help training bobcat dog

[Mike Leonard]

Good stuff here!

Bobcat hunting is a great test of a dog and not very many make real cat dogs. Many more cat are caught in high density cat populations with running type dogs. Generaly these guys do not want a dog to mess around cold trailing a cat they want to rig or road them right up on a hot track and then put the highball on him and it is fast and exciting hunting.

I grew up hunting cats in the badlands of eastern Montana and western North Dakota in the Little Missouri River Breaks. We got a lot of snow and cold in the mid winter here and cat hunting was usually put on hold when the tyhermostat hovered below minus 20 degrees which many times it did for weeks. We would hunt them hard thru the early fall and then when the chinooks blew in and things warmed up or when spring starting warming things up a bit. It wasn't the best bobcat hunting but at time it was pretty good. I went to my first cat tree at age 6 and was hooked on it from that point on. There were several huynters around thewre that had a few cat/coon combination hounds and these were the ones I was exposed to early on but when I got in my late teen I met a real bobcat man and things were never the same. This old Govt. hunter took a liking to me and invited me on a 3 day weekend cat hunt out of one of his camps on Cabin Creek. In three days of hunting patch snow we caught 13 cats ranging from big toms to subs that were caught in a hole and killed. These dogs were big bawl mouthed blueticks and black and tans mostly crossed on walkers, They would cold trail , jump and tree a high percentage of the track they started. Not what a lot of folks think of when you think of bobcat dogs but they got it done it that country. I have never done that good myself, but I did have a five cat day one time hunting with my own dogs. The cats were breeding and I got into a pocket of them in a place called Smokey Swamp, and about the time I would get one knocked out a little Nance walker bitch I had called Sally would be gone again and it wouldn't be long and she would set down under another one. I felt like I was 10 feet tall and bullet proof when I pulled up in front of that old man's house to show him my catch that day. LOL! He was as happy as I was but he gave me that little wink and said be careful though because those days don't come along very often. He was right I think it was three weeks until I caught another one. LOL!

[koonta]

I have a dead uncle that killed 212 cats with a july cross dog here in northern michigan in the 60s and 70s I thought that was impressive Greg

[Arkansas Frog]

Shorty they are a guy on trapperman.com that lives in south Texas and run a large ranch and traps over a 100 bob cat a year. some nights he can catch 6 to 10 like in Mt, a good trapper can catch between 13 and 20 yotes a night. O'Gorman will catch 1000 a year [Broadus Mt.]

here in mtn Home Ark. we caught 400 coons in 37 days, if the fur is in a
section and you got the dogs or know how to trap it you can do it.

[Dan Edwards]

I have a dead uncle that killed 212 cats with a july cross dog here in northern michigan in the 60s and 70s I thought that was impressive Greg

Very impressive.

Koonta, I sent you a pm. Was wondering about some things.

[Mtn cur hunter]

Go to the training tips section. Mike Leonard wrote a great piece on training bobcat dogs. It's a sticky so it will be the first one you come to. There should be enough information to get you well on your way. Good luck!

Would this be the way to train curs also?
thanks

[Buddyw]

That could be a good way to start.

I don't think there is much difference between a hound and a Cur.. (But.. Don't tell the Hard Core "CUR" guys that.. Those guys will be coming out of the woods to flog me for that statement... )

You'll also want to find a cat hunter around your area.. and watch and learn and enjoy..

But to answer you question.. Yes You can use that method to start training a cat prospect. As for Bobcat hunting.. Your in for a long Hard Road to make a Bobcat dog from scratch.. Not an Easy task!

Welcome to the Board.

[BigGameHunter]

WOW is all I have to say. I can't imagine using that many dogs on Bobcat. I would have a mess with dogs stomping out the track for other dogs. If you guys a catching that many cats in a year all I can say is WOW. That would be nice. We don't have cat numbers around here to be able to even imagine about thinking about catching that many bobers. I usually only run 4 dogs at most on a bober in snow deeper that 6 in. and that is only when I am training a youngster. When its running through deer and elk sign on old snow or ground it's 2 or 3. If I only had dogs that treed on sight I would maybe catch 1 or two bobcats a year. I have had to look for a long darn time to see a bobcat up in the tip top of a spruce tree. Hell; there's been times where I am positive there is a cat in the tree and I never did see it. Guess maybe I'm false treeing!

You could make some fine bobcat hounds catching that many cats in a year.....

[Dan Edwards]

You need to take a trip down to where they are talkin about and see for yourself what they mean. Its totally different country.

[Shorty]

The worst thing about it is that these cats aren't worth any money. I guess what we lack in quality we make up for in quantity. It's just too darn hot for them to grow much hair. Oh well we still have fun and thats all that matters in the end.

[Big N' Blue]

Hipshhooter and Shorty hunt the same way as I used to hunt bobcats in east Texas. We do not have the numbers that South Texas has and sometimes we would road dogs for two nights before you would get a tail wiggle and you better try to run him or you might not get a bark for two more nights!
LOL Shorty, Buster Moore is who taught me how to cat hunt and he knew Joe Rufus well! Buster told me stories of him comeing to Huntsville to hunt with Buster and he would tell Buster all ya'll do is cold trail a cat to death! LOL There is definitely a world of difference in the way a successful bobcat hunter has to hunt even within the same state. Look forward to seeing you soon.

David

[Gary Roberson]

I will vouche for Shorty and know the folks that he is talking about. There are more bobcats in that country than any place I have ever been and it is "user friendly" for the hunter. One of my buddies from down there called me a couple months ago and said that he had caught 7 cats the day before. The most I have ever seen caught in one day is 4.
I will say that Shorty's Father-In-Law, Phil Lyne and I called up 21 bobcats and one lion in two nights a few years ago. I don't know if that is a record but it was for me.

They have as many bobcats in that country as we have coon in my country. Shorty is right, they really don't want a dog wasting time cold trailing. They will call them in and continue roading them until they hit a hot track and they usually don't have to go far.

The guys down there hunt a lot of dogs on the ground. One evening I was staying with Phil Lyne and drove up on some fellows from Freer. There were dogs running all over the road and around the pickups. I stopped to visit with them and asked how many dogs they had out. Their reply was 26.

[Hipshooter]

I heard about one trapper last WINTER THAT TRAPPED 150
cats on one ranch & another trapped 127 on another ranch.
Think about training your dogs in that enviroment.