Weldon Hoppman

[69er]

After moving to Arizona about four years ago my daughter Nikki and I wanted to go for a drive and visit more of the Mogollon Rim. I had seen Weldon’s ads with some mixed emotions. But we were bored and craving knowledge so I called Weldon, “Yes, I will be here”, so we drove over.

Well we got there and were met by a man that apparently did a lot of hunting with Weldon. Weldon would be here in 30 min. So we listened to this guy excitedly tell us stories about lion hunting and the hounds. There were a lot of dogs! I mean a lot! Did I say there were a lot of dogs? In any case, Weldon arrives and he welcomes us and starts to give me the Walker Hound dog tour of my life. Let me say he had some of the nicest dog pens I’ve seen out West. It was kind of like a zoo. Anyway, Weldon starts us through this maze of pens. I honestly can’t say how many hounds, 40-60 because in these pens are 2-3 bitches with 2-3 different sized litters and pens with 2-3 one to two year old males. And Weldon is giving Nikki and I one of the best hound speeches and I can tell that it is a good one by his body language. But I can’t hear it (the speech) because 40-60 Walkers are baying and I mean the big puppy pens had some of the best UFC fights in them I have ever seen. But more amazing than the fights is the fact that Weldon does not miss a lick with that hound dog speech. And Mike Leonard knows me. There are two facts: I was not born with a long fuse along with another part of my body and the older I get the shorter the fuse along with…

In any case, by now I am in need of some help (mental). We are standing in front of a pen that the pups single out a little female in a corner. And it gets ugly until. That little lose wire in my head slightly touches that other lose wire in my head. And I end it!

I looked at Weldon and waved him off of the battle zone to where for the first time in 45 minutes I could hear him speak and he invites us up to his house on top of a hill to look at some pictures. He showed us a lot of beautiful lion pictures stuck in cardboard boxes. All or most were from ‘70s but what surprised me the most was all the lion rugs he had.

Well, in any case, I finally built up enough nerve to say “Weldon, what the %$@^ is up? Why would anyone make so many crosses?” He tells me that he had a large construction job out of town and he told some folks, Free rent if you feed and water the hounds. So Weldon did the smart thing, he put 1 or 2 males in with 2 to 3 females. HELLO DOLLY! BING-BANG-AND BOOM!

What makes this story funnier is two pups, one male and one female end up going to Dave Carlson’s for training for a few months (Sorry Dave) and then end up at my house place owned by a local man, who paid $1,200 for the pair. Dave tapes the pups on mule back hunting and is constantly cussing about how slow and awkward the pups are and always having to go back and get them.

I get them to train at 13 months old. Dave was right! They could not run a straight line. I introduce them to game along with the guy that owns them, and two Plott pups that were seven months old. It is his brand new live trap; we just want to see if there is some prey drive. We drop the tailgate and the Plotts ruin the trap. The Walkers run off scared. The owner of the Walkers catches the male who is 85 pounds and has a mane and head like he is half St. Bernard. He pulls it over to mangled trap and the dog does back flips in an effort to escape.

The funniest part of this is I asked Weldon what he wanted for the pups and he said between $800.00 and $1,200, AND HE GOT IT!

I say, moral of this story is “The power of the pen is truly mightier than the sword”

If Weldon has a Walker that can run 25 miles on soft ground in slight hill country in 4 hours I’ll eat a bite out of my old sweaty hat!

And Mike, Nikki and I got to thinkin’ about that question, “How far can you stretch a lion?” and a strange look came over her eyes as she eyeballed the only lion I have ever had rugged out on the wall. And with a smile on her face she pealed the lion off the wall, as I followed her and watched her soak this lion in a tub of water murmuring over and over “Start the quads, grab some chain, 11 feet ain’t shit!” LOL!

I say well done Weldon.

Thanks.

69er

[Mike Leonard]

I had missed this post for some reason 69ER. I just picked myself up off the floor I was laughing so hard I almost pissed myself!


Folks I don't know what to say becasue I have never been to Weldon's place, but I will tell you one thing I have been to 69ER's dog yard, and you can hear a pin drop.Dogs mind their manners puppys go about organized play and even the young ones have obstacle courses set up to teach them to be nimble and get around in the tight spots.

Now what I would like to hear on a recording because we couldn't print it on the forum or Buddy would ban us all but it would be 69ER, and Dave Carlson bringing order to the Hopman circus. Ouch! I mean that would make Cecil Ralston blush. LOL! I mean Dave will tell you right up front that he doesn't mince words. LOL! and he is right but he is so dang funny the first time I heard him cussing that long eared slow moving blinkey blankety jasack ! Once again I found myseld rolling around on the floor. ROFLMAO!!!!

I agree with peace and quiet, and I hate rude behavior in a dog, and as Woodrow Call said in Lonesome Dove. I won't tolerate it!!

[mike martell]

not sure either what the thinking is here. this was the rant i had on breeders. weldon starts off with some top bred hounds.hell i even endorsed his program not long ago. until i find out what is going on. as i pursue this avenue. i'm stunned to see the guy had allowed the males to be penned with the females to make what ever cross that come about. not sure what the sire is for sure but we do know that it is narrowed down to 50/50. but rest assured ukc registered them. no dna. no proving out, no nothing. weldon wanted me to have a w.c.male for future breeding. the dog was two years old. i asked him how many lion the dog had treed, he said he had only caught barn lions. at two a dog needs to head up a mans kennels or be culled.senile is probably the word here? if you aren't making any crosses for yourself for hunting why breed? money is not the object here. i'm just stunned with all this. needless to say. i will have none of that on my end here.my goal of improving the walker breed when i started with this strain was simply that. now it is defined by how many of the cull dogs i eliminated from the walker breed. thus improving the walker breed. not exactly what i had in mind when i set out.we need to establish a performance based registry. ukc is another greedy business that touts its high moral standards until you see what they do behind the scene. i know all too much first hand.but they are only as good as the dishonest people that send in the money.this strain started out all mixed, and looks like it will end up that way.the dog don't hunt either you keep it grade or eliminate it, preferably the latter. the days of getting away with this are gone thanks to the internet.

[Mike Leonard]

Maybe this is a learn at you go game but you don't get to be what ever 70 or somthing and just pen dogs and bitches up and truely believe it will all turn out good. Come on that goes on only in the human world and you see where a lot of that is going. Whoops!

No sir, I am no dog breeding guru, and as a whole lot of folks on this forum can tell you it is nearly impossible to get a pup from me because we just are not breeding any. Mike Martell I beleive you turely have the best interest of your strain at heart and I applaude you, I only wish you the best.
We are only making crosses when we need a pup or two to go or want to prove a cross. I had a bitch out this morning that is just going out of heat. I only had females with her and two fixed dogs. Let me tell you she impressed me on a cold track and as my wife who was along said , the certainly don't mess around when it comes to moving a track. I said no they don't and this female was number two and picked up a few losses. We did n't get to see the tree until they had been there awahile but this female was a little loose on the wood for me with the others pounding but she is young and went into this first heat at 9 monthes. I will have to see a little more before I would even say yes. But she did trail like crazy. I am certainly not in this for the money and I don't even lion hunt for the kill or with anybody to speak of other than my family but it is to watch these dogs. I don't bear hunt anymore. I chase a few bobcats but sure don't catch many , I love to coon hunt but you can't do that around here anymore too many people. So I just poke around and hunt lions. Not many left and season is over here on public but thank goodness I am agent to several large private ranches and I check fence, cattle, and keep an eye on the predators, as a trade for a place to go work the dogs.


I sure want to know how long Nikki stretched that lion? If it was a big quad Grizzley or somthing we may have a new world record. LOL! Rudden! Rudden! Gas it!!!!

[catdog360]

Wow you guys got alot to say. WE had one Hoppman female . She started late , wouldn't do a thing till about 10 months I mean you never saw a better example for a bullet. The one day at 10 mnth. she woke up. She was extremly cold nosed, excellent on the rig , great start dog , and would climb every tree , just a tree dog deluxe. Now the bad side. She was mean , could never let her touch anything that was killed she would nail any other dog around. She would bark ,and bounce in the kennel till the day she died. But she was never ever trashy, and could flat move through the rocks.
Now exactly what makes one guy happy ,may not another. This dog was my dads he thought the world of the dog, if you turned her loose she was going to tree it.
I on the other hand would never have put up with the negatives even though she would get the game. She was to mean, I can't stand a growly dog, I can't stand a dog that is always working the kennel. Mainly she was just too mean for me. And too slow at starting, so if you ask me I wouln't own one, If you ask my dad He would say that they were hard hunting, track driving, blow down the tree dogs.
Mic

[Mike Leonard]

Mic,

That behavior you described is classic for dogs that have been bred too tight and not culled enough. Just like 69er said they just let old able breed old ready and even though there may be some of the best blood in the world if you don't do it right you end up with somthing that is less than desirable.

You can have all the ingredients in the kitchen but if you don't mix them correctly and know how to cook it won't be fit to eat.

[mike martell]

mic. i had two females that were tops. both could rig start a coon, bear, lion,just average bobcat dogs. one was a top bay dog. locating tree dogs second to none. the short side was, you could not tie them up at a tree together they would kill each other. i had plans for advancing this particular cross. it was the most w.c. blood around. instead i ,well you know.i would wager 99% of those that hunted behind these two would have no problem breeding them. i don't mince words or mess with ill dogs for one second nor will i allow those ill jeans to be passed down, evidently someone liked this behavioral problem. or as translated by myself just bred them and didn't hunt or prove them out.this is the first for me, i hunted plotts for years and never seen the cross behavior in my bear bred dogs. those dogs would hang on a bear! than my kids used to ride them in the kennels like ponys. they never worked the kennel. it seemed to me they saved their energy for working the game.mike leonard. you nailed it on the ingredients factor my friend.... mic, thanks for sharing your perspective, good hunting to you! mike

[fox hunter]

I bought one of weldons dogs about ten years ago she would bay the hell out of a bear if she ever got there. On a cat she would tree at the first loose if you let another dog start the track she would take it backwards to where it was born and weldon wanted her back for a brood bitch didnt happen. Know im not the sharpest pencile in the box so I bougght two young lepoard curs he had supposed to be good young cat dogs they could not run a bigmac across my dinner table. When I was at his house he had a flunky takeing care of his dogs that were a half mile from his house.Some of the young dogs were like caged coyotes

[catdog360]

So to the guy wanting to know about the Hopman dogs it looks like everyone has experenced the same thing. They will probably make good dogs, that will tree with the top dog, but will want to eat up his buddy. Like I said the one we had was a great dog, with enough flaws that I would never breed her into my pack, and I would never own another one, but everyone has their own idea of what it takes to make a big game dog.