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I have 2 pups that 14 months and 10 months they have not seen any wildgaame just coons and cats I turned loose. I hunt mostly lion but am thinking on putting them on bear. Will that ruin them for lion or can they be good at both.

To me 10 months is perfect for starting on bear. I guide for lion, lynx and bear and use the same hounds and they seem to catch their fair share. I think when doing this you need to run a fair amount of each to make them anygood.

I know not all people will agree but we started our pups at 6 months they never caught anything till older but they gave it a hell of a try. The only thing you have to worry about is them getting hurt but ten months shouldnt have to worry to much about that. We caught 36 bears with a 4 dogs under year and a half and one over the hill dog that we had for a couple of months, and he was mainly there to teaach treeing. It is definetly more work and a lot of low times.

one thing i've noticed with my pups, is if i want them to hunt a lions as well as bear, i like to get them started on lions and some tough lion tracks, I think it makes them learn how to work a track harder. A bear smells way stronger and have had pups i started on bear try try run a lion with their head in the air, instead of working that track when it gets tough, either way good luck with those pups

one thing i've noticed with my pups, is if i want them to hunt a lions as well as bear, i like to get them started on lions and some tough lion tracks, I think it makes them learn how to work a track harder. A bear smells way stronger and have had pups i started on bear try try run a lion with their head in the air, instead of working that track when it gets tough, either way good luck with those pups

There are a lot of houndsman that firmly believe that....and a lot that say a good dog is a good dog and should adapt to any kind of trailing.

catdogs wrote:

one thing i've noticed with my pups, is if i want them to hunt a lions as well as bear, i like to get them started on lions and some tough lion tracks, I think it makes them learn how to work a track harder. A bear smells way stronger and have had pups i started on bear try try run a lion with their head in the air, instead of working that track when it gets tough, either way good luck with those pups

There are a lot of houndsman that firmly believe that....and a lot that say a good dog is a good dog and should adapt to any kind of trailing.

If you want your dogs to learn to run cold or tough tracks,then turn them out on cold, tough tracks.Doesn't matter whether it is bear,lion or whatever.People tend make it sound like bears are ALWAYS easy for a hound to track....not so.

Ok, 2 cents is all i got, so here it is, i run on both, of course I know my dogs enough to know which dogs hunt what better, I have a few that run cat track better, then i got a few that run bear better, I usually start all my pups on coon with my 10 year old hound. I watch them and see how they hunt.

I also run a few drags, short like 50 yards and run my 3 or 4 month olds on it to see if they work it or how they act, here a video on my 4 month olds first run.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiolsG6-YGQ

You just gotta watch your dog, and trust your dog. Some say let them run anything and everything till they old enough to trash break, when is that, who knows, i try to keep them on track from the get go, I don't trash break em to hard until they are running what I want as good as I want them to.

Some dogs wanna hunt at 3 months, some don't hunt till they 3 years.

Again, bottom line, pay attention to your dogs!!!

Cant speak for bear but it sure wont hurt them to run lion at that age. They cant learn nothing if they arent exposed. Andy

Don't know anything about lions, but I think TrueBlue hit it pretty good. I think after a young dog has got it figure out as to what to run, they if you want them to cold trail start working them on cold trails. It probably takes more trail on cats in general, but an old bear trail could be plenty tough.

I think the problem lies in that most bear tracks are a little fresher to begin with, so the trail gets overlooked until the tracks start to get tougher on average.

I think it's good to get young dogs on as many desired tracks as possible, then to see how they progress. Regardless of that some dogs just aren't going to cold trail as good as you want. It's just not wired in them. But you'll never know if all you put them on is hot tracks.

twist wrote:Cant speak for bear but it sure wont hurt them to run lion at that age. They cant learn nothing if they arent exposed. Andy

Hit it right on the head!!!!

Orion Guide wrote:You just gotta watch your dog, and trust your dog. Some say let them run anything and everything till they old enough to trash break, when is that, who knows, i try to keep them on track from the get go, I don't trash break em to hard until they are running what I want as good as I want them to.

Some dogs wanna hunt at 3 months, some don't hunt till they 3 years.

Again, bottom line, pay attention to your dogs!!!

Very true.

I have two 5 month old pups I'm hunting. Personally, I just find a ridge or a canyon to walk, turn the dogs loose old and young and hope for the best. Sometimes they run off game, but unless I know for sure what they are running I don't shock or scold them. Puma my female is really independet and will go off on her own to hunt. I like this in her and if she decides to run a bear or a lion makes no matter to me as she is hunting.