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I have been wanting to make the transition to dry ground for a while now,and a few months ago Mike got me in touch with Jeff Allen for some of those nance dogs we all hear so much about. I have a great pack of dogs as long as I got some snow to get a lion or bobcat track started. I also own a handful of good rig dogs. So thats the back story. Jeff agreed to send me three yearling pups to try for the summer. I put these pups on 12 bear in the last month or so that I have had them and let me just say they are insane. jeff had these pups on two bear before I got them so they wern't complete strangers to the game. from day one they have not missed a tree. I expected them to be very cold nosed and figured they would have trouble keeping up to the pack. not the case at all these little dogs are very smart and very fast on a track i mean realy fast on the track. two of the pups are begining to rig with some real consistency and last night his boomer dog beat all my dogs to the strike. They have been run hard and even knocked around pritty bad once and show no sign of slowing down. These dogs are the real deal I wish I had 5 or 6 of these little nance dogs that were 5 or 6 years old. Only time will tell how these dogs will finish out but I think these dogs could do anything a good hound guy could ask of them. These dogs have a super cold nose they have tried to start some real cold tracks, They have a ton of drive, They seem to be smart, fast learners. I will be converting my entire pack to these little dogs if they keep showing this kind of stuff to me. I can't wait till the weather cools a little this fall and I can horse back them for cats. I will keep you updated as these pups progress.

I know as time goes on with your Nance dogs you will be glad you have them and will often ask yourself why it took yourself so long to try one. I have ran this strain for over 20 years and have been very pleased. Great to hear they are doing great. Jeff Allen is a real straight shooter. later Andy

I am glad you are happy with them. I also am glad you dispelled the notion in your head that dogs have been noted for better than average cold trailing ability they would be slower than other dogs on a running track. Although most think forst of Nance walkers as bobcat dogs or pssibly bare ground lion dogs, many of them do make very good bear dogs.

Like any dog with a lot of drive I will remind you that there is the danger of firing these dogs up just like any other and then having a problem getting them to slow down and really pound a dirt lion track. They will but it might test your patience a few times becasue they enjoy high gear like the rest of us.

I hear some guys say they never have a probelm switching their dogs who have been run on a lot of bear back to tough lion tracks on the bare ground. I am sure occasionaly that happens but most that I have heard say this on further investigation don't really cold trail many old bare ground lion tracks anyway.

So would you recomend that a good cold trailing dog not be hunted on bear as often. So that they will grind out a old lion track. I know most of the dogs I have now dont have that kind of tenacity, but im getting a pup from Mr.Lloyd Nelson to try to improve on what im missing out on.

Mike thanks for the info as always. These dogs are going back to jeff this fall and I got a couple of pups comming out to keep as my own. They are amazing dogs though and if I was going to only run bear I would not hesitate to run these nance pups. I thought I would run these pups only on bare ground for the first couple of years on bobs and lions then if it seems safe maybe. Next time I talk to jeff I will post some pics of these dogs if he doesn't mind. Also I forget to mention how great these dogs are on the tree. They stuck a bear last week for 9 hours while I drove to town and went to church then drove back up to get them. Not one of those young dogs even flinched. Thanks for all your help mike.

Lil Joe,

Are you getting a pup out of Lloyd's Sunny female?


If so I got a feeling you are going to be happy. They will cold trail, and they will run bear. Just remember once they get pretty wound up on bear it will take them awhile to calm down to really want to work the cold track but they will given a little time and patience.

Good luck!

Yeah that pup im getting is out of sunny. I figured -X- cant have all the fun with these nance bred dogs. I better join in the festivities cant wait till the midle of july!!!

I would have to 2nd what Mike said about young dogs on bears. When you get them young dogs all fired up on bear its hell getting them to slow down and grind on a cold lion track. They just hit it and try to run away with it like a bear race. Its taken me years to get some to slow down where they could trail a cold lion track. All the best dirt lion hunters I know wont use there dogs on bear for this reason.

I hunt both and have personally found that if I dont let my young dogs chase bears until they are a round two and have learned to hunt lions first they dont get as bad with that problem but it still happens. But I prefer my dogs to be better lion dogs than bear dogs

high dessert, what dogs of Jeffs are these young dogs out of?

Twist Jeff has told me several times what dogs they come out of But I can't remember. I will ask him tomorrow. I did find out that they are not pure nance. They have some white clowd on one side. But they are damn good so far. The pups I am getting this fall will be pure nance. I will let you know when I know.