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Ok just out of curiosity would you think trapping would do better than dogs in the land you work

I would think that if you are after fox and coyote that trapping would give you a higher body count, if that is what you are after. Dogs might provide more enjoyment. I have been where you are at, in terms of decision making. I had blackmouth curs that I squirrel and coon hunted with. I used them for trapline dogs when I had a need for them. I went mountain cur for a while, tried the whole calling decoying thing. I found that around here, a fox coming to a call does so best at night, and coyotes come better in early morning and you need to be in something thick enough that they aren't going to see a decoy dog anyway. So I never saw the success that you see on the videos of people using decoy dogs. I got tired of squirrel hunting, so I gave up on the curs. I wanted a dog in case I needed to find a coyote or a bobcat on a drag. I thought about airedales, almost went that way. I decided to go running hound, that way I can have the hound nose power and not have to worry about ruining a good coon hound letting it fool with coyotes, If I call them coyote hounds, that makes it OK to let them fool with coyotes. Of course, you need a truck, and some tracking collars, if you have a coyote hound or hounds. There are starting to be more people in the east running coyotes. A lot up North already. If you do it, you will have help, there are a lot of bear hunters interested in getting a hound fix in the off season, just don't expect them to use their bear dogs. Up in Wisconsin, or in Maine, the bear hunters don't care. They have figured out that they can get a lot more running in if they run coyotes too, and that coyote dogs make decent pack dogs behind a dedicated bear strike dog. So what one person considers taboo, another might do all the time. I don't really think that the people that don't want to run coyotes with any of their beardogs have any LESS coyote races than people that run both, it's just that they get a lot more upset when it happens. For me, life is too short to get too concerned with what my dogs are running, I enjoy hearing them run.

I get the impression from reading your posts that you may be young and not have room for but one or two dogs, maybe not much in the way of transportation at this point, and I remember what that is like. My advice would be to figure out what is in your area that you want to hunt, and get a dog to hunt that. If you want to coon hunt or squirrel hunt get a cur, and let it be your trapline dog too. If you have birds, get a bird dog and let it be your trapline dog. A lab would do what you need, a draathar or something rough like that might do the same job but get torn up doing it.

Whether they get torn up has more to do with smarts than with how tough they are. It has been my experience that something that can't take a whooping usually stays out of the whooping zone. Some of the ones that have it in their mind to take a whooping don't always take it as good as they thought. You don't need anything more than a dog that barks enough to let you know where they are to find an animal with it's foot in a trap and shoot it with a 22.

Something to think about, and please forgive me if I am mis-reading your situation, is, if you get a draathar or something, and in a few years you have a hankering to run hounds or something, is that sucker going to be eating up pen space and dog food and holding you back from something you want to do?

Your right I got to Walker black and tan x that are making pretty good coon and squirrel dogs but we are getting a lot of fox and coyote pules they made turkey hunting with dogs legal and it has been something i have wanted to try and we are getting were big game hunting is a pretty common thing which for us mines deer bear and elk so I have been thinking about maybe getting a blood tracking dog you said something about lab dogs being able to track a drag I guess they must be able to track pretty good for the cops to use them for drugs and to find missing people and for the army to use them for finding explosive have you ever heard of them being used for turkey and shed hunting also blood tracking maybe I need to take a look at them

hillbilly boy wrote:never been on a hog hunt but from what I have read they can be some of the most dangerous game around so that what made me wonder

Hogs can kill a dog for sure but there are many, no actually a lot of hog dog type dogs that will not appreciate the ivory of a coyote at all if ya get my drift.

I think I do I have always thought the one thing a coyote might have that a hog would not is speed

Hey guys, I am new to the site but just ran across this old thread. I own a drahthaar and kurzhaar and can attest to their versatility. I mainly use them for upland bird hunting but their prey and fur drive is exceptional. The Draht is the smartest dog I have ever owned and trees bobcats regularly while quail hunting. They will both kill coyotes and badgers and have no problems working a hot track.They have ran one lion as well. He is also great at blood tracking wounded game. I have used him to track a shot deer over 1100 yards with visible blood ending after 200 yards of track. The fur drive on the draht is very impressive and he his the hardest working dog I have ever owned. 20-30 miles a day for 7 days straight is not unusual for him on a week long hunting trip. I have done all the german hunt tests with him and have a good general feel for the breed so feel free to give me a shout if you have any questions.

Update. I did decide to get a GWP from Dakota Wirehair kennels in ND. I got a female and she is coming on 18 months now. I did not go through the "standard" bird dog training routine(although some days I wish I had). She however has an incredible game drive and turned out to be a jam up bird dog at 6-8 months old in her first season. Additionally I raised her with the hounds from the start and she started going on coon races at 4-5 months old. She now can tree her own coon. She is not a true tree dog but knows they are up there and stays close. Had her on one bobcat race last winter when she was about 10 months old and was with the old hounds the entire race. Funniest part of the whole deal is she will open on a running bird when hunting and everyone looks at me like I have a crazy dog until the bird flushes. She knows how to turn it off though and is an excellent house dog/companion as well. Highly recommend the breed and the breeder I got her from. Will try to get some pictures from this bird season and lion/cat this winter.