Registered: Dec 2006
Location: Two Rivers WI
Posts: 996

Just curious as to how you "know" a hound will make a big game dog as opposed to a coon hound.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location:
Posts: 4312

Thats a good question but not easy to answer. First you must relize as far as bear,A lot of hounds will"run" a bear,but that doesnt make them a "bear dog".

In my opinion,a bear dog must have the desire to run and catch.Stamina and drive to run all day,so to speak.They must have brains and a better nose than your average coondog.A good bear dog runs with his head up once the bear is jumped.Have seen many coondogs still with their nose on the ground after the jump.

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Registered: Jul 2008
Location: Benchlands Alberta
Posts: 5

Big Game dog should have a colder nose, brains and grit.
I would like them a little bigger or more leg than the average coon hound. His coat should be coarse, thick and full, try to avoid the slick ones. Big Game hound should be Cat minded, he will tree a coon but a cat scent should send him over the edge.

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Registered: Oct 2003
Location: mid-michigan
Posts: 4437

We've been bear hunting our coonhounds since 1972.
We don't have bear here where we live , so we run coon most of the year. We go to bear camp for a week or two , then maybe another weekend or two.
My experience has been that the good coondogs also make pretty good bear dogs.
And sorry dogs = sorry dogs. LOL
Granted , our dogs probably aren't the best. But , I figure if we can take our coondogs up and tree 3 to 5 bear a week , we're doing OK.
I have seen a dog that , after hunting bear , didn't really care about coon afterwards. Top cooner before hand , but just mediocre afterwards. All he really wanted to run was bear once he got started.

If the dog ain't a decent coondog , I ain't gonna bother with taking him to bear camp.

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Registered: May 2008
Location: southern co
Posts: 79

I hunt blueticks and hunt mostly bobcat and lion. All my dogs came from coondogs. I had a female out of utchmans scout dog he is #3 on the all time producers list. This female was gritty would hunt all day. She could run old nasty lion tracks, had more than enough nose. My buddy had two dogs off of hammer 18. These dogs had super cold noses. He would get them to run bobcat tracks that were melted out. Not many dogs can do that. He would also take them coon hunting at 11 in the mourning and run coon. He also had a female that was utchman bred he sold a pup to a local outfitter the pup ended up being the coldest nosed dog the outfitter had. I had a smokey river male he was the best lion dog I have ever hunted with. He just loved to run cats. He wasn't quite as cold nosed as some of the others. All of these dogs did real well in the compition hunts. I have hunted some of these dogs on bear. They did alright, I can't say if they would have made bear dogs or not we just didn't do enough bear hunting to know. So I can't say what it takes to make a bear dog. I don't know what other breeds would do on big game (probably about the same). I have had real good luck hunting big game with coondogs. Several of these dogs could run lion track 3 days old.

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Registered: Nov 2008
Location: NE Wisconsin
Posts: 32

A good training season is the only way to know.
I have seen toughest kill dogs on coon get run out of the woods by a mean bear. A dog with out stamina will not make it, or a timid one for that matter.JMO

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Registered: Mar 2006
Location: Farmington WI.
Posts: 644

My whole life and i coon hunt the bigest diference between big game and coon hunting is independece to make a top coon dog thats going to win consistantly it needs to be independent. Whare as a big game dog needs to be able to work with others. onother diference is a coon dog has to tree an animal it cant see
and a big game dog is looking rite at the animal when its in the tree. we could go round and round with this all night but in my expirence its easier to make a half way decent bear dog than a half way decent coon dog. And who ever says you need a dog with a super cold nose to run bear is full of crap cause they stink i can run a 8 hour old track by my self lol... Eather way you need a special dog to make a top coon dog and to make a top big game dog......

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Registered: Dec 2008
Location: Va
Posts: 219

quote:

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Originally posted by josh tetting
Eather way you need a special dog to make a top coon dog and to make a top big game dog......

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Registered: Sep 2008
Location: Central Montana
Posts: 397

We mostly hunt lions, but hunt bear and coon also.
Depending on the difficulty of the environment hunted, being no 2 places are equal. Some areas the terrain is not overly difficult, and other areas, the terrain can be a real obstacle. Areas consistently covered with snow creates an easier situation for the hounds v.s. an area where you may run on snow some and some bare ground and there is also the all bare ground situation. There are some houndsmen that run only same day tracks on fresh snow. Others run the tracks as they find them, under any conditions. Therefore, not everyone would have the same opinion on what it would take to make a top lion hound.
In our opinion, to make a top lion hound, you need to start with a dog that has a cold nose, intelligence, bold, and a strong focused drive. We do not believe that all top coonhounds would make good cat hounds. JMO
Happy Hunting

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Registered: Oct 2003
Location: Montana
Posts: 95

Better the coonhound they are, the better lion hound they will be.

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