Dog killing cougars

[houndsman]

Just a word of caution to you fello cat hunters.In the past cauple of years ive seen the cougers in the north okanogan fighting & killing more hounds then I have seen in the past 35 years of hunting them.The wolves are following them & runing them off there kills constantly ,as a result the cats are standind up the dogs & fighting them .Just this winter 10 to 12 hounds were badly mauled or killed by cougars in this area alone .This wolf thing is way past out of control ,My dogs are mager part of my life & for the first time ever im a little apprehensive about turning out on a big tom.

[Barracuda]

where specifically?

[steepNdeep]

That's interesting about how the wolves change the cat's behavior... my buddy lost one of his best dogs a couple of years ago & almost lost another one last year, but chased the cat off with his knife & later killed the huge tom. Times... they are a changin'...


Just a word of caution to you fello cat hunters.In the past cauple of years ive seen the cougers in the north okanogan fighting & killing more hounds then I have seen in the past 35 years of hunting them.The wolves are following them & runing them off there kills constantly ,as a result the cats are standind up the dogs & fighting them .Just this winter 10 to 12 hounds wt tere badly mauled or killed by cougars in this area alone .This wolf thing is way past out of control ,My dogs are mager part of my life & for the first time ever im a little apprehensive about turning out on a big tom.

[chilcotin hillbilly]

Thats true what houndsmen said about the wolves chasing the cats off there kills. I used to guide with 2 dogs only and caught a pile of cats. Last year with the poor deer population and the wolves starving out the lions, I started running 4 or five dogs at a time with the safety in numbers theory. Even then I wore out the end of my boot on 3 cats and still had one kill my best dog.
I still think that this is also a learned trait passed on from females teaching their young to hunt portch dogs.

[Big Lew]

You could be right about " this is also a learned trait passed on from females teaching their young to hunt porch dogs." If People living in rural communities knew just how often all manner of wild animals, including large predators, prowled their neighbourhoods at night. There has been many, many reports of cougars attacking or grabbing dogs and cats from back yards. Another very good example is coyotes living even in large cities. Quite often their main food source is 'little fluffy' the pet cat, or small dogs.

[Barracuda]

cats will never fight a pack of wolves unless they have no choice the tree is safe haven. wolves running off cats has been going on since the dawn of time. it might stand up to one or two but thats it.


Cats killing dogs isnt new coyotes foxes and pets are all fair game to them.

Dogs with more balls and not enough brains for staying away from the nasty bits very often pay the price . Theres Gritty and then theres Dead Gritty.

Not to mention the trend to run little dogs gives the cat more opportunity to whack a dog with deep snow a little dog equals tired sitting duck.

If a cats been hunting pets you are just serving him dinner if the dogs are not careful or big enough in numbers to intimidate the cat.

this is where haveing all the dogs close in speed is an asset

so where exactly are these areas that you dont want us hunting :mrgreen:

[houndsman]

Its not about me not wanting others hunting where I hunt . I hunt in the shuswap. if you run cats where there are few wolves there is no problem puting them up a tree, but if there is lots of them then count on your dogs getting rubed out . A lot of hound hunters that have run cat for a long long time & never lost a dog have had dogs killed in the last 2 years .A frend of mine ran a cat 2 winters ago & had a dog killed the verry next cat killed another dog .Then last winter all his dogs got riped to pices .He killed the cat & saved his dogs.I found a big tom last winter dec 23 I cut him off & jumped him off the trail he was walking down I went back to my truck to get my dogs.My phone rang ,it was my sister letting me know that my dad had passed away that morning .Iwent home .A few days later that cat killed my frends dogs. We got some guys together with a bunch of dogs to kill this cat . One guy was boxing in the cat that was on a kill , while we were having a bullshit at the trucks. A wolf started howling on the hill above us so I got out my fox pro & anserd it then the whole mountain lit up with wolves .We all went home & that dog killer is still out there.

[FirePower]

Honest question here, but do you chaps not run bred fighting dogs with your hounds? When I was a lad I had the privlage of spending time with an old fellow that ran "big kittys" as he called them. He ran some huge wolfhound mixes with his hounds to do the fighting. They worked as a team and were very effective.

[chilcotin hillbilly]

Honest question here, but do you chaps not run bred fighting dogs with your hounds? When I was a lad I had the privlage of spending time with an old fellow that ran "big kittys" as he called them. He ran some huge wolfhound mixes with his hounds to do the fighting. They worked as a team and were very effective.

Fighting dogs are not the answer, when a cat wants to kill the dogs it just does. The answer is having dogs that will bay not fight, all your dogs must be willing to go in for the kill if one hound gets caught. This I have witnessed more then once it is quite a rodoe when it happens.

[Barracuda]

I agree . you want dogs that bay up and back up the other dogs with some muscle if things go sideways .

[Gunner]

There is a big upswing in the Shuswap wolf population,I see sign almost everywhere I hunt nowdays.Hopefully it won't turn into the same problem that houndsmen are having down in the Flathead and in Idaho.There it's not the cats killing the dogs,the wolves are doing it.Gunner