BigGameHoundsmen.com

I am new to this site, and fairly new to hunting lions. I really enjoy reading these threads and am learning a lot just from reading on here.
I only have one dog that I bought this summer, she's a great finished five year old. Treed one cat with her and turned her loose on a track a couple weeks ago. Lined the track out, walked her across a creek and let her go. I never heard her open up and she was soon out of hearing. I followed her on the lion track and found where she jumped it. After the cat threw some tricks on her she was making circles and eventually got on a track. I wasn't sure if it was the same track or not, but she was on it and following it good.
After a few hundred yards on this track it went up into a swath of elk tracks scattered everywhere. This is an area where theres at least a couple hundred elk. But as far as I could tell she was staying on the cat. When walking the dog around she NEVER takes any interest whatsoever in elk/deer/moose/coyote tracks. So I was pretty positive she was staying on the cat. But after a while I couldn't find the dog or cat track inside all the elk and it was dark and I hadn't heard her bark once. So I headed back out and left her dog box on the road where we left with food in it.
Of course the weather decided to be good at the wrong time and it basically snowed for 2 straight days after I lost her. And after 2 days of checking the box with no luck I started hiking all over the area with no luck. After six days of this, she was sitting in the dog box on the road. I wish I would have taken the time to try to figure out where she came from but I was kind of in a rush to get her home as it had been in the negative teens just about every night and not much warmer during the days she was out there.
Any ideas of what might have happened?

First off, glad to hear that you are getting into hounds.

NO ONE knows what happened, but a lot of people can speculate or speak about what has happened with their hounds. I can't even begin to say what happened, but In my experience, if it's a trash race, the dogs are screaming to high heaven and I would have definately been able to hear them leaving the country. Thank God I havn't heard that sound in a while.....

Do you have a tracking collar of some nature on her? If not, I highly recommend it. I personally won't turn a dog out of the kennel without one on. Period.

I would definately run with the story that she caught the cat and held it treed for 5 days. No one can prove your story wrong

Just be glad you got her back.

Scott

I didn't have a tracking collar on her, but I'm shopping around for one now. Looking at the garmin astro 220 or 320 with a dc collar. Is there a combination that you think works the best or have the most experience with?
And of course my opinion is she treed for 5 days! haha

jcutler wrote:I didn't have a tracking collar on her, but I'm shopping around for one now. Looking at the garmin astro 220 or 320 with a dc collar. Is there a combination that you think works the best or have the most experience with?
And of course my opinion is she treed for 5 days! haha

I would recommend whatever you can afford. The 220 will come cheaper than a 320 but has a slower processor and won't utilize birdseye. Your choice. The DC20 collars are the cheapest and oldest but still work well and can be repaired through Garmin still, the DC30's are probably the best DC collar made and therefore the most expensive, and the DC40's came with a lot of problems but the majority have been cured. I watched and recovered my dogs for a lot of years with the 220 and DC20's. Cheap and functional but definately not the top of the line system. I then upgraded to the 320 with the same collars, better but still not the best of the best. Now I use the Alpha system and like it a lot better.

Bottom line is, buy what you can afford and upgrade as you see fit, if you feel like you need to.

Scott

Without a tracking collar its hard to say what happened. Before the Garmin when I still used telementry I sometimes lost dogs for several days at a time in rough terrain where the signal just bounced. When my dogs were gone like that I liked to imagine that they were treed for several days but most of the time what happens they get tired and just lay up. If a dog lays up it can take up to a week to starve them out. When I got the garmin collars I could tell when they laid up. If they laid up and I had to get them I would whip them. I have now got my dogs broke off of laying up and if they quit they come out.

I would recommend running more than one hound. Running only one you will end up with a dead dog. They tend to look more like something to eat rather than something to be scared of when there is only one. Tracking systems are nice but not necessary. I ran for a while without them.

A tracking system will be the best investment you can make. Although the Garmin systems are wonderful, I don't fully trust them and run a telementary collar on my dogs. I learned this lesson again a few weeks ago. Had a lion caught way back in and lost my one dog for 3 days. Her Garmin went dead over night, and I figured I didn't need to put the ATS collar on her for this "short" hunt. Got her back safe and sound, but not easilly.

As far as the one dog, I hunted for close to 10 years with only one good old hound. Never had a problem and caught lots of game with her. Good luck, have fun, and be safe!

You'll never know what happened and you should feel lucky that you got your dog back.Your dog deserves better than to be turned out without a tracking collar on.She is trying to do her best for you and you should do the same in return.Best of luck to you.

Thanks for the input guys. I know I will be getting a tracking collar, its now just a matter of which one.

Happy Hunting!

run both garmin and a telemetry for a back up. nevet no what will happen. garmins batteries die to often not to.run telemetry. exspecially of someone picks ur dog up without the intebt of returning.