What part of the chase proves a bobcat dog's ability more?

[Houndswoman]

In our opinion and in order of importance for a single dog run loose on dirt:

1. striking and cold trailing ability
2. ability to get through loses quickly after jumped
3. locating ability....more of an issue if an area of big and thick timber
4. track speed....speed doesn't mean squat if a dog overruns the track continually and can't make the pick up very fast
5. Treeing

[U.R.E.]

It depends on conditions...... In dry conditions I would say before. In damp ideal conditions I would say locate.

[three rivers catahoulas]

It's all about after the jump I think! I was askin questions before about this, my dogs can gett'em going but man it's like pullin teeth from a bear to get'em treed and stayed in the tree. From what I have seen it takes a super smart dog to become a super good bobcat dog, and even then they might only catch 1 out of 4 they run. Whats a bobcat hide goin for these days? In ten years or so of runnin dogs I think I have two hides in the frezzer and I think I shot one of them the other two were treed by dogs.

[Yaak attack]

Trust me on this one. A good bobcat dog will catch three out of four or better if you don't turn out where a cat can get to bad rock.

[BigGameHunter]

I am going to agree with Yaak on this one. Once a cat is jumped as long as that cat doesn't do into the ledges, I think a GOOD bobcat dog should have a pretty high catch rate... in good conditions.

[Nolte]

Who ever has good conditions. Or better yet can find a cat in good conditions. It sure doesn't seem to be me.

I don't know, I cat hunt a little but am FAR from being a cat hunter. In our neck of the woods I don't see any dogs pushing 3 out of 4 in tree or bayed. Maybe if you are shooting them on the swing. Boy would I sure like to see it though. Any dog getting getting half from track to tailgate is darn near a legend round these parts. But most guys here don't hunt strictly for cats, you just can't with our goofy tags/seasons.

[three rivers catahoulas]

I have a friend up north, and Paul has been runnin cats for 38 years and he has some top notch cat dogs, and he's the one who told me 1 out of four. And this is a guy that has 35-40 hides hanggin in the shop every year. I am by far not a cat hunter and have only caught a few with my dogs, so my openion means nothing. LOL I'm just saying what he said. Now if we were talkin hogs I would be cocky LOL and run my mouth Ha Ha

[Mel White]

your location also plays a big part in the type of dog. like biggamehunter and yaak attack say is true for there location. east of the cascades in the north west it seems if you can jump a cat its pretty much caught, at least shorter jumped races.because of the thick brush the coast cats can run and run. some for hours until you catch them on the ground or the dogs just get beat.nother better than listening to a jumped race where they are just going back and forth and round and round with the dogs right on the butts.

[Yaak attack]

I hunted a little in high desert country of central Or. I thought this would be a cakewalk as there is no brush and the dogs can roll good. Rock piles and slash piles were the cat's best defense. Without exception the cats there "holed up" or got to the big rims. My dogs were not used to this and we were able to kill about half of what we threw down on. Actually we lit one slashpile and the cat burned up rather than come out. If we waited the cat would usually come out within an hours time only to find another hole once he heard the dogs again. If I hunted there more I think my dogs would learn adjust and I would have to figure out which rockpiles to avoid.