BigGameHoundsmen.com

Im starting over with one old dog and three pups that turned one year old this week. Have been hunting them twice a week for the last 5 weeks but the area I can hunt there are no red fox and right now gray fox are far and few between,which seems to happen every few years for some reason. I have trailed and run one or two bob cats every night but with just one old dog and one to three pups that don't know anything those ol cats are tough to stay under, been running them for 20 to 30 min. then they put me to following, then back to trailing, then nothing. Old dog and one of the pups strike a fox this morning at 3:45 and put him to running, I cast the other two pups to them and they put a running on that ol fox for 1hr.35min. then threw them bad someway or other on a sand road after that never really got back under it good but listened to each pup get its share of pickups telling the others, here's where the fox went. After 45min. of hit and miss they got close to where I was so called them in.
I have had fox/deer combo hounds all my life but the only place I can hunt now the fox are so thin and the deer are so thick that you can't have a fox race with hounds that are not broke off of deer. So I decided to make broke fox/cat hounds out of these pups. I got the old broke dog from Southernfox and she has helped me tremendously teaching these pups to handle, road, trail, keep the track going and tell on them when they are smelling something that ain't right.
I have a good pack of combo hounds and have for nearly 50 yrs. so I have always been able to just add dogs or pups to the pack. Making broke hounds out of these pups using just one old dog is a new experience for me, I'm loving it but can hardly see how a young man with no experience or old dog he trust can get it done unless he's got a LOT more fox then I do.
Hadn't been on here lately, just thought I'd ramble on for a while. I'll quit now.

Sounds like fun still yet Scrub.....its been bad up here just a crossed the line for the last six years or so...fox all died off and are just starting to come back

Scrubrunner,
I grew up in a family of fox hunters, my dad sold out when i was probably 8-9, and we ran deer dogs and rabbit beagles. When I was 17, the summer before my 1st year of college i got a couple ( well maybe 4) young dogs and started the process of making deer proof foxdogs with no old dog, just alot of effort and hard work. I did find an old dog here or there to help as a check dog now and then, but i had hunted 2 years by the time i got the 1st one. i will say its much easier to break now that i have plenty that do what they are supposed to, but having alot of deer helps speed the process, they cant be corrected if the wrong game isnt available, having the right game helps too, they cant learn to run without something to run. best of luck with process,
Perk

scrub it will take quite awhile to build the pack you want ! prob 2 or 3 years or longer, starting is hard, but when you finally get there it will be a lot easier, hunting with 3 or 4 broke dogs, then adding pups wont be to hard as long as you don't get a lot more pups than broke dogs ! I have hunted as many as 12 pups at one time and things can sour real fast with that many ! prob abt the spring of the year I will have a coupla more to get rid of they are broke now and will trail and strike , got lots of speed, and good mouths, just trying to figure which will be leaving here , im always moving them and got them coming, searching for the perfect hound ! got 3 pups that I will start about jan so im sure there will be 1 or to older dogs that will leave here