al baldwin wrote:david wrote:My theory was my way of trying to understand why my dogs would never catch cats in areas where cats do not climb. When I acted on my theory to test it, I started catching cats to the point it became boring for me.
David would you mind sharing with us where you got this line of dogs that caught cats on the ground, to point it became boring for you? Also what breed were those dogs? Don/t believe I would ever get bored with that line of dog. I have enjoyed reading this post, have not read any comments that offended me, after all we have just exchanged opinions based on our own experience. Take care Al
Thanks for asking Al. It is no secret because I wrote a book about it and it is all over this web site and the previous two web sites and it is in this thread. Some of it in the book is coded because I was trying hard not to sound as narrow minded as I actually am. And there were some things that could not be said for various reasons. But if you read the lines and a little bit in between them, you will find your answers to my experiences that caused me to want to write a book; and for the most part, to quit bobcat hunting(Which I am pretty much in the process of most of the time).
One of the older cat hunters who read my book had one quiet but deeply cutting comment: "Some things should never be spoken". And by that he meant I had spoken some of those things. And in the era he came up in, it was very much that way. And it was his kind that I wanted to learn from but could not.
In a nutshell, to repeat what has been said several times by several people: you need to find a dog that runs to catch. What I used to think was running to catch, it turns out is not running to catch. Dogs that run to catch, CATCH. I have only owned one dog that did, at the end of my cat hunting identity, and it blew my mind. Talk to Brad about an out-cross way back in his line. You probably already know what that out-cross was Al. Talk to Dewey about an out-cross way back in his line out of California. The quickest way to get it is by an out-cross. The most lasting way to get it is by selective breeding within an already pure bred line. But most of us do not have the resources of a wealthy king with a full time paid kennel/hunt staff, and that is about what that pure-bred method requires.
Since writing the book, I have hunted bobcats coast to coast alone and with some highly accomplished bobcat hunters and what would be considered top dogs. What I learned from that is: I don't know Jack. I guess I already knew that, but what little I knew kept getting smaller and smaller like the earth might look as you are leaving it to fly to Jupiter. The most amazing thing about that is that these men enjoyed the book and felt like they trusted me some what because they felt like they knew me a little bit.
And I will tell you that most of them would have no part of any dog I have ever owned. And many of them would have no part of the dogs of a lot of people on here. They were from all different parts of the country, each place had it's own culture and its own priorities and its own problems to solve regarding bobcat hunting with dogs. Some of them have shown up on this site and quietly disappeared. And at least in part, it is because arrogance backed up by ignorance is just plain unattractive.
Each of us in our own little environment spend a life time trying to learn how things work in that environment, and if you never leave that environment, that really is all you need to know. But as soon as you climb on here, you have left that environment in some ways. I could give you a list of things that we say that are offensive to people who don't live where we live, or hunt the way we hunt or use the dogs we demand are the only thing that could be called "complete". But I won't give you that list for a couple different reasons.
Just remember though, when I am emphatically "telling it like it is", I am actually telling it like
I think it is. And I am usually wrong, because that is just what I can see in my environment. But there is a whole universe beyond me that I know nothing about. And now that whole universe is listening to me tell it like it is. And at least some one out there knows I have exposed myself. Most of them we will never hear from. That is not their way. Some through the last ten or twelve years we have heard from briefly. And then they are gone.
As far as it getting boring for me, If I had the perfect finished bobcat dog that caught most of the bobcats you put him on, and he was my only dog; I probably wouldn't even hunt unless I was collecting hides. There is nothing very exciting about that, and I am not really learning anything new by it, and if he is catching cats on the ground, I worry about my cats. There are so many different dogs from different people and millions of pups I would like to try and to learn from and be challenged by and find out their full potential. My only use for a finished dog is to help me with that process. But once a pup has a full idea what we are trying to do, And I understand the dog, my desire to use a finished dog is minimal.
And after saying all that, this will sound out of place, but:
On an intellectual and spiritual level, bobcat hunting just doesn't matter to me. I get so emotionally wrapped up in it. And then I step back and look at myself and am embarrassed by it. It just doesn't matter. If I could find a way to make things better for my family by it, then it would matter. If I could help other people have a better life by it, then it would matter. But in both those cases I always fail. The only way it matters is that it gives me a reason to use my body in a physical way. There are plenty of other ways to do that, but none of them motivate me. So as of now, I have a young renegade and a puppy and no bobcats. They don't matter, but I do enjoy them. There is nothing I want to prove with them. But they make me smile and they smell good.
I wanted to say one more thing. There are several people on this site that need to write a book. Please do it. Quit hunting for a year if you have to and focus and get it done. It is not easy, it is hard. But it will do some things for you and for others that nothing else can do.
I bet there are at least a hundred books on trapping that have been written. Maybe multiple hundreds. And I wish I owned all of them. I love reading them. Many are very short and written by people that are not accomplished writers. That makes them even better to me.
Most are very simply put together. Why cant we have a hundred books on bobcat hunting? Please, just do it.
Duane, I am glad for your thread. And I will include Andy in that too since it is a Montana bobcat thread. It was good to learn about what you guys are doing. It sounds like you have all you could want or need for dogs. I hope you find contentment with that and just feel really good out there with your hounds. I am really glad to see you brought out some guys that I did not even know were around, and what they shared was amazing and did not receive the attention it deserved. Great. Thank you.
