Registered: May 2016
Location: Palatka, FL
Posts: 5103

I saw and ad on facebook from back in 1995 that got me to thinking. The dog in the ad in my opinion had a lot to do with the Treeing Walker Breed. I did a Google search and was not surprised but it just brought back my lack of faith in what some hunters can and will say. I was amazed as all the negative comments about the dog. So I googled another great (In my opinion) hound. Same thing. Some like him, many didn't. In one state they say the offspring was the greatest track dogs to ever live. In another state they say the line of dogs have no tracking ability. After seeing the same pattern over and over again on Walker Hounds. I searched some well known English Hounds. Same thing. Love, Hate relationship with the dog. It don't stop there. Black and tans, redbones and others. All got the same press. The best I can figure out is back in the early 90's is when all this internet stuff and message boards got popular. About then is when it came to light, because of free and flowing speech that all the dogs I dreamed about from magazine ads were duds. Every line of Walker dog or Black dog or English dog I have tried to own since the late 60's. According to Google were duds and could not reproduce. Some guys like myself liked them. But on the message boards there are a bunch of haters. They say hate and jealousy blinds people. Guess liking and respecting something blinds people also. Then we come on here wanting to know how to breed better hounds. Until you remove the human ego it's a battle. I never thought of having a bucket list for when I got old. But I am thinking about one now. Just would like to get in the truck and visit some of the sports well known and respected men. Hunt with their hounds. Never repeat anything I saw on a message board. Just die one day having my own opinion of these hounds.

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Registered: Jan 2016
Location:
Posts: 589

It seems that many feel the best hounds are always a long ways away from where you live. I think primarily because people have a tendency to take what they read/hear at face value. Many (including me!) find they’ve been perhaps to quick to believe what someone whom they’ve never met says about a dog or dogs they’ve never seen or run with.

My best hounds over the years have come from locally owned hounds that I’ve been able to go see perform both in the woods and at home in the kennel. A top hunting dog that is a PIA at home in the kennel or on a chain is as worthless to me as a dog that doesn’t perform in the woods. A hunting dog spends more time at home then it does in the woods..........this holds true for even the hardest of hunters.

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: north ala.
Posts: 902

You need to have at it Bruce! That's the ONLY way you will ever have peace of mind about anything, especially dogs because there is so many different opinions, styles, stories and lies and buddy buddy situations and just plain ignorance you have to see for yourself and I for one appreciate your mission to try and settle it. Ex. I was told about a man that turned down 100,000 dollars for a dog back in the 70's but it was all made up between him and his hunting buddy.

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Registered: Dec 2003
Location: Sheridan, WY
Posts: 1147

quote:

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Originally posted by DL NH
It seems that many feel the best hounds are always a long ways away from where you live. I think primarily because people have a tendency to take what they read/hear at face value. Many (including me!) find they’ve been perhaps to quick to believe what someone whom they’ve never met says about a dog or dogs they’ve never seen or run with.

My best hounds over the years have come from locally owned hounds that I’ve been able to go see perform both in the woods and at home in the kennel. A top hunting dog that is a PIA at home in the kennel or on a chain is as worthless to me as a dog that doesn’t perform in the woods. A hunting dog spends more time at home then it does in the woods..........this holds true for even the hardest of hunters.

---

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Registered: Oct 2006
Location: Morganton, NC
Posts: 1360

In my opinion a lot of the loose mouthed comments are based off of he said she said information. The more honest opinions though I feel are based strictly off of ones own personal interpretation of dogs. For instance I talked to a gentleman a while back and he was talking about his cold nosed slow trailing hound yet in reality I haven’t seen that, I’ve just seen a poor track dog slow trailing and treeing average tracks. There again it’s strictly interpretation in my mind.

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Registered: Oct 2004
Location: Clarksville, AR
Posts: 1074

I like the sentiment, and would love to just get in the truck and go see for myself, but in reality I think it would be pretty difficult to travel around and get a real and accurate feel for some of the top dogs or top strains out there. I've got a pup at my house a real dog man would shoot most nights, but a money man would pull the wallet out for every once in awhile. You might have to hunt with him a week to see just how sorry he is.

Furthermore, within most lines there's such wild variations between strains and even individuals that it would be really hard to get a concensus. There are a few men out there that hunt what they breed, cull hard and honest, and are able to reproduce high quality litters with similar attributes year after year, but they are few and far between.

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: north ala.
Posts: 902

quote:

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Originally posted by Cory Highfill
I like the sentiment, and would love to just get in the truck and go see for myself, but in reality I think it would be pretty difficult to travel around and get a real and accurate feel for some of the top dogs or top strains out there. I've got a pup at my house a real dog man would shoot most nights, but a money man would pull the wallet out for every once in awhile. You might have to hunt with him a week to see just how sorry he is.

Furthermore, within most lines there's such wild variations between strains and even individuals that it would be really hard to get a concensus. There are a few men out there that hunt what they breed, cull hard and honest, and are able to reproduce high quality litters with similar attributes year after year, but they are few and far between.

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Registered: Nov 2012
Location: Roseville Kentucky
Posts: 187

If a person doesn't like, what everyone else is calling a good dog. They probably got beat by that dog or butt hurt by the owner. I've listen to guys run down some really good dogs just for the face they don't like the owners. Or some just don't like the breed, I'm a black and tan guy in world full of walkers, but is till know a good dog when i hunt with it. The best coon dog I've hunted with in a long time was a cur dog. He was treeing coons in front of dogs behind dogs all around the other dogs. Now some wouldn't like him because he silent on track, but he can tree you a truck load of coons. He wasn't for sale type dog because i ask.

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Registered: Apr 2015
Location: church hill tn
Posts: 5630

quote:

---

Originally posted by Bruce m. Conkey
I saw and ad on facebook from back in 1995 that got me to thinking. The dog in the ad in my opinion had a lot to do with the Treeing Walker Breed. I did a Google search and was not surprised but it just brought back my lack of faith in what some hunters can and will say. I was amazed as all the negative comments about the dog. So I googled another great (In my opinion) hound. Same thing. Some like him, many didn't. In one state they say the offspring was the greatest track dogs to ever live. In another state they say the line of dogs have no tracking ability. After seeing the same pattern over and over again on Walker Hounds. I searched some well known English Hounds. Same thing. Love, Hate relationship with the dog. It don't stop there. Black and tans, redbones and others. All got the same press. The best I can figure out is back in the early 90's is when all this internet stuff and message boards got popular. About then is when it came to light, because of free and flowing speech that all the dogs I dreamed about from magazine ads were duds. Every line of Walker dog or Black dog or English dog I have tried to own since the late 60's. According to Google were duds and could not reproduce. Some guys like myself liked them. But on the message boards there are a bunch of haters. They say hate and jealousy blinds people. Guess liking and respecting something blinds people also. Then we come on here wanting to know how to breed better hounds. Until you remove the human ego it's a battle. I never thought of having a bucket list for when I got old. But I am thinking about one now. Just would like to get in the truck and visit some of the sports well known and respected men. Hunt with their hounds. Never repeat anything I saw on a message board. Just die one day having my own opinion of these hounds.

---

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: Freeport,TX
Posts: 1907

A great hunting dog should be acknowledged for what it is no matter the breed or whoever owns it...call the dog as it is...

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Registered: Sep 2007
Location: New Lexington, Oh.
Posts: 84

A wise man once told me, “you’ll run all over the country trying to find a hound better than the one tied up out back”.... Some of the best advice I’ve ever heard.

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Registered: May 2010
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 350

The most difficult part of this discussion is the absolute lack of a quantitative way to rate these hounds. One person may find the hunting style or ability of a certain hound to be great and highly desirable but those abilities and or style may not work for the next individual. So the very same dog is going to be evaluated very differently depending upon each persons perspective. So Bruce, those dogs you thought were great probably were to quite a few people but maybe not so much to others. You can filter out a great deal of the BS, petty jealousy, breed blindness by getting your feedback from people you know and or respect their opinion.

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Registered: Apr 2007
Location: Jonesborough Tennessee
Posts: 1034

A few years back I was supposed to buy a puppy from a guy at Orangeburge and when I couldn’t find the guy I saw another guy there that was studding a litter mate to the male I was supposed to get a pup from (hadn’t paid for it yet) and when I went up and asked this guy about the other guy he just started telling me how bad the litter mate to his was and how I should buy one of his pups and needless to say I went home with no oup!

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Registered: Sep 2009
Location: Monticello, Wi
Posts: 744

THIS IS A GREAT THREAD! It illustrates why it is so difficult for someone trying to improve their dogs and raise a litter of pups has to hunt with the dogs that they are considering to get an accurate analysis.
I wore out a 1969 ElCamino in the 70s hunting with walker studs in the midwest and never hunted with a dog that was better than the "yardstick"
that I was hauling around for comparison. JMO Ken Risley

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Registered: Jan 2006
Location:
Posts: 416

A wise man told me a long time ago unless you are looking for a certain line you have just as good of dogs close to home as far away also it's a numbers game for some of the most popular dogs they get bred more

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: north ala.
Posts: 902

quote:

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Originally posted by Kler Kry
THIS IS A GREAT THREAD! It illustrates why it is so difficult for someone trying to improve their dogs and raise a litter of pups has to hunt with the dogs that they are considering to get an accurate analysis.
I wore out a 1969 ElCamino in the 70s hunting with walker studs in the midwest and never hunted with a dog that was better than the "yardstick"
that I was hauling around for comparison. JMO Ken Risley

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Registered: Jan 2004
Location: North MO
Posts: 2347

If only they made an event you could go to that compared coon hounds!

Wouldn't that be something!

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Registered: Dec 2013
Location: Nichols Ny
Posts: 1565

You should never base your opinion on 1 hound per "line" or breed. And never form an opinion of a hound based on 1 night of hunting.

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Registered: Feb 2005
Location:
Posts: 1739

I to travelled ....and went and hunted with studs and there off spring.....
Here's my conclusion.....
They didn't have nutting better than I had....and I wasn't interested in breeding sideways......so with that revelation I breed my own.. ..and yes one of the best English dogs I have had the privilege of hunting with for 2-3 yrs. was only 30 minutes from my house.....go figure ?

So save urself sum $ and time.

But on the same note go and judge for urself .......ain't no better way .....same way I don't pay no attention to the "gossip" that's so previlent in this sport.

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Registered: Jul 2004
Location: Nova Scotia
Posts: 2765

quote:

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Originally posted by Josh Michaelis
If only they made an event you could go to that compared coon hounds!

Wouldn't that be something!

---

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: AUBURN, IN.
Posts: 1706

it like the guy that lives down the road that has a real nice dog but the guys will not breed to him --BECAUSE THEY SAW HIM TREE SLICK WHEN HE WAS 8 MONTHS ---but they will drive 10 hours and paid top dollar to breed to a dog they don't even know if will TREE --because they run real good ADDS each month and ADD a little color to the story about the dog

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Registered: May 2016
Location:
Posts: 42

I think Doug said it best most people won't breed to a local dog because they look for one bad thing to pick them apart. I can say I have hunted the same line of dogs for 30 years. I just love training and hunting a buck creek dog it's just who I am. That being said the one dog that left an impression on me was handsome trucker it takes alot more that a tree dog to peak my interest. I just wonder if guys really watch what's happening in the woods or just look at what's on the score card. There are alot of really good dogs today very very few great dogs.

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Registered: Jan 2016
Location:
Posts: 589

So..........here’s a thought. If we all had great hounds wouldn’t we really just have an average hound??

I’ve never known anyone who has ALWAYS been in possession of a great hound. Not saying it may not be possible. Just saying I’ve never known anyone who has.

There comes a point when it almost seems like looking for the proverbial pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow. My guess is, should anyone be so fortunate as to “always” have a great one, they’re always looking for a better one and are never satisfied with what they have.

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Registered: Feb 2012
Location: airville,pa
Posts: 2072

Something to think about. If you are breeding dogs there may be more important things than how great a dog is or what hunts he has won or how many hunts he won. Frankly even if he won any thing at all. Truthful I think how a dog starts as a pup may be more important from a breeding standpoint than the way he is as a finished coonhound. Breeding wise I like a line of dogs with a lot of desire. Without desire there nothing but a lot of work to get started. Not saying they won't make a world champion later in life. Now of course after they make wch everyone wants to breed to them. Once again them pups are not desirable pups and the circle continues.
1st thing some people need to figure out is are they wanting to breed good dogs or own a winner?

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: Freeport,TX
Posts: 1907

quote:

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Originally posted by pamjohnson


1st thing some people need to figure out is are they wanting to breed good dogs or own a winner?

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

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