Melon Ranch Hounds

In the original article about my thoughts on how we consistently catch cats, I discussed the importance of bloodline and how it is important to out maneuver a cat’s trickery. In Part 2 I want to discuss something that is equally if not more important than the hounds. I want to talk about you.

It will all depend on what you, as a hound man wants, that will determine how far you go in this endeavor. I will use the word realistic because being realistic about why you want to do this, what you expect, and what you’re working with is important. You can have the best bloodline on the planet and if these three factors aren’t clearly defined nothing will work.

At the end of the day, it all boils down to why you run hounds or want to run hounds. There are those that run hounds because they like hear a dog bark. You have far too many people that run hounds simply to boost their low self esteem on social media, and there are those that truly love it but refuse to find the time create the magic. Conversely, you have hound men like myself and many others that do it because of some unexplainable genetic passion. Those of us that have this possible illness do this with a passion that only we can understand. We hunt when we are sick, we miss family gatherings to go hunting, we stop just short of taking our bodies to the extremes simply to run our hounds. There is no such thing as a short cut to greatness, that is why we need to define the aforementioned factors. I’m going to concentrate on those that have the passion to reach the top of the totem pole. Those that run hounds simply to hear dogs bark or only do it when they can’t come up with an excuse to not do it, will never amount to anything anyway. In fact, those that have that mentality need to stick with the bad bloodlines, those dogs will probably bark for your videos and pictures and they might accidentally catch something every now and again. When they do catch something you can make the internet flicker with your great white hunter pictures and go back to your basement and proclaim greatness to the world.

Let’s talk about the people that live and breathe running hounds and want only to be the best at it. If this is who you are then you’ve determined the why to the entire equation. Now that the “why” you is out of the way, let’s concentrate on realism. It is paramount that you be realistic about what you expect and what you have. When I load my hounds and go cat hunting I have never once in my entire life turned my hounds out hoping to catch a cat. I expect to catch a cat and I expect the hounds to go above and beyond to do that. If I have ten hounds on the ground I expect every one of them to perform to the pinnacle of their ability throughout the entire hunt. It becomes extremely hard for me to demand greatness if I am unrealistic with what I am working with. The best hound I ever owned (or ever will own) was a hound I called Preacher. I bred Preacher to three great females of which twenty-one puppies were raised. Of those twenty-one puppies not a single one of them made my cut. You can bet that I wanted at least some of them to show a little bit of their sire’s ability. But, the reality was, they weren’t going to make it, they didn’t have the spark, and I had to make a choice. You as a hunter have to make a choice as well. The number of hounds that will run a bobcat are limitless. However, the number of hounds that will run a cat right are extremely limited. If you have a hound that isn’t running to catch and kill what you’re wanting to hunt, get rid of it. I feel like I need to opine of that subject a little. What defines running a cat right? It probably makes it more understandable to define what a hound does to not run correctly.

Barking out of place. There are hounds that I call loose mouthed hounds that bark when they don’t smell the trail. There is categorically no reason for a hound to make any noise whatsoever if he/she isn’t smelling something. When they do this they pull other dogs in the wrong direction and ultimately ruin the race and probably the other hounds.

Running to run vs running to catch. If you have a hound that is maintaining their distance from what they are running and not gaining ground the hound isn’t going to make it. If what your running crosses a road and the hound pops out in the road and stops to look at you, get rid of it. Let’s say you’re running a cat and the cat does something tricky and the race pauses for a minute. If you notice on your gps or physically see that hound standing still waiting on something else to find it, the dog is second string at best and needs to go. if you catch a cat and see the catch and one of the hounds is more cheerleader than fighter, I’d take a hard look at letting that one go too.

Hounds that have the ability but don’t match the pack. There are a lot of hounds that run to catch but don’t do it with the speed or tenacity as the rest of the hounds in the group. Although there is really nothing wrong with this hound, it doesn’t fit the herd so it should go to someone that has similar hounds. You can’t have a hound that runs the cat from behind the rest of the pack. Ultimately what will happen is, the lead hounds will be running the cat and make a momentary loss. When that happens all of them will hush and be running like hell trying to find the track. While they are looking, they’ll hear that hound that can’t keep up with them running the track that they had already run. The hounds will automatically think this hound has found the track and go to him. When you do this it is difficult to maintain pressure and catch the cat that you’re running.

At the end of the day, a pack of hounds is a team and that team is only ever going to be as strong as the weakest member. There is no room for weakness or being simply “ok”. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard hunters tell me, “Oh he’s s good hound but just a pack hound. This dog doesn’t anything special but he’s always in the race.” You won’t find a pack hound in my dogs. Guess what, if five people run an olympic race, four of them are losers. Define your goals and accept them. Be honest with yourself about what you have in your dogs. Always be humble and realize that every time you hunt you learn something. Over forty plus years there have been a time or two when I thought I had it all figured out. Every time I got that feeling I’d find a bobcat that would remind me that I never will have it all figured out.

DISCLAIMER: I don’t by any stretch of the imagination proclaim to be the leading authority on hounds. So many people have begun asking me questions via our social media that I decided to create this blog in hopes doing two things. First, I want to help people in any way that I can become better at what we do. Secondly, if I can create one more hound person by turning my experience into advice, it’s all worth it.