getting dogs to stay treed

[fat hounds]

Just looking for some ideas. I have had my oldest dog about 8 years old for 6 years and my best dog is probably 6 and I have had him about 4 years. I just picked up another 13 month old pup that I think has a lot of potential. The oldest dog has never been a hard tree dog-is great on trail and will tree but not for a long time. It is like she gets bored and starts looking for another race. The 6 year old dog has treed quite a few lions on his own. On his first solo tree he came out about 100 yards to me and we went back and found the lion treed. last year he went on a long race and it took probably 1-2 hours to get to him. He stayed treed until I got pretty close and then he went up to a road above the tree! I called him back and he located the tree and I shot the lion it was a pretty nice tom. The young dog has been on a coon and one cat. Made it to tree with no problem and locates tree pretty good but does not tree hard but he hasnt seen much game. One other lion race last year dogs had cat treed for a long time across a big canyon. It took a long time to get to them but before I got there I seen them coming out in a big clear cut and it looked like they might be on back track. not sure. Anything I could do with the older dogs to make them hold longer? I was thinking about not running older dog on cats because I was thinking she might be pulling the other one off the tree. She is a better bear dog anyways. Any suggestions would be appreciated

[twist]

Pretty hard to make an old dog tree if its been doing what you are saying for years, you may try giving a few light shocks this can bring a dog back into the tree in some cases as coming out to meet you is one thing but leaving the tree for another track or back tracking is unexceptable. Some dogs have tree ability and some dont just like all other traits. Andy

[fat hounds]

Thanks I know that a lot of dogs just dont have all the traits you want. I have had other dogs that I just had to get rid of. What do you think about not running the oldest dog with the other two she seems to be the worst at the tree and thought maybe that was rubbing off on my other one?

[cohoundsman]

I agree. A dogs treeing ability is kind of born into them. The more they want to chew on that animal it seems the harder they will tree. I do not know from personal experience, but have heard a lot of guys talk about dogs with running blood in them such as running walkers and trigg have this problem alot. They claim a dog will trail like noones buissiness and wont tree. Get the critter up the tree then run the track backwards, cause thats what they live to do. Trail and tree. But dont hold me to that. I have never been around or hunted running walkers or triggs, just relaying what I have heard.

[twist]

Next tree try the light shock on the dogs leaving the tree you may get lucky and correct the problem chain them when they come back to tree. Andy

[fat hounds]

I will try a light shock if I can. I have thought about shocking them if they left but usually they will stay treed once I am there. It is just when It takes a long time to get there that they will leave it. Or like I said when I get close my best dog will want to come out to me. He has only done this when treed by himself not with other dogs. Also when bear hunting with other dogs at tree they have stayed treed for a good amount of time. The oldest dog is a plott and the other two are black and tans. Also wondering what work I could do solo with my 13 month old to maybe help him with sticking to the tree. Thanks for your ideas.

[JasonTopp]

You might try holding you older dogs back at the tree and jump the bear out to your younger one putting him right on its ass and let him tree it by himself some times that is all they need to trigger them !!!! If that don't work i would walk him up to the tree with a lead and encourage your dog to tree by getting him as excited as possible and then try to jump it out to him !!! The trick is to get them so fired up that they want to kill it that seems to work for me. I hope that might help!!!!!And good luck with your dog!!!!

[Diamond 7]

I agree jump some out and turn your dog right on that bear. I had a couple young dogs that weren't treeing very good and losing intrest at the tree last year. So we jumped a bunch out to those young dogs and it changed everything. The last bear we caught last fall those 2 young dogs treed for a good 2 hours before we could get to them, and they were screaming at that bear the entire time.

[cobalt]

My 2 cents worth not knowing your dogs. You should stop hunting the old dog on cat, just like you suggested. Shocking her might ruin her altogether. If she trees good on bear and she leaves a cat tree, then my guess is she doesn't like cat. The 6 yo sounds like he's got descent tree skills, but when he knows you're close he quits and comes to you. This is your fault (trainer error), sorry. It is ok for a dog to come off a tree a little, maybe 100ft. As a young dog, if he came off of trees, he should've been shooed back to the tree and praised when he did. Over time this conditions the dog to stay put. Some dogs need this conditioning, some don't. All mine get it regardless. When I get to a tree I will NOT chain dogs up. If they drift off, I holler them back til they tree up then praise them. I will often get to a tree, praise dogs, wait 5 minutes, then walk away and make sure the dogs stay locked down. If they follow, I shoo them back and when they do, I praise them, then I walk away again. With multiple dogs, rotate chaining some dogs up so that there is always dogs to go back to. It doesn't sink in the first time, so don't over do it at one tree. Repetition and as many trees as possible will bring out the best tree instincts. One or 2 trees won't make a pressure tree dog. Good luck.

[Unreal_tk]

Cobalt thanks for the tip I run my dogs the same way but I've never left the tree expecting them to stay. How far are you leaving? I think ill start doing it a little. I always praise them up good, and take care of business if I'm keeping the bobcat and convince them its dead if I tied them up then leave. Or if im not shooting I praise them alot and never tie em up. I stay 10-20 minutes usually praising off and on. Then I say cmon let's go and walk away.

[perky]

i had a similar problem with my started hound. he wouldn't stay at the tree for a long time. but then i started tying him under the tree and let him tree fer awhile longer and reward him. consistently doing that he stays at the tree now. still workin on him treeing harder but hasn't seen enough game fer a young hound.

[fat hounds]

thanks I turned out the pup and my 6 year old on a lion tuesday. They caught it and stayed treed for about an hour before I got there. I think it helped keeping my oldest dog out of the race and I will probably just run her on bears. Thanks again for your ideas I will give em a try.

[cobalt]

Unreal tk. I go far enough to be convinced their not going to leave. Unlike you (which I think is fine), I always leash my dogs off the tree for a 100yds+- when we head to the truck and am actually praising them a little to be stubborn about leaving the tree. That's just me (treeing is an issue I want no confusion about). Bear hunting all these years has schooled me to the reality of how fast a bear can exit a tree if it chooses to and I don't want a train wreck if that happens. Descent tree dogs should tree easily 6-8hrs. Great tree dogs tree 16 hrs and beyond.

[Unreal_tk]

Right I understand. Ill have to ponder a bit about that.

[George Streepy]

Tie the dogs to the tree. Praise the heck out of them. Jump the game out of the tree and let the dogs pull on the leashes a bit. Don't turn them loose to quick, but don't hold them so long that they forget what just happened. Get the dogs to realize that when you get to the tree that life gets interesting. Once they realize this they will be blowing the top out of the tree, probably to the point that your yelling at them to shut the heck up. It takes repetition just like anything else your teaching a dog. Good luck to you.