Washburn Walkers

[mikec]

Mr, Pacojack is correct about the treeing trends of these hounds. They are usually a sitback tree dog. I have had some that would try to tear the tree down but most are content to keep the game there until we arrive. I like this because it almost never causes a problem at the tree.

Mike, i hate to get a dog where it is not being hunted. These kind of hunters usually are the fasest to knock a line of hounds when it is not the hounds fault at all. Gerry was and is a straight foreward shooting houndman. He was honest about the dogs and hated any to go where or to someone he did not know, i guess because of that problem.

Mike Catron

[Spokerider]

My female is a washburn x english [from Dave Rude's line of english], and is content to sit down at the tree and chop away until I arrive.

[Lil Joes BigGame hounds]

Kyle, the guy who owns these dogs only has a few dogs anymore, and the youngest one are about three years old. I tried one of these three year old dogs and she was so far gone by the time I got her she was afraid of pretty much everything. All though I can see the intellagence that was bred to her, she just is just to old to recover from not being hunted at a young enough age. Its a shame this is the third dog I got from this guy and all have had the same problem. NOT ALL DOGS WERE Washburn bred. And I did have one good Washburn dog and he threw some good pups.

[Mr.pacojack]

Glad you brought that up. These pups of my buddy's are man shy as well. They are doing a bit better but it still takes a minute to walk up to them

[kiekhofers_walkers]

Im not to familar with the washburn line. can someone help me out where that line originated from. And wondering how they perform. For nose and grit and treeing ability. thanks
Mike k

[Ray Slayton]

Mike, you need to get Kyle to open up on this subject, he is Gerry's neighbor and ran his dogs for a long time. Gerry's Buford dog was the dog that most impressed me, and is up close in every dog in the line my friend Mike Catron and I have been running since 1995. I think Mike posted a complete bloodline in the walker classifieds. Gerry tried many different breedings over the years, so Washburn bred might mean different things, but for most folks I think it means Buford, and after Buford died his littermate brothers Woodie and Boomer were used a lot. Gerry told me once that Buford was the dog that made him want to start a line of dogs- he felt he had to because the dog was that good.

[drygroundhound]

Ray good to hear from you on here. What can I say yes I hunted with hundreds of Gerrys dogs or puppies I helped him work those puppies almost everyday. If they weren't shipped at weaning then we worked them on cats and coons until they were sold. I was a bluetick hunter until I met Gerry but it didn't take me long to get his walkers in my yard. Buford and Boomer were an amazing team they worked very very well together. I very rarely had a male dog around here but I had a Buford x Echo dog that I raised he had the best nose I ever saw on a dog. He could tree a lay up everyday of the week.He was a very good sit down tree dog also. My Magic female was an awesome tree dog she won every tree contest I put her in except 1 and she tied for first we treed them again for the tie breaker she got hot and slowed a little bit lost by 3 barks.As far as grit they had it or they wouldn't make good bear dogs.Gerry isn't the kind of person to pet and love on a dog, in my opinion that was not a good thing, some pupies need a little extra encouragement to get them excited and bring out the intensity.The pups I raised here were loved on and petted by my daughters and me, he always said my kids raised the best pups. Ther is nothing like watching 20 or 25 puppies chasing a cat through the brush. Man I wish I could go back 20 years and learn some more and keep some of the pups he bred. Hind sight is 20/20 you know! I buried ole Buford for Gerry when he died because he couldn't do it. When he lost him he lost a part of himself.

Kyle

[david]

It is good to hear some more about these dogs. I dont know much about them except that I owned one out of Boomer. I also got to hunt with a littermate brother of hers. They were straight bobcat dogs, well they did trash on lion, but almost straight.
She was amazing on the rig and seemed like she could sense the cat scent coming before it got to the rig, because she was always about ten seconds ahead of the next dog to open. It was a strange thing.

I would have to say she was the best handling dog I have ever owned in the treeing walker breed. Maybe of any breed. It seems like "handling" is not even the right word. Seems like that would involve giving commmands and stuff. She just did everything you wanted her to do, and she knew to do it without even being asked.

She was just the right size for me: 35 lbs. I knew of another brother from the same cross, and all three made exceptional rig dogs for bobcat. She had an amazing voice. If you heard it all night and then saw her for your first time, you would not beleive that much sound was comming out of that little package. Her colors were rich and bright.

Maybe you can tell, I really liked that dog. Every kid that ever met her just could not get enough of her. She would suck them in like a whirlpool. When she died, the kids demanded a funeral, and there was not a dry eye. A man with a dogbox full of Katies would be a happy man indeed. His kids and the neighbor kids would be equally happy.

I am glad to hear there are people keeping that stuff going. If any of them fit the description of Katie, please let me know.