BigGameHoundsmen.com

Have you ever lost a dog to a mean lion?

If so, I`d like to hear your thoughs on why it happened as it did, what circumstances contributed to the mauling, or, if you were in fact able to figure out at all what had happened. Was the dog lacking something in it`s hunting style or did it have too much of something else in it`s make-up that contributed to it`s death?

I often hunt with one dog. What are your thoughts about only one dog on a mean lion?

I lost one in June to a lion. It was my fault and it was the dogs fault. I was just roadin them for exercise late in the evening and they struck a really hot track and I didn't call them off and I probably should have. It was just two dogs and they treed it at about 9pm. They treed for about an hour. It was dark I had no light and no gun plus my 1yr old and 2yr old in the truck so I couldn't get to the tree. I tried calling them off with no luck then it sounded like the lion jumped the tree and I heard them trail out of hearing again. Long story short one dog bailed on the race and came back but the other dog wouldn't. Found him dead and ate in the morning. I think it was just a spoiled lion that figured out it had only one dog chasing it and it got brave in the dark and just ambushed him. I figure a lion would get him one day because he was a little too agressive and a tree climber. One time he had a young lion bayed up on a bluff and I was under the bluff tryin to find a way up to him and he somehow push the damn thing off the bluff. The cat damn near landed on me but survived the fall and hauled ass. I think if you can hunt close to your dog and he knows when to keep his distance you should be fine.

A lion treed in the dark with just one dog sounds ominous....... Not much you could do with the children in the truck.

One of my dogs treed her first lion the other day.....sort of....
She is a tight mouth dog, hunts close in, runs silent until the game is jumped, then she yips and chops hard.
On this hike, she struck a hot track and had the lion jumped within 150 m or so. I wasn`t far behind and was close enough to hear the whole event unfold as I ran to her. When I got there I could see that she had the big lion bayed up, and that it wasn`t treeing in any of the near by trees.
I thought my dog was going to get it, as she was just 4 ft away, and the lion was crouched in fighting form, so I hollered out to let the lion know it was now two against one. With that holler, the lion jumped up a tree, spitting and hissing, and then leapt out just a quickly. Both the lion and the dog ran down the creek out of hearing while I ran to catch up. After a few minutes, and now silent, my dog came out of the draw back up to me, and I could see that she was unharmed. We started to walk further down the trail as I figured the lion was long gone over a distant hill , but wrong, she had been silent trailing it right back to where I was standing. A few steps later, her nose hit the ground where it had crossed, and off she went, up a mossy mountain this time.

I was able to parallel her progress with the garmin, and after trailing the cat at what I guaged to be a trotting speed for a second time, she eventually became silent again and came back down to me. I leashed her up. I suspect that she was right behind the lion the whole time, and was keeping her distance from this cat that wouldn`t tree.

Being her first lion, I`m glad that she didn`t get mauled or worse, which I will attribute to the fact that she is an agile young dog and that she kept her distance behind this mean cat.

I guess it`s a fine balance for the hound to have the necessary tenacity to tree and hold a mean lion and yet having enough respect for those claws and teeth to ensure longevity.

those are great storys, thanks for posting.


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Ive lost two dogs in two years to the same lion. The reasons I think it happened 1) The cat we were chasing makes its living killing house dogs in a large subdivision that is just east of were we hunt. 2) Both times my dogs caught the cat by themselves even those we had other dogs out also. 3) The first dog was very aggressive and didnt give any game proper respect. 4) The second dog was young and inexperienced. 5) Just plain bad luck.
The first time I just thought it was a fluck the second time it almost ruined me on hound hunting but after a few months with no dogs barking I had to get a few more. Needless to say I wont turn my good hound out in this area but may throw some young dogs at this cat if the oppertunity arises.

Colohunter wrote:Ive lost two dogs in two years to the same lion. The reasons I think it happened 1) The cat we were chasing makes its living killing house dogs in a large subdivision that is just east of were we hunt. 2) Both times my dogs caught the cat by themselves even those we had other dogs out also. 3) The first dog was very aggressive and didnt give any game proper respect. 4) The second dog was young and inexperienced. 5) Just plain bad luck.
The first time I just thought it was a fluck the second time it almost ruined me on hound hunting but after a few months with no dogs barking I had to get a few more. Needless to say I wont turn my good hound out in this area but may throw some young dogs at this cat if the oppertunity arises.

Were you able to get a look at the cat on either occasion?

I know of a couple of guys that have run pet dog-killing cats, and have had their hounds mauled and or killed. Mean cats. One guy ran his airedale on a dog killer, that had been taking dogs from an indian reservation. After multiple tree jumps and a couple ground fights thrown in, he was finally able to catch up to the pair and put a bullet in the healthy young tom, just before it leap yet again from the tree. His airedale was roughed up, but survived.

I think most guys who live in the big canyon country of the southwest and hunted very long have lost some dogs to lions. 3 of the best dry ground dog I have owned were taken out over a two year period by a very mean and ledge fighting tom. They didn't die as a result of his claws or fang but rather his ability to get them in a bad place and then stampede them off a steep ledge sending them cartwheeling into space. Once they get a feel for this and you can't get in there and kill them they can be a real pain!


Jeff allen showed me a photo one time of a very sad day for him. It showed a pack of dogs with a big tom bayed out on a log protruding out over a canyon that fell off some 250 feet. The final photo was taken from directly above and far below the ground was littered with hound bodies and the body of the dead lion right in the midst of them. He said that some of these were as fine a hounds as he had ever followed. I am not sure but from my expereince Utah especially the strip running from Blanding/Monticellow across to Kanab or a bit further north west Virgin River country is the worst place I have ever seen to loose hounds to lions.

1 dog+mean lion= dead dog most of the time. I have been lucky I personally have never lost a hound to a lion or bear (think its cuz my dogs are booger barkers). I have had some torn up pretty good.

Orvil Fletcher ran a dog killing lion in the Sandia's a few years ago. Turned one dog loose to start the track, turned out the lion was right there and killed his dog before he could turn some others to them. Worst lions to kill dogs are the ones living in sub-division and have learned how to deal with a dog.

I had a guy run a lion off of a goat kill for us a couple of weeks ago. Lion killed one of his dogs and got away.

I made a new guy mistake a few years ago .we found were there was a bunch of tracks and got to looking around and found a dead lion that had been eaten on down in the brush, we could not figure out if some one killed it and left it or if a tom came in and tried to kill its young one and she tried to fight it off but any way we came up there the next morning and there was a new track there I was ahead of my buddys with my old dog and figured I would turn him loose and let him start it and they would be right behind me . I did not ever carry a gun with me cause I dont like to kill any thing that I have a chance to run again . so the old dog went up the hill and at the crest of the hill he got jumped over the top just out of sight the fight was on . I could not get my 6 year old daughter up there so I jumped on my sled and went to get the rest of the guys .I got to them and they had broke down so I grabed the one guys gun and another guy came with me back up to where they were and I could still hear the dog was still alive . I took off up there and got to them and lucky enough the cat was to small to kill him . I tried to kick it off the dog but would not turn my dog loose so I shot it . we opened up the cat to see what it was eating and it had been eating that other lion . we figured it was starving to death and thats why it jumped the dog .so I almost lost a dog if the cat would have had a little more size to it I would have most likely lost that dog due to me being dumb and turning one dog loose on a lion .

this one....

her first lion,nine months old. she cold trailed to a laidup hungry lion,late in the day,to late...

Was she the only one running it?
Did she jump it and tree it? Did the lion get her right there, or were there bay-ups and re-runs?

That`s a tough one..........loosing her so young and on her first lion. You never know what she may have become........

Looks like a wooly airedale too in behind that tree.

it wasn't her first lion. i ment to indicate the picture was her on her first lion. she never treed it. rookie mistake,too late in the day. buddy dave said she was the best cat hound on the face of the earth.