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I was just wandering how many of you bobcat hunters have house cats around. I live out in the country near a draw with alot of pine they have tagged a big kitty around here once and people see big cats once in a while so i let my dogs out to hang around my young boys when they are outside playing. And another question I have is what makes a cat have scent does a house cat have the same scent as a barn cat or does enviroment have something to do with it. I'm not talking about what glands make scent I'm just wandering if diet and other things like human scent have alot to do with it. If you go to the barn and smell where barn cats sleep you smell cat but if you smell a chair where a house cat sleeps you smell human. Now I know the litter boxs smell. I don't really want to get into the discussion on if you should have kenneled dogs or tied up dogs to make good hunters my dogs know when i walk towards my hunting rig then it's like the switch gets turned on. I was just wandering if being around cat scent all the time would be a liabiltiy when free casting dogs for bobs on dry ground.

Yes. A good dog knows the difference between a house cat and a bobcat.

My curs are death on anything they think they can kill but with training/electricity they can learn the difference between what belongs and what doesnt. Just my two cents.

Bruce

Dogs not only can detect the difference in different feline smells they can also detect the sublt difference from one cat to another. Just like a bloodhound can trail thru a crowd of stinky people and follow the one he is locked on to.

My young dogs get to roam over a pretty good sized fenced area every day. Now these spotted kids are cat crazy, and let me tell you they will flat make a quick end to any stray cat that comes into the area if they can get it before he scoots thru the fence.We have an old cross eyed siamese, and a black and white long haired tabby that are strays but they have been coming around a long time and my wife has a soft spot for them so she feeds them in the evening after the hounds are kenneled.Now I am not saying they wouldn't grab these two if they saw them, and I haven't diciplined them not to but they will trot right across the line where these two come in to eat and pay little attention. But let a strange cat come by, and it doesn't matter if it is some hours later, every nose will hit the ground and tails will be up flagging they know it's a newcomer, and they are ready to rumble.

Back in the day when I had a good pack of bobcat dogs they would not mess with a housecat at all. For years I kept a pet coon that would sleep with one of the best coon dogs I ever owned. Then again the other day the dogs were raising cain and I went to check on them and they had a box turtle bayed! LOL To answer your question, yes can have housecats around cat dogs.

Thanks for the answers guys and Mike knowing that your wife feeds the strays helps me because it's my wife that wants the cat we have around to stay around and the kids let it in the house once in a while. My dogs are doing the same thing cross right over it's trail but put up stray cats I have young dogs so I feel alot better knowing that this won't hurt anything and still keep wife happy so I can go hunting and maybe bring a hound into yard once in a while.

I have never been able to keep a house cat on the placein 25 yrs. but I have always oked the dogs to run a house cat and I get lucky and catch a bobcat every now and then with my hounds. I have a buddy that has some pretty nice dry ground bobcat dogs and he has their outdoor cat sleeping in the dog boxes with his dogs so yes they can tell the difference if tought. Andy

lost my best bear dog once who also was a halfway cat dog--

found him tied with a baler twine to a a hay wagon pole --wagon had a little hay and was full of farm cats-- was a little tiny kitten had him backed up just as far as he could get --

when i was farming, lots of barn cats --older dogs would sleep with them- eat from same dish-- --or just ignore them -never did anything real special to break them--just had cats around and they got used to them --

alot of them , a barn cat was first thing they ever ran as a pup -- and id discourage them as they got older-



had a pet coon once that best coondog ignored -same dog wasnt interested in any coon i touched -

i did have an old coon / cat dog once-- that i could hunt coon around farms and never bother a barn cat--
have seen her tree a few wild house cats --miles from any farms or houses-

id guess a truly wild house cat may smell different - or somehow made a difference to that dog-


comes under , cant explain it just report it -

Interesting Pete I have seen the same deal on lots of ranches I use to hunt on.The lion dogs ate out of the same pans with the house cats.

The deal about wild scent is absolutley true try this one for size.

Back when I was running bear hard and I had some pretty fast bear dogs I ran them almost every evening keeping them in shape. The area that I would run them in didn't have any wild life to speak of other than the occasional coyote and gray fox along with rabbits and rodents. Well I would have those dogs blow up and leave like they were running a hot bear and then find them bayed up with a feral dog. Yes they would run a wild dog even though there was all kinds of dog scent around. I meant they were serious and they would stretch them too.

Another one: as most know I hunt on horseback a lot. My dogs even from little pups are exposed to horses. Well I usually have to break my young dogs from running wild horses in some of the areas I hunt. Yes they will build to them brumbies just like they were running and elk and here I come after them on a saddle horse. Doesn't seem to make sense I know, but it happens all the time. If you are around the mustangs a bunch like I am you will see just how truely wild and different they are. Those old wild mares will kill a hound pup if he doesn't get under somthing quick., and them old wild studs may come and try to get in your hip pocket if you are riding and they get fired up. I always go well heeled when I am riding in their country.

Yes they would run a wild dog even though there was all kinds of dog scent around. I meant they were serious and they would stretch them too.


yup--

was some wild dogs around here a few years ago-
really causing problems to cattle- and all the farmers wanted them gone--
some friends of mine caught some of them with coyote dogs--

Old lead dog we had used to sleep with a housecat. You could go and use him on a "training device" to help get the pups fired up and he would come right back home and snuggle up with his cat in the doghouse... Or take him out for a night of cat hunting and the same thing.. Dang cat would be waiting for ol Tex to come home..

I always have a couple cat running around.. They have always worked good for when the pups are young.. The pups grow up learning what the pointy end is and how to juke and jive with one My twelve week old pup knows it is her mission in life to tree that cat when she is outside..

I have never had a problem when it comes to training or actual game when it is time for them to start hunting... But they are less likely to do the stupid dive into an bobcat or lion and get themselves ate up.. Well.. Most of them anyways..

I guess I can come out of the closet too.......the best bobcat dog I ever owned shared his dog house with a house cat. That cat could come and go out of any kennel, and none of my dogs would bother it, but if a strange cat crossed my pasture, every dog wanted after it. I think all the dogs accepted that particular cat as part of the pack and left it alone.

My dogs don't bother the two old (15 yrs. or so) housecats thathave been here forever but let a stray show up and they will tree or kill it. This very incident occurred just last week. I let Lizzie out of the kennel as I had not been able to hunt her for some time. She had a really bad cut on her hind leg.
She had been out for a few minutes when I heard her treeing in the pasture behind the house. When I arrived at the tree, I found a ferel black tom that had been terrorizing my old females. When the tom saw me approaching, he bailed and the race was on.

This should maybe be another topic but Kevin touched on something else I have been a pondering (been spending alot of time in the hay fields alot of time to think and believe me I need alot of time to think things threw) Are we just talking a scent issue or is it a combination of scent and dog related pack instinct. What I mean by that is most of our dogs view us as the alpha dog so If the alpha dog excepts another animal why would the rest of the pack not. When want to go hunting I use a pickup with a box on It so every morning if the dogs are out they watch what or how I'm approaching the day because I use the same pickup to work in around the place. All I have to say Is lets go and the excitement starts. But I will pull into and leave the yard five times a day and they will just watch. The same I think is true about scent is the scent acceptable for the pack or is it not. If the cat smells like human owner do they accept it. But then how does that explain when I trap a ferel cat or coon to train young dogs on my old dogs get excited when I pull back into the yard as well. I think not only do the dogs use scent to deciever what is to be hunted but also learn to read body language as well. Again I have had alot of time to think lately tractors can get very boring. And I'm still new to the hound game.

my plotts and blues use the house cats as an interactive game of fetch, they chase, then catch the cats by the scruff bring them to me, and then I release them they chase and catch them and bring them back, never hurt them at all.