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I have a question on how much coon hunting should a guy do if you have a dog that is about 11/2 years old she has put up bobs and coon but i very seldom hunt her in per say coon country versus places I know there are bobs . But it is not season for bobs and it's easier to dry ground coons then it is bobs for me anyways. So i wounder to keep my dogs hunting how much coon is to much or is it ever?

i always start my dogs on coon and run them on cats in the winter up here the coons Den up for the most part. My good cat dog is a good coon dog but a better cat dog i have a real good coon dog that is OK on cats if any of my two new pups work out the way i hope they will i will probably retire my coon dog on cats but i will still run my cat dogs on coon because it helps keep them toned & tuned and quite frankly I'm smiling if i tree a cat on bare ground during coon seasons. it sounds like your dog would rather run cats like some of mine that is what i like in my prospective cat dogs when a dog will pick 1 over the other and let you know which he prefers that is where he will do the best for you. Those are the ones that can be great instead of just good i just bought a new one the other day which was doing great on coon then started out treeing cats on the guy he did not want to break her of them so he sold her to me . good cat dogs are harder to come by up here so your ahead of the game if they do it on there own we have real limited times for training here and a dog needs to be in the woods in order to be all that it can be JMO hope in all this rambling i helped you out some good luck Larry

SECOND NATURE wrote:i always start my dogs on coon and run them on cats in the winter up here the coons Den up for the most part. My good cat dog is a good coon dog but a better cat dog i have a real good coon dog that is OK on cats if any of my two new pups work out the way i hope they will i will probably retire my coon dog on cats but i will still run my cat dogs on coon because it helps keep them toned & tuned and quite frankly I'm smiling if i tree a cat on bare ground during coon seasons. it sounds like your dog would rather run cats like some of mine that is what i like in my prospective cat dogs when a dog will pick 1 over the other and let you know which he prefers that is where he will do the best for you. Those are the ones that can be great instead of just good i just bought a new one the other day which was doing great on coon then started out treeing cats on the guy he did not want to break her of them so he sold her to me . good cat dogs are harder to come by up here so your ahead of the game if they do it on there own we have real limited times for training here and a dog needs to be in the woods in order to be all that it can be JMO hope in all this rambling i helped you out some good luck Larry

I would think that untill this young dog can successfully solo and tree up 3 snow cats/ I wouldn`t want too run coon with this hound . Most cat r hunters though are combination game hunter and they do run coon,bear not just cat, but ya get around streight cat dogs they are way a cut above a combination game hound ! Just like a streight cooner excells, or streight bear dog excells, or streight pig dog excells. WHY ? Figure it out !

ok thank you guys for your help but maybe I can explain what I'm worried about better. I was hunting with a buddy the other day along a creek well this creek is at the bottom and the sides are anywhere from 20 to 60 feet up and the whole bottom is about 3 to 4 hundred yds wide. Well like I tried to say my friend started his dog mainly on coon and I started mine on barn cats and bobs and caged coon but did this in a more rough kindof canyon type country with many fingers out of a main draw or canyon. Well any way my dog works back and forth from top threw bottom to other top but very fast work. My buddys dog stays alot closer to the creek and waters edge. Well needless to say the chances of us finding coon here was pretty good because of sign. I like the way my dog works just from what little I know about bobs, but after we treed a coon from the creeks edge she started working the bottom a little bit more than from side to side. and I don't think this would become a habit unless i hunted coon alot more than cat and maybe it will never really matter i don't know but would rather have a cat hound per say than a coon hound but it is easier to find a place full of coon to keep her toned than cat. One other question when to most bobcats have kits what time of year are most bob cats having kits I live up north remember?

sdred, I completely agree with SECOND NATURE. Your dog may very well show you which he prefers to run and do better on that one, but it will not hurt him to run both. If you hunt where both cat and coon are available he may start one and then switch to the other if he prefers it.

If you hunt him on one during a particular season and then switch to the other it may take him a little while to adjust, but he will get it done. I have friends (GOOD dog men) who switch from bear to cat every year with good results. Of course, they have some dogs which do great on one, but not as good on the other. They don't try to make multi-purpose dogs out of these.

Good luck.

briarpatch

Thanks again that makes sence and most of our coon here lay up during bobcat season. And i think this dog hunts both good. And I also have to admitt and this was more than likely a mistake but we did run across a set of cat tracks that were a day or to old and being unsure of whether she would go back to working side to side I stood by these tracks and called her over by me to see if she would check them out and she did and started to go back to working the walls as well as the bottom. So thanks again all of you.