What is your Expectations for your Big game dogs.
Years ago before I had an idea what a good dog was and how enjoyable a good dog was, I had a few hounds that would chase about any game including deer, elk, moose.lion, bobcat,and an occasional bruin. They would catch something about half the time. When I humbled myself and decided I really didn't have a clue about hound training and started getting help and ideas from some old school houndsmen, I did some culling, went with some bloodlines that had been straight lion or cat dogs, my percentage of cats in a tree went way up. These dogs will still catch a coon or a fresh bear, but they will sure enough leave that cold bear track for a cat track anytime. Does leaviing that bear track for a lion or bobcat make them wrong? Maybe in some peoples eyes it does, but that was the scent they were started on and trained on and that is what they prefer and so do I but I also have nothing against being able to catch a bear. What I have found with my pea brain and limited hound training ability that I had better luck with straight cat bloodlines. I used to be surprised when they caught something now I expect them to.
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Big N' Blue
- Babble Mouth
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- Location: Houston, Texas
jeff
Do not want to get off subject either but I want to explain to Jeff what I meant.
In east Texas cats are scattered and scarce and most of them are in cut over timber that is just a sold wall of briar patches with a lot of old logging roads and many sand roads. It took me 10 years to learn how to catch cats consistently in this country and probably would have never got it right if it was not for a man named Buster Moore from Huntsville, Texas.
It takes a running type dog to run a cat in this country, and one or two dogs cannot keep enough preasure on him between the briars and the sand roads. Were I mostly got beat was when a cat hits the road and goes up or down it for half a mile or more. Once we got him broke down in a briar patch I was more successfull getting him caught with 7 or more dogs keeping constant preasure on him. I have lost all of my good cat hunting woods in Texas to deer leases but I miss it terribly as we used to hunt at least 5 nights a week all year.
Anyway I hope that explaines to you what I meant.
In east Texas cats are scattered and scarce and most of them are in cut over timber that is just a sold wall of briar patches with a lot of old logging roads and many sand roads. It took me 10 years to learn how to catch cats consistently in this country and probably would have never got it right if it was not for a man named Buster Moore from Huntsville, Texas.
It takes a running type dog to run a cat in this country, and one or two dogs cannot keep enough preasure on him between the briars and the sand roads. Were I mostly got beat was when a cat hits the road and goes up or down it for half a mile or more. Once we got him broke down in a briar patch I was more successfull getting him caught with 7 or more dogs keeping constant preasure on him. I have lost all of my good cat hunting woods in Texas to deer leases but I miss it terribly as we used to hunt at least 5 nights a week all year.
Anyway I hope that explaines to you what I meant.
, to here all those hounds pressuring that cat to catch it. 