Is bear hunting bad for a cat dog?

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Johny Walker dog
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Is bear hunting bad for a cat dog?

Postby Johny Walker dog » Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:32 pm

Hey hound hunters, a couple of different friends have told me they felt that after they ran there cold nosed cat dog on bears the dog changed his hunting method and started running more head up. They both agreed the dogs where still good dogs but there catch to lose ratio on bobcats went way down. I am sure this topic has been discussed before but I am not able to find the discussion on this forum. What is you opinion? Bear season is comming soon!

Aaron
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Re: Is bear hunting bad for a cat dog?

Postby Johny Walker dog » Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:43 pm

Sorry I posted this in the wrong spot.

Aaron
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Re: Is bear hunting bad for a cat dog?

Postby dwalton » Wed Mar 26, 2014 1:14 am

Very few bear dogs make top bobcat dogs. If you hunt a dog on bobcat for a year or two some will bounce back and forth and do a good job on bobcats. You will have more trash trouble changing them over from one to the other. I don't let mine even run lions, I want a straight bobcat dog. If you ever get a chance to hunt behind a top pack of bobcat dogs you will see the difference. That does not mean you can not hunt or catch both and a few dogs that I have seen will excel on both. A dog raised on bobcat will give you very little trouble on trash. There are very few purest that run only bobcats. Each to their own. Dewey
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Re: Is bear hunting bad for a cat dog?

Postby Nolte » Wed Mar 26, 2014 1:57 pm

Well I'm just a part time cat hunter who catches a few when conditions are good, but I think you can run cats/bears with the same dogs. Maybe not up to a top level, but enough to enjoy yourself. We've got better bear running so my dogs primarily have to do that, and if they cat hunt it's a bonus. A dog would have to be exceptional on just cats for me to keep it in WI. I'm too pale skinned to get a tag or even know someone with one, with any regularity. Unless you are laid off in the winter, it's tough to do a real dog justice on cats in WI. Just keep in mind that a cat dog is not a bear dog. They take different skills to accomplish the task. Now some of those cross over, but not all. Plus it depends if the dog likes to run cats, some do some don't. I do think that if you have a dog that is a pretty good cold trailer and then get it to cold trail cats, it will fine tune and get better on bear cold trailing the next year. Now as for treeing, a cat dog will have zero problem locating and treeing a bear but a bear dog is gonna struggle unless it happens to be an exceptional locator. I'd much rather try my luck with a good layup coon dog than a bear dog when it comes to treeing. Then again cats don't always tree here, they tend to brush pile or bay up more often than tree. Or the cat is shot when it's circling. It just depends on conditions.
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Re: Is bear hunting bad for a cat dog?

Postby Jeff Eberle » Wed Mar 26, 2014 2:15 pm

I run everything with my dogs bear, lion, bobcat and grey fox. If anything I'd say it is just the opposite running cat or fox will help your bear dog more, Then the other way around bears don't play tricks they line out and head for the bottom. One thing to watch out for is your dog getting use to running bear is when you switch back to cat they may over run them til you get the bear out of their head. The old line of hounds I use to run it would take a few cat or fox races to screw their head back on.
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Johny Walker dog
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Re: Is bear hunting bad for a cat dog?

Postby Johny Walker dog » Thu Mar 27, 2014 1:47 am

Thank you Dewey,Nolte and Jeff. That is good info and it all goes rite along with what my friends tell me. I think if you ask 10 different houndsmen the same question you would get 10 different answers. Getting a lot of different opinions is what makes this page great. My puppy in concern is grade dog that comes from proven bear hunting dogs. She has done very good on lions and am I hopeful for her bobcat future. She has gotten a lot of time on the track this winter, I think if I can keep her going on some bears this spring it will be good for her. She more then likely will never be a famous bobcat dog but she will get plenty of ground time.
Thanks again for your input!

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