How many dogs needed to hunt lions

[ilchaf]

I have a question for any seasoned lion hunters. I am new to lion hunting, but have hunted many other animals over the years. I have a German shorthaired pointer that I hunt birds with, but that is the only thing I have hunted with dogs.

We recently moved to a small track of land next to public property and my game cam has picked up a nice lion near our barn. I have tried to track him after a fresh snow with my hunting buddy, but no luck so far. I want to get a couple lion dogs and want to know what is the number of dogs usually needed to successfully tree a lion. I was thinking of buying 2 walkers and maybe bringing my bird dog and keeping him on ease until we found a fresh track, but then let him run with the other 2.

Do you think this would be safe with this number of dogs (2 lion dogs and 1 bird dog) or would it be ok to hunt just 2 walkers? My wife doesn't want any more than that.

Thanks for your help.

[FullCryHounds]

I've caught hundreds of lions with two dogs. It's not always ideal, I think three is better. However, I've also caught a lot of cats with one. Two weeks ago, I got a call from another local veteran Houndsman. He called around noon saying he needed help. That night, his neighbors Rottweiler was killed by a lion. So he went over with his best female and turned her out. She took off along with one of his younger less experienced dogs. Within minutes, she was dead and the younger dog came running back to him. That's when I got the call for help. First thing I did was call another Houndsman to bring a couple more dogs for more dog power. We got there a few hours latter and turned out 6 or 7 dogs and caught that Tom. Point is, in a case like that where you have a lion that has learned that he can kill dogs, you want as many dogs as you can. I've heard of another local Houndsman this year that had three dogs killed by another lion and a third guy that had his dogs torn up bad but didn't loose any.
So you'll have to weigh the positives and convenience of only running two dogs against the possibilities of loosing them on a bad cat if and when you run into one.

[chilcotin hillbilly]

What Dean said, more is better but i to have caught lots with one or two dogs. Having lost dogs to lions in the past running 3 dogs each time. a mean lion will kill a dog when it wants to.

[twist]

Keep the wife happy one is enough. Also f just startng out one is enough for a green hunter the more dogs the bigger the head ache. Andy

[Jeff Eberle]

Be careful buying finished dogs. Some guys will take advantage of guys just starting out sad to say but true. It's a lot of work to have good dogs, you would to better off to find someone that would let you tag a long . A lot of old timers always looking for help. You could learn a lot hunting under the right guy and be years a head in no time. Join a local hound club, you can find one on here . Good luck

[justahunter]

one dog is plenty . the more dog the more the risk of loosing one. more than 3 is to many for me.

[BIGBLUES]

I would start out with 2 pups and work with them non stop. Running one dog on lions is stupid and your gonna get your dog killed. I have had lions kill and eat my dog when they run single. If you don't have the time to train both at the same time then get one pup going til its about 6 months old than get another pup and start training it.

[MThound]

I think it depends a lot on the type of country you are hunting and the type of dog you are running. I have hunted and caught hundreds of lions with one dog. Most of my country has big timber and bay ups are rare, but do occasionally happen.

[ilchaf]

Thanks for all the pointers. The prior owners of this house said they lost a pet dog to the lion. I think I will try to see if anyone nearby, with some experienced dogs, wants to help a newbee with some pups chase a big tom. It is snowing now and my hunting buddy is coming over tomorrow morning so we can try to find some fresh track to chase.

Anyone know of a local houndsman group near Colorado Springs?

[papa]

shouldn't have any trouble getting a hound-man to come run a fresh track...especially in the snow. Good way to start a positive relationship that will pay off down the line.

[J.T.]

I run 3, two finished and one in training. They have stopped everything I wanted them to. A few days ago they stretched about a 100 lb tom. Sure the dogs were beat up but they had worked the lion so hard he didnt want to fight back anymore. I dont condone letting your dogs fight game but eventually it will happen and you cant stop it if you are planning on releasing the game. One of my dogs is heavy bear bred and will charge anything head on. If you are running bear dogs on a cat and the cat gets bayed up on the ground then they will pull hair where a lion dog will most likely stand back and bark.

[TomJr]

Thanks for all the pointers. The prior owners of this house said they lost a pet dog to the lion. I think I will try to see if anyone nearby, with some experienced dogs, wants to help a newbee with some pups chase a big tom. It is snowing now and my hunting buddy is coming over tomorrow morning so we can try to find some fresh track to chase.

Anyone know of a local houndsman group near Colorado Springs?

If you are going after a lion that has killed a dog then you better get some good experienced dogs and stay as close as you can. Once a lion figures out that it can kill a dog then it will happen again. You might keep the dogs on leash until its jumped. Be ready to step in there fast and put that lion down if it doesn't climb. Also don't be too far back when you shoot, you don't want to hit a dog, keep in mind that a bullet can go though a cat and still kill a dog on the other side...