What we expect from our dogs?

[dwalton]

Just something to think about. What we expect out of our bobcat dogs? We hear on here about unreal expectations, what can and can't be done in different areas, western trained dogs not doing well in the cold or deserts on and on. Here's how my year has been going on. I did not hunt until November, so I went into the winter with soft dogs. I have been hunting 10 dogs most of the time with 4 being under a year old. Sometimes all ten get to be turned out sometimes only 2 or three. Most of the time 6 or more.I have hunted 27 days since the end of October. Some days not treeing a bobcat, my best day treeing 5, many three cat days. Total treed 30, caught on the ground 6, put in holes 7. 43 jumped races, 43 caught bobcats and yes I have had several cold tracks that I did not jump. I have hunted western Oregon, Eastern Oregon and California desert next to the Nevada line. In rain, wind and temperatures down to 15 below . Bare ground,wet snow and dry snow in timber, brush and rocky deserts. I have yet to have a jump race over 30 minutes. I guess I just got lucky. Just maybe there might be a difference in bobcat dogs and bobcat hunters. I know of a guy that is doing better than me running mostly on the Oregon coast. Guys in Texas and the south do better than this.There are bobcat hunters and dogs out there that produce. Every one can learn from hunting with a straight pack of bobcat dogs. We all feel we know how it is, but there is always a better, harder hunter and a better cat dog to hunt with. One can learn what he does not know that he does not know by seeking them out. Dewey

[al baldwin]

Congradulations Dewey, catching 43 cats in a row takes a lot more than luck. I sure have never hunted with dogs that good in all those different weather conditions. But I have been told you are one heck of cat hunter & the weather does not get to sever for you. Plus you are tuff & can hunt day and night. ALso you cover a lot of country & go where the cat populations are. I can only recall catching 3 cat in one day twice in my life. Good luck in health & hunting. Hope the rest of this cat season continues to go as well for you. Under stand you have a nice hunting trailer so stay warm at night and stay after them. How is the old pepper female doing health wise. Was told today her sire ( Buck) has passed away. Do you still hunt Pepper? How are those young dogs from her& Tanner doing? Take care Al

[Dads dogboy]

"Every one can learn from hunting with a straight pack of bobcat dogs. We all feel we know how it is, but there is always a better, harder hunter and a better cat dog to hunt with. One can learn what he does not know that he does not know by seeking them out". Dewey

Amen! Very well said!!!

As to what to expect from one of Dad's Bobcat Hounds.....well, after some thought, it would be for any individual to have enough "Gumption-Heart-Try" to fully express it's Genetic Potential. As Houndsmen it is up to us to give them plenty of oportunity to do this.

Good record Mr. Dewey for anywhere, South Texas included. That record for jumped Cats is something to be proud of.

Glen Rybard in the Winter and Spring of 2012 jumped 121 and Weighed or looked at 118...that was the most effecient Pack that I have known of.

[dwalton]

Al: I still hunt Pepper she is getting behind on a hard jump but still picks up some the loses. I save her for the real old tracks and for working pups. I did finally get a litter out of her last winter. Her pups are 11 months old and see some good things out of them. Dewey

[Unreal_tk]

Now Dewey, I would say the average hunter has a steady job and you are laid off during the winter ? I am just guessing. Its awesome what you've done, its just alot of folks can't hunt every day like that. I think alot of us would love to though, if we had the time we could maybe repeat the results.

Now, this reverts back to my bad habits post. What the dogs learn from the others in the pack is how good they learn themselves to a point and sometimes can hold a dog back if you did not give the dog a chance to achieve more. Just something to think about. I am no expert, hell I am not even claiming to be mediocre, I just have my own thoughts. (Which I am guessing is what you do)

This was no way pointed to be detogoary towards you Dewey, just stating some ideas.

[mondomuttruner]

Dewey, when you reach perfection what do have left to strive for?? Jus givin you some shit......Good job!!

[Warner5]

A persons first thoughts when thinking about trying to duplicate or excede the numbers you mentioned above are, man a guy would need some good dogs. And thats very true, well trained cat dogs would be a neccessity. But their is so much more to it than just great dogs.

Finding and treeing 3 to 5 cats in one hunt is no simple task. Time fly's when your having fun. Any mistakes made by dogs or handler take away from hunt time. I could ramble on and on about this but I think I've made my point. One must run a very tight ship day in and day out to see numbers like this. Having the dogs just isnt enough. Just my thoughts. John.

[mark]

Jon is spot on. It takes a lot of right moves and very few wrong ones on both the hunter and dogs part. I have known who Dewey is for around 40 years and have always kinda kept track of what he had going on. This is what i know. Dewey has made a life out of doing what he loves! There have been many sacrifices I'm sure. He has had the same goal his whole life and that is to have the best cat dogs and be the best cat hunter he possibly can. The numbers he posted are impressive to say the least, but he expects those kind of numbers at this point in his life and wont settle for less. We don't have to agree with him or his beliefs in dogs but i think a person would be a fool not to use some of his advice when you think it would work in your program. When you reach the point of that jump to catch ratio you have done something right! We all start out equal in this world and can be or do anything we choose. Don't ever hold the fact that a person chose to be a cat hunter against him, we could of done the same thing if we wanted to. Congrats Dewey and i hope I'm not out of line on this, it wasn't my intention.

[mondomuttruner]

Well said Mark...there's a few of you guys that should be writers in your spare time!!

[buzz]

I agree 100% Mark!!!

[cobalt]

Very impressive numbers. Looks like you keep good records on what the score is. Funny though how precise your numbers are with the exception of one very important number missing, how many cold tracks your dogs failed to finish. "Several" is an elusive number.
I have also seen races over the years with outstanding cat dogs that were running a cat 100 yrds ahead of them, but the race never sounded jumped and sounded exactly like a cold track, yet I saw the cat right ahead of the dogs and they never caught it.
As I said, kudos to you and your interpretation of success.
I don't get to hunt much. One day a week and I don't get to pick the day (Sunday's only), so the conditions are what they are. I do not have seasoned bobcat dogs, except one older female, and I put down on almost EVERY track I find. I run 2 to 3 dogs. I am 100% on jumped races. No rock-ups, none caught on the ground. I've probably run 15 races that I got at least 1 bark on. All in all, I think my percentages are similar to yours, considering the variables and handicaps.
All you who are new to the sport of cat hounding, don't let numbers discourage you from having fun. If it's about making money, you are barking up the wrong tree. Try trapping them, right Dewey?
It would behoove everybody to watch a pro team in action, whether it is a baseball team or a hunting team, depending on your interests. If you want to reach the level of pro, you need to give up everything to become it including all your time and expect results years down the road.
Congrats Dewey, where do we send your hero badge?

[Trueblue]

One thing that I have learned in my hunting career is that there are 2 main ingredients required to achieve the high degree of success no matter what game you choose to chase.The most important ingredient is TIME and the second most important ingredient is MONEY.If you are a person that is lucky enough to have both of those in sufficient quantities then you are well on your way to having a winning recipe.

[Dan Edwards]

I have also seen races over the years with outstanding cat dogs that were running a cat 100 yrds ahead of them, but the race never sounded jumped and sounded exactly like a cold track, yet I saw the cat right ahead of the dogs and they never caught it.

I know nothin bout cats but that is not that uncommon with coyotes. It is at times almost impossible for good hounds to run a walkin coyote so I cant see how it would be any different with a dog gone cat.

[dwalton]

Cobalt: I did not complete 8 tracks that I turned out on or struck that the dogs did more than bark at a pee bush. . Some of those were tracks that I missed the day before. I have seen a lot of cat trot ahead of the dogs. If the track is 15 or 20 minutes old a lot of blueticks can not move fast enough to get it jumped. These dogs aren't that way. I pissed you off one time by making a comment about blueticks. I really wanted to try one and used that for a conversation starter. My mistake. I apologized on a PM and got hammered by you. That told me all I wanted to know about your dogs. I don't tree all the cats I put on and have had better dogs than I do now. The point was what a guy can do if he does not make excuses for himself or his dogs. The comment was made about having the time and money to hunt. Yes it takes a lot of time and money to hunt hard. I am on a very limited income, my dogs have to pay for themselves and support me. If I don't catch the bills don't get paid. I love to hunt bobcats and train young dogs. It will be a sad day when I can't do it anymore. Dewey

[al baldwin]

I too have seen numerous bobcat sneaking ahead of the hounds on bare ground. Some eventually got caught, others lived to sneak another day. The best hound I ever seen at catching those cats was a lite bluetic in color. He was mixed treeing walker, running walker & for sure bluetic. I have seen some darn good bluetics. One of the best cat hounds in this area was a smokey river blue & McDonald black &tan cross. And was told by a sucessful, some what jealous walker man, that big coon dog looking hound was as good as he had ever seen & he had seen some good ones.. There are good ones in all breeds. Take nothing from the running dogs, but have seen some of them running behind a pack of tree breed dogs. Come to think of it Duey that lite bluetic colored hound is a distant ancestor of your Pepper female. Good health & hunting to all. Al