solo dog or team effort

[Dan V]

Things have been a little bit slow on here so I thought I'd bring this topic up. For those of you that run multiple dogs, how important is it for you to have different strengths and weaknesses in your pack or have all your dogs be complete dogs that can do it on their own? What I mean by that is you see some guys have a dog that might be a great track dog and a lousy tree dog. Anther guy might have a hot nosed dog that can smoke a fresh / jumped track, but it better be fresh. Another guy might tollerate weakness in other areas to get the grit.

The problem I see with the diversified pack is if you remove 1 or 2 dogs, you go from catching game to not catching game. I would rather have all of my dogs be complete dogs. Ones that I could grab any one of them regardless of who is in heat or heeling up and go catch game. It gets tough when you have young prospects coming on that you really want to give a fair chance to.

I know I sure have spent some time hauling around a truck load of dogs when only 2 of them were actually catching the game. I also know I would rather have a dog that would have to figure the track out on his own and locate a tree on his own than a dog that just runs to honor the other dogs and slam into their tree.

Dan

[Boozer]

I normally like to get all my dogs to that finished position also but i still run my started dogs with my finished dogs cauce if you don't they will never become a finished dog. When i cut an easy little female track or something i will leave my finished dogs in the box and only let my started dogs out snd let them do their thing but most of the time i run a full pack.

[Melanie Hampton]

I like a solid pack of "I can do it myself" dogs. Now some will still be better at other things then the other dogs.. One might have a colder nose, one might locate better etc..But if number 1 goes I want number 2 to be able to pick up the slack. Or if I want to drop number 1 on one track, number 2 on other and so on and so forth.. I want to be able to do that..

I have one project pup right now that prefers to be by himself while hunting. He will hunt with the other dogs and back them but prefers to get by himself. I can't wait until the snow hits.. His independent ass is going to be dropped on bobcat tracks all by his lonesome to see if he is as good as he thinks he is

TO be fed at my house, they need to be able to do it by themselves..

[Ike]

That's a good topic since I always laugh when people ask or are looking for a start dog, cause I never knew what they meant. Heck, I always throw down what I have to hunt that day and let them go find it......if a dog can't start, run and catch it's own track I don't want it unless it's a pup.

A couple years ago an outfitter and I were hunting a guy in early May in the dirt on lion. I roaded four hounds down a trail and struck lion after about four or five miles down the road. I had two older veteran hounds on the track and two younger dogs; the veterans were five and six years old and the other two were just coming two-year old hounds.

Anyway, my buddy and I sat on a rock and watched those four hounds turn the track this way and that as they rolled down the canyon. First one dog and then the next would lead, causing my buddy to remark about those younger dogs finding the track from time to time ahead of the older dogs. I told him I'd started them off the box since they were old enough to run with the older hounds, and if they couldn't start and push their own track they weren't worth a damn.........

I want all my dogs doing it on their own before they are two years old or it's probably time to get rid of that hound. That does not mean I don't appreciate an older veteran hound over a young one, nor does it mean that all the dogs finish on every occassion because dogs running their own tracks and not running "me to" don't always finish a tough track. We all have stories of a great hound that finished when the others didn't, and if it was a big tom lion that died with one dog under it then the tales grow longer with the years. But the bottom line is a dog better be doing his or her share of the work most days.......

ike

[Vance M.]

A half ass dog eats just as much as a good dog

[Bearkiller]

I think most guys will tolerate a hound that doesn't tree or track good if the dog is exceptionally gritty. I've seen quite a few dogs that didn't do anything at the tree but would bay a bear for hours on the ground. Another case in point is hog hunters. Alot of them run bulldogs for catching only. I won't own a dog that doesn't tree. As far as a start dog, I would say thats a dog thats pretty well broke and will go get a track. Alot of dogs will start a track in the road. Some dogs can go find the track.