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how do you get your dogs to rig lions? is it just in their blood? or is there a trick to it? i hear its easier to rigs bears then lions. why is that?

Because there are more bears, and they stink more. Lions are far between and leave barely enough scent for a dog to trail on the ground.
thus harder to rig track. Dont know a single person who rigs for lions in az so some areas i think are not conductive to that type of hunting. Talk to the guys in your area and see what they say.

Throw them on the stike rack with dogs that are honest and know what they are doing and you will find out real fast if your dog will make a good rig dog or not some dogs get sick riding on top of the box.

sneekee15 wrote:how do you get your dogs to rig lions? is it just in their blood? or is there a trick to it? i hear its easier to rigs bears then lions. why is that?

In my case, my hounds started rigging lions and i had to figure out what was going on. They had all been worked on the rig for bears since they were pups but I never set out to make "rig dogs" for lions. And my older dogs were all lock-down, go get'em caught lion hounds before they were rigged for anything. However, I've watch my two red dogs rig lions for probably five or more years and they still to this day rig on old bear and lion tracks, scratches, body scent from the brush, and/or whatever they hit that other dogs won't begin to touch--and there isn't any bull shit to it!

Personally, I figured they just didn't know that they weren't suppose to do that? I hunt alot in the spring, summer and fall and have the dogs up on top most of the time. When those two red dogs hit I generally stop the truck and put them down. Too many times it's a tom scratch or perhaps body scent from the brush and the track just isn't any good; however, I've had them go on and catch lots of lions that I'd driven past had they not struck. I do, however, believe it's the dog more than the man--that the dogs catches on to what you want and attempts to help you find it.

It has been a learning process over the years and my hounds have gotten better at rigging old lion and bear tracks as the years roll past. But don't ever let anybody tell you rigging lions isn't possible, cause I've watched my hounds hit on hundreds of tracks in the dirt from the rig and have had dozens of people along to watch. I'm talking about tracks that won't run and won't hardly start. If you know or ever met somebody who has a hound like that then ask to jump in, but there is a lot more talk about rigging lions than there is people doing it. Matter fact when I started talking about it on this board five or six years ago I got more shit from it than a man could ever imagine.

My advice is put those dogs up, hunt them all you can, for as many years as you can, put them down when they strike and make them show you the goods.....

Good luck,
ike

thanks guys. i was just wonderin how it was done. so pretty much what your saying Ike is just throw em up on top and see what happens? sounds easy enough. ill give it a try. thanks.

sneekee15-

If your starting from scratch on rigging.. Work on a controlled situation while the dog is young.. Go to the woods, run a scent drag across the road and finish it out like normal.. go back and get the dog, put him on the rack and drive by slow. (This is all assuming he's been introduced to the scent/game before)..

If he doesn't strike, drive by slower.. and if nothing, onload him and walk him over to the drag and let him work it. A guy can use a caged bobcat to get them going.. or I've heard of a caged coon with lion scent on it, but I've never tried it... seemed a little confusing to me.. But whatever you choose to do at the end of the track to get the dog excited.. Old hide works fine.. Just do this a few times and he should pick up on it if he's got the nose to rig.

I can't be 100% certain, but I am ALMOST certain my lead dog rigged a cat today. Went with a friend and we took his Rhino. Had my lead dog in the back. In the canyon we were in, there was a bobcat track, a small lion track, and a decent tom track. We had two dogs in the back of the rhino leashed in. The wind was coming down the canyon at a pretty good clip, plus going 10 or so MPH. That dog LIT up. He went from happy go lucky, riding along, to bug eyed, crazy, I want that cat NOW.

We did run into some deer farther up the canyon, but he did not seem to be interested in them at all. We stopped next to the small lion track, which appeared to be made yesterday, and he was looking at it barking like crazy. When we found the fresh lion track, then he REALLY went wild, and took that track quick.

Again, I can't be certain he rigged that cat with the conditions we had, but I am PRETTY certain he did. I can't wait for the snow to melt so I can get around easier in these mountains, lol.

I have never really TRAINED him to rig lions. He has just smelled a lot of tracks, seen a few cats, and really goes nuts over them.

I think a dog just needs to have the oportunity to rig. He can't rig a cat if he is sitting in the truck while you check the canyon for tracks on your quad or sled.

Later,

Marcial