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Was a late February morning about 20 years ago that I cast skinner, spike and a young hound named puller ahead of the 4wheeler. Spike was the first dog to open on an old cold scent, after a struggle the dogs jumped and ran & trailed that track for about an hour before catching on the ground. Made my way to those dogs and found they had caught a female bobcat on the ground. After a very steep climb back to the wheeler, had just started for the pickup when spike opened and went charging down the road I had ridden in on. He was joined by the other dogs and I listened as they trailed at a fast pace out of the area. Lucky for me i knew the area they had trailed into and was soon driving around about 15 miles to a different road system. Soon found the dogs were treed, but i had a long walk thru some very steep brushy country where I found what appeared to be a female cougar high in a tall fir tree. That puller dog was from a cross between skinner and a nice female that was a grand daughter to Sackett Jr. and one of the nicest young dog I ever owned or hunted with. Recall at the time he was about six months old under idea hunting conditions ran a nice tom bobcat and that pup ran and treed with the other dogs like an old dog. Those were good times for me and as you can tell enjoy reliving them. Al

Those young dogs like that are fun to watch. It’s amazing how natural some things come. How did he finish out?


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Sounds like a great day to me Al!! Always fun to see them youngsters have their moments in the sun!

Sure was a very good day, Had a little bad luck health wise Puller got ate up by a big tom bobcat , set him back a little. he also later had a foxtail that required surgery. Got him over those and he was doing very well had become the dog that got out ahead on those tough cats. He was not as open as spike and skinner on the cold stuff but saw him numerous times out in front saying very little. However my health started going to heck and I sold Puller to a young man, who later returned and bought spike. It is my understanding that young man had some tough luck and lost puller at a young age. That was a shame because puller was a nice hound and very nice to look at. Al

How old was Puller when the Tom got ahold of him?

I ask this because it’s something I feel pretty strongly about. One of my mentors told me many moons ago, that just because a pup can physically keep up with the old dogs doesn’t mean you should hunt it. He said I should never, especially on hogs, start a pup on live, uncontrolled hunts, until they were a year old. His logic was that they aren’t mentally mature enough to handle certain adversities. Getting on that wrong quarry too soon can set them back and even ruin them. He compared it to boxing. Put a 12-15 year old kid in the ring with the same age and size opponent and and they will likely be fine about the experience almost always. But you put that same 12-15 year old in the ring with the heavy weight champ of the world and it’s likely they won’t ever box again. They just don’t have the capacity mentally to deal with it at that stage. My nephew has a pup and his buddy has a littermate to it. His buddy started taking his to the woods at about 6-7 months old. She would make every step the old dogs did and bay every breath. They are about 13-14 months old now and if his two old dogs aren’t there then she is lost. My nephew started his at 11 months and he is already a contributor on hunts. Yesterday he was out hunting the entire morning and most of the time was alone. The difference is she learned to be dependent on the old dogs early on because that’s what most pups and children do is follow the older influences they are with. He was held back and his mindset was different when he was started. He payed attention to the other dogs but very quickly, in less than a dozen hunts, figured out that we were going to the woods to find hogs and he wasn’t going to wait on anyone else to do it for him. The age at which these two pups were started is the only difference in them other than gender. Both are extremely smart and athletic as well as healthy. They’ve always been very alike in everything they do. I have seen littermates that started with the same style and end up very different in style because one was caught early on in a bad situation and the other wasn’t. I’ve seen dogs started too young completely quit and very give it another chance too.


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Not sure how old Puller was but think about 10 months. Yes recall Tom Barnette telling me most dogs not mature enough to start on rank bear before 18 months. Thinking hogs would be as dangerous as bear. I believe one can hurt dogs by expecting to much at early age, however think more are hurt by leaving them in the kennel. In the case with puller first time to brush he was determined to go with the big dogs, his sire was the same way. Realize starting early does not mean they will mature to be better dogs than those who start late. As for puller running and treeing on that bobcat at 6 months old it was a perfect condition hunt, cat was a big stinky tom, had rained hard night before, dogs had the cat in very good ground and after a long trail job had the cat running in tight circles, sure there would have been a ground catch if cat had not climbed. Puller may have seen it climb. Dogs had ran that cat thru a ranchers yard once. I was very near them when cat climbed. To his credit at that age puller had stayed with the dogs from the start of the trail job. Dogs can/t learn much in the kennel. Al

I have experimented with holding dogs back till they are a year old and I personally won’t ever do it again, I like them to be 6 or 7 months old come cat season. I carry them to the woods with the big dogs and don’t expect much but 9 out of 10 usually are going and contributing very quickly. Curious Al if your friend Tom started his pups on cats first then moved them to bears or just let them run whatever he was currently chasing?

Beebout When first met Tom he owned an old female that started his pups as soon as they were able to follow her from Tom/s house. Tom said she ran cat only, however, I believe those pups pick up some bad habits that were hard to break. I think if possible he held them off bear at young age. Al

This hunt took place sometime in the late sixties, don/t recall much about the race, recall belle, packy, the good cat dog I bought from Tom Barnett and a young female called sis had a big a tom bobcat bayed on a rock in the middle of a mountain stream that most time had very little flow, but was really roaring because of the heavy rains. The sis dog was sitting back about 50 feet away from the action barking treed. Belle and packy were trying to get that cat off the rock. The cat would jump from the rock on to belle/s back and then back to the rock. Took a little bit of time for me to get things under control, what a video that would have made. Years later recall a friend & I treed a nice tom near that location. friend was shooting at and missing that cat with his 22 pistol, that cat began jumping from tree to tree. Never realized until that day how far a bobcat can jump. Al

Those sound like two amazing hunts to watch. I bet it made you plenty nervous watching that cat jump on and off of Belle.

Those big cats are amazing creatures. I can only imagine how impressive it is to see one jump like that. Those trees have give when they push off of them so you can just imagine how far they could jump off of solid ground.


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Yes Lawdawg that cat jumping on Belle/s back was a little nerve racking. This hunt was in the sixties I drove about four miles down to Bakers creek. Don/t recall how many dogs I turn loose, do remember that Packy got after a hot track and lined out real quick and got out of hearing. Last I heard him he was heading up river in the direction of Powers. After a bit I drove back up to Powers ,but never heard him bark again. Spent most of the day searching in the Baker drainage for him. Finally gave up and headed for home, should have did that sooner, Turned out he had ran a coyote down and bayed it in Ed Teasley/s back yard, don/t recall just how but Ed had forced him to leave the coyote and brought him home hours ago. From the time wife said Ed brought him home that yote must have gone straight to town. Ed lived on the northern edge of Powers. That dog did some very good work treeing bobcat alone, for any who think one dog can/t catch bobcats alone, wish you could have hunted with him. Another hunt remember friend and I walked out on saltlick, Packy started an old track, He and a young female of mine tracked for hours and took us down into sixes area, all the dogs except packy and that female eventually quit that track and returned to us. Then we heard packy and the female jumped and they ran that track to us allowing the other dogs to get in the race. Those dogs soon treed a bobcat. My friend said I have a lot more respect for that packy than I did when we started out this morning, I thought maybe he was trashing. That friend had caught numerous cats with his dogs. Packy was bred by Tom Barnett. After getting him I started catching a few cat on the ground and he taught me more than I taught him. Have many good memories of that dog, recall another time Robin Sell and I started a track early one morning packy trailed that track for hours got out on the other dogs and after we had lost track of him he came trailing back into our hearing jumped that cat and treed it. Recall another time started at the water hole on johnson mountain at one time he was trailing about the 3 mile on salmon creek road got that cat jumped and finally caught it on the river bank, of the south fork Coquille across from the boundry park. That takes in a lot of terrain Remember thinking maybe this is a coyote has I was walking to the the bay up, but found he had caught a small female bobcat. Again that young female was with him and her barking at the dead cat was only reason was able to locate those dogs. She was a treeing walker with a lot of Mac Twain, California Mac blood in her that I bought as a pup from Mac Napier. She never had the speed he had on the jump, but she could sure trail with him and a good tree dog.

Packy sounds like a super nice dog. Sounds to me like he had brains and tracking speed both. The proof is in the puddin there, those kind produce a lot of game and in style.


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Al did you say what Packy was out of? I was curious about whether or not he was kin to Belle. It sounds like you’ve had several really nice hounds over time. Were they mostly related, the better ones you’ve had, or were they all bred a little different?


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Lawdawg packy not related to belle. He was out of a female that had quite a bit of Charlie Taint blood in her and a male that was Kayo Mullins breeding, both owned by Tom Barnett. Tom had made that cross at least three times and it produced some nice hounds. All the dogs Tom owned went back to that cross. Just lucky Tom sold him to me, Tom owned several litter mates to him. Quite a few dogs I owned and trained traced back to belle, but lucky to own some that did not' I like to try different bloodlines mostly in the walker blood, a friend used to tell me you sure like to trash. I ordered pups from different breeders over time, some made good dogs and some that did not suit me I sold. Hunted often and could usually make good enough dogs that enabled me to get some of my expenses back. sure never made much profit. There are gifted dog men, I was not one of them, had to really work at it. Guess I really should say to my knowledge packy was not related to belle, as not sure what all his parents had in them. I never hunted with packy/s parents, they were old retired dogs when I met Tom.

If a person has a good dog or two in a lifetime it may be luck, but to have as many as you have already told of says you’re a better dog man than you give yourself credit for. I assure you that it wasn’t as easy for the people you considered dog men as they made it look.

I too am a fan of the walker dogs. If I was going to hunt a full blood hound it would be walkers. There are great ones in every kind but over all, the walkers just seem to be more my type.


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