing bobcats or at least trying to, there are a hell of a lot more dogs out there that dont even do that.
Try just using one dog, the best of the 3, easier to get a handle on things when you need to straighten things out for example, and most the time 3 is to many on bobcats, them dogs maybe competing with each other to catch the critter causing slick trees, or maybe only one of them dogs is a knott head blowing it up.
Or you could buy a running dog that likes to chase cats, They wont slick tree, heck most wont tree at all, then you have to be there right with them when it goes up or you'll likely lose it.... Thats one down fall of the running dogs in my eyes anyway... You should be right with the dogs anyway but....Just another option.
Be a cat hunter....and you'll make cat dogs!

Good luck to you buddy, chasing cats is great fun!

[coastrangecathunting]

i guess what im getting at is there are alot of provin cat hunters around that have raised and trained cat dogs for years and years. they have a breed of dogs that are cat minded. if you want to train your bnt to catch cats im sure it will be able to catch one now and again , but you can go buy a pup or young dog that is bred for cats and end up with a real cat dog when it is finished out. you can do what you want to do and i wish you best but i know after all the time and gas you put into it you will not find the cat dog you are looking for. when im traing a dog im looking for the best , they come along maybe 1 out of a hundred. if you are looking for a dog that catches every once in a while keep what you got and it might be better than i think at the end, but out of all the cat hunters i know it is the wrong breed . again i do want you to end up catching cats, i know if i was starting out what i would do and that is get a young dog out of cat minded dogs . best of luck to you. look at the big picture what you want for your final result. do you want average or elite.

jc

[BlazeNBrat]

i guess what im getting at is there are alot of provin cat hunters around that have raised and trained cat dogs for years and years. they have a breed of dogs that are cat minded. if you want to train your bnt to catch cats im sure it will be able to catch one now and again , but you can go buy a pup or young dog that is bred for cats and end up with a real cat dog when it is finished out. you can do what you want to do and i wish you best but i know after all the time and gas you put into it you will not find the cat dog you are looking for. when im traing a dog im looking for the best , they come along maybe 1 out of a hundred. if you are looking for a dog that catches every once in a while keep what you got and it might be better than i think at the end, but out of all the cat hunters i know it is the wrong breed . again i do want you to end up catching cats, i know if i was starting out what i would do and that is get a young dog out of cat minded dogs . best of luck to you. look at the big picture what you want for your final result. do you want average or elite.

jc

Sure cant argue with that!

[foxcat]

My suggestion would be to lace your boots up and run with your dog. Without a lead dog your gonna have to take the spot. These guys that say you need a special kind of dog are full of it. You know your dogs capabilities more than anyone on this forum. Your the only one that will be able to decide that, after you run with your dog and see for yourself whether it's a problem with your dog or not. They're right about your dog never being able to catch a cat, that is, if you listen to people like that. Give the dog and yourself a better chance. Run with him correct him as needed and you will know what it takes to get one in a tree. Pop ups count as a catch in my book. I bet half the cats I've caught I've had to go in and correct the dogs or I was there right behind them at the jump and kept them on the right track. I doubt there's too many guys that can say their first cat dog did it from truck to tree all by itself from day one, or five, or ten. It takes persistence and patients, and gas money! Once the dog catches one, hunt him hard and in the same manner as the first one. If it was by himself or with another dog do the same. If I were you I would be so motivated by the skeptics, I think i would be completely out of gas money because I was out trying my ace off to put one up and prove them wrong.

did you really tell the kid to run with his dog? if he can keep up with his dog its way too slow on track .to ever even get a cat jumped. is this something you do? run behind your dog?

[007pennpal]

I agree with both guys here. I'm always trying to get out there to help my hounds and learn whats going on. Usually I'm left in the dust, however there are times I can help or at least learn something. On the other hand, getting back in a vehicle and cutting things off can do the same thing. My favorite tool is the quad. Not that I cut brush with it, but it keeps me closer to the pulse of the hunt. Hard to beat the comfort of a pickup. When you have open ground a snow machine or horse can be fun.
Sean

[Tim Pittman]

I'll give the first guy who can run with dogs and keep up in our country a $100 bill.
He's not hunting the snow in the desert.Foxcat you said it well.
If there's oppurtunity for snow,yes you can fall in behind-use the tri tronics to call them back and put them back on the track where they stray,but it won't take long and they're not going to be waiting on you.Jc gave some good solid advice,he knows our country.
One of the big benefits to following the track is---you learn the behavior and travel patterns of a cat,your knowledge expands quickly as do the dogs.
I've talked with this young guy,he's open for help,he'll probably make it.He picked up a well bred young dog the other day from a long line of catdogs from our country.
Tim

[BlazeNBrat]

Well best of luck with the new dog Tim may have just bumped your bobcat game up by years. Hard to say "what could have been" with the BnT not seeing it work. I know how hard it is to cull your first hound but if you are honest with your self and your dogs you'll get there quicker. I went thru 6 dogs before I found one that catchs bobcat. Good luck, Beau

[007pennpal]

Glad to see he got a dog. Keep us posted.
Sean

[chucktaylor]

I got a pup like jim said. I showed him a caged coon the other night but he didnt show much intrest, granted i picked him up a hour before that and there were to other dogs snarling trying to get it. He is mainly just getting worked on obeidience right now.

[RezDogRendezvous]

So now guys suggest what he should do with the pup. Throw the pup down with the other unproven dogs? He's in the same boat now, as he was with the black dog. Only this dog needs to lurn to tree. He's still gonna have to get in the woods and show the pup what to do just like he would of have to with the other dog. And time and time again hes gonna have to straighten the dogs out and get them to a tree. Its how me and many others have did it Im sure. I would put thousands on it to see someone keep up through the whole race. I cant but im always as close as I can be to the dogs to get them going again if needed. The right thing to do would be spend some time hunting with a cat hunter and spend the thousands needed for a good dog. Not the easiest thing to do. At sixteen who has the money to do so? My Suggestion. JMO. Good luck