bobcat rig dog

[high desert hounds]

If a guy was looking for a no B.S. bobcat rig dog where would he look? I,m talking about the real deal. dry ground from the box or hood. what breed, what breeder,and why. This isn,t to start an arguement i just want to know everyones opinion. I have heard of such a dog but I have yet to see one. I have great dogs none of witch can strike a bobcat on dry ground with any regularity. true cold nosed with brains.

[Mike Leonard]

Dry ground and bare ground can be very different. There are a lot of really great dogs in the northwest that can do this regularly. There are some guys on the forum that can catch them and they rig most of them without snow. Now out here in your name sake country the high , dry desert dogs that can do that are scarce as hen's teeth, but there occasioanly comes a water walker onto the schene but they don't grow on trees.

[high desert hounds]

Mike thanks for the input. I don't consider coast or cascade dogs dry ground dogs. those guys would disagree i,m sure. In my exsperience the dogs that come over here from the valley and coast struggle. but my exsperience is limited with such dogs. A good friend of mine just headed over to buy a dog from wade lemon of utah that is sapose to be a dry ground bobcat rig dog. Acording to my friend the dog is 3,000.00. and that seams like a steal. what did you mean when you said a water walker? Thanks a bunch for the reply

[Ike]

There was a post some time back about good bobcat dogs and their value, and most agreed that a good bobcat dog was worth more like $5000 to $8000 bucks. I don't remember too much talk about those dogs rigging bobcats on dry land and catching them.

If Lemon truly has a bobcat dog that will rig and catch bobcats on dry ground (and will sell it for $3000 bucks) then you better go get that dog........cause Mike is probably right in saying those type hounds are as scarce as hen's teeth.

I live in the high desert as well, and this region or state is shown as being the second driest state in the west other than Nevada. My old nine year old redbone will bump on a lion track that none of the other dogs will touch from the platform. On occasion, one of his seven year old pups will bump with him on tracks like that. But time and again those four year old hounds that go back to him will stay silent. And they have been on the platform with Ike since they were six months old.

I don't know why or what a hound smells that bumps on old lion, bear or bobcat tracks that others won't...but they smell something, and whatever that is it's rare!

ike

[Mike Leonard]

Well that term leans to the biblical sense not many walked on water but it has happened. LOL!

No I have seen dogs out here even some I have owned occasionaly rig a bob on the dirt, a lot more than I have seen them rig lions. Ofcourse there are more bobs than lions but still you would think the size and heavy scent of the lion would really trigger them but I don't see it happen a lot in this area. I have seen those dogs that would occasionaly rig a bob seldom line them out or catch them, so I got to thinking maybe they rigged a hot spot or a scent post area.Don't know for sure. I have had a few dogs that were pretty good at picking a bob up roading them but they would usually road off to the side of the road and get it where they entered the brush.

We ran one this afternoon and I waa afraid we were going to lose him. We actually saw the cat in the distance cross a barren hillside and go over a little saddle. We finally got the 5 dogs over there and they struck and I thought they were going to run the backtrack on the stupid thing. My old Jiggs dog was just flying thru the sage backwards and he had a young female with him and the other three dogs hit the saddle and started trailing but none too fast down the ridgeline. Well my boy ran to them and I went to get the truck and cut around a ways the way they were going. Well just before I( got to the truck I heard old Jiggs way up in front and he was jumped well in just a minute I heard a bunch more of them and then about the time I got to the truck Chase said on the radio they are treed. Well when I got over there I asked him about old Jiggs and he said I was watching him and he was way behind the other dogs and he just took off running like he was after a rabbit and the next thing I knew he was 200 yard ahead of the rest and bawling his head off. This is where a little expereince helps and he finally figures he was not right and he knew what to do to make up the difference and change. He sure is no water walker but he has a pretty good memory on him and he really hates not being the lead dog. LOL!

[Arkansas Frog]

I think Mike meant walk on water

I think a top notch cat dog WON'T be for sale.

[Ike]

I have seen those dogs that would occasionaly rig a bob seldom line them out or catch them, so I got to thinking maybe they rigged a hot spot or a scent post area.Don't know for sure. I have had a few dogs that were pretty good at picking a bob up roading them but they would usually road off to the side of the road and get it where they entered the brush.

I've driven down the road with a fresh bobcat track in the dirt in front of me and not gotten a peep out of my dogs, then when the cat leaves the road watched them all blow up like they had bear. On one occasion, I had a bear hunter with me and we could see a wet puddle where the dogs went off hard which pretty much told me they were rigging that bobcat's urine.

Scratches alongside the road are another tell, tell sign. I've had my dogs hit a scratch near the road and go off like they were looking at a bear, some of those tracks ended in a treed lion and others I pulled the dogs because of the slow trail and heat of the day. So it's never been very clear to me what those dogs are keying on.

Last summer I took Hal Mecham hunting one day to watch my old red dogs rig. Now Hal's been hunting, breeding and selling dogs for forty or so years. He watched those two red dogs of mine start rigging steady on a bear track that was old and neither of my two four year olds or his two bitches he brought would make a peep, so he wanted to try the track.

Well, it was late morning and those two redbones wouldn't hardly bark at the track on the ground so I called them off. Hal shook his head and said, "none of these other dogs even know that a bear has crossed." And then he went on to say, "I don't know what those two dogs are smelling, but they are smelling something."

So when you get all that stuiff figured out Mike let ol' Ike know cause it all sounds like too much work to me..........

[high desert hounds]

As far as nevada being dry I know because I,m right here. It is so dry here you can follow your dogs by the dust trail. My dogs are not what i would call dry ground dogs. they require a skiff of snow to get things going. I got some dogs from chuck griffin of colorado and there was one dog in there that could have walked on water. he would do anything i would ask of him on a lion but would never ever trail a bobcat. He had no interest in those bobs.

[Ike]

I know what you mean about following the dog's dust trail after driving around on these oil field roads all day long. I'll bet there are a couple of them the dust never settles on before the next truck or car comes along.

Years ago I was drilling for a contractor down on the White River, and the road in was about three or four inches deep of that flour, powder type stuff. I was on morning tour one week and remember having the mud engineer drive into the rig to do his morning checks, and when he left the dust cloud would still be hanging in the air from when he came in...........I was younger and not as smart in those days and wiped out a set of rings in my truck in just a few short weeks from driving on that road, darn truck never burned oil before that well and always did after that.

[Mike Leonard]

Dust man do I know it. Largo Canyon which is a huge yawning canyon that is one of the roughest most inhospitable places in the southwest. It is the place the ancient Anasazi indian retreated to hide from their enemies in the cracks and cliffs and walls of this rugged peiece of nature's architecture. The dust and blowsand in the bottom makes those huge powderholes that Ike was taling about down on the White and the haze hangs over the Largo all the time from oilfield traffice that chugs it's way to and fro daily.The lions and the few Barbary sheep left there blend into the dusty red rock lanscape. Dust we have it. clay, sand, alkali it;s all the same in the high desert it doesn't matter if it's Vernal, Utah, Rangely, Colorado,Mack, Loma, Cisco. Moab Cortez, Blanding, Farmington, Ely, Elko. Dust ,rocks, lizards, and then that cold dry wind. Not the best trailing for sure, but heck some of us are stuck in these garden spots so we just bumble around and do the best we can. I guess that old proverb about the blind sow even finding an acorn now and then help is keep smiling and wandering around out there hoping for another acorn. LOL!

[liontracker]

***

[Dean Webster]

I would be carefull about buying a dog like that for 3,000. I did the same thing about 5 years ago from the same man. The dog didn't know what a cat was. I found out later that he didn't owne the dog,but it was owned by a n outffiter in col. The man called me and said as far as he was concerned, his dog was hyjacked and should not be in ca at all. What a mess that was. Not trying to cause trouble here, just giving you heads up. Thanks Dean W. 209 617 5671