serious Lefty
- Thread starter Jamie
- Start date
was planning to take a short hunt at a place just down the road, but since that is a 30 minute hunt most times, I decided to make a day of it elsewhere despite the weather. we took five fox squirrels, and should have had a limit, but a couple squirrels that I happened to see eluded the dog. I could have shot two of them, but it is a monumental error to give the dog his prize when he doesn't make the tree, so a couple of lucky rats get to live another day. we'll get them next time. 
we had a rather long day yesterday. dog treed one in two minutes on our first drop. as soon as we made it to the tree, squirrel ran to the ground, past the dog who chased it up a big hickory straight into a hole. off we go and dog tree again 100 yards out. had two fox squirrels in this tree. wife brained the one she could see and the other ran immediately into a hole. that would be the only squirrel in the bag for most of the day. dog made 10 or 12 trees over the next several hours and two more drops. all of them obvious dens. interestingly, they were mostly large oaks and hickories with large holes. no leaf nests, just den trees. we covered a bunch of ground in one of my best squirrel honey holes. after a short debate, I decided to make one more drop to try and get another squirrel or two. happy we stuck it out. Lefty chased the first squirrel he found up three different trees, covering nearly 400 yards before Nancy managed to put some lead in his head. Lefty treed two others that went to the game bag. after we shot out the second one, gathered it up and tried to move on Lefty would not come to me. he never does that. he stood up on top of a small hill clearly looking up in in the top of giant white oak and barking like crazy. he saw a squirrel, but I don't think he smelled it as he was frozen in place, locked on visually, making no effort to get to the tree. I eventually found the squirrel and after way too much time, Nancy missed it. squirrel took off through the tree tops, Lefty following. once the dog stopped we moved on to try and relocate the squirrel. just as I was about to concede that squirrel made it to a hole and was gone I saw a tail and a foot. the squirrel tried to get into a hole or crevice in this tree but did not fit all the way. fearing that Nancy might have wounded it with first shot I figured we best do all we can to finish the job. I fired a few shots near the "hole" to try and get squirrel to move, and on the third one, squirrel ran out, up to top of tree, all the way back to the ground. another chase ensued and Lefty ran it down and caught it. squirrel must have bit him during the fracas because he got free and up another tree. I eventually shot him out. I was very pleased that Lefty saw this one and convinced me, and more so that he stayed with it until we killed the squirrel. happy that we were able to get it. Nancy had shot his nose off, and squirrel was a goner. was a very exciting end to a long day of walking from den tree to den tree. we ended up with 5, four on the last drop.
Archertl
Senior Member
he's ok, I guess.
I've been told these Cur dogs tend to have some quirkiness. the one that doesn't is the exception. this one has his issues, one I can fix, one I don't think is fixable. he's been wanting to wander off of trees when I get there. he'll stay treed for an hour if it takes me that long to get there, but as soon as I get to within 50 yards or so, sometimes he just wanders off the tree and starts sniffing around. this is very bad, but totally fixable. I've been making it a priority to correct this behavior as it is nothing more than a dog that has gotten too big for his britches. at age 2 1/2 he knows exactly what he is supposed to do now and is naturally an extremely tree-minded dog. I command him back onto tree along with using the tone only on shock collar. if he doesn't respond he gets zapped along with another verbal command and that has worked every single time. I've used the toe of my boot a couple of times, too, but he improved quickly after the first time I zapped him. I'll keep on him hard when I have to, but he does not do this on every tree. he is still a young dog and needs fine tuning. sometimes it isn't about killing squirrels. the other thing he does that is a problem is he won't hunt very well with other dogs, especially females. he gets along perfectly fine with other dogs. he's never shown one iota of aggression toward another dog while in the field. he simply won't get out and go hunt. he stays pretty close to me the whole time. the man I got Lefty from(he's my squirrel dog guru) thinks it's a jealousy/protective behavior as he saw similar behavior in is best dog, Digger, when he was younger. We hunted Digger and Lefty together on Thursday. Lefty treed two squirrels, Digger treed 6. Lefty just milled around under our feet most of the time. the more I scold or encourage him to go away and hunt, the worse he gets. no remedy for this except to hunt him alone. he has never acted this way when he is the only dog on the drop. I'll keep hunting him with as many other dogs as I can, as often as I can(which isn't very) in hopes that he will just grow beyond it as he develops further. really not a huge problem for me as I hunt him alone most of the time, but very frustrating when we have two or three dogs out together. could be a big problem when I get another squirrel dog, though.
since we hunted Monday, Wed, Thurs, and yesterday, I had to give dog a rest today. or maybe I had to give me a rest, lol. headed south tomorrow to Hocking Hills after some greys.
we only managed three greys last sunday, but had several run to a hole faster than we could shoot. a lack-luster day of squirrel hunting in my mind, but a pleasant day in the woods, none the less. we also managed four fox squirrels in Knox county on a short hunt on Monday.
after taking a break for holiday stuff, we headed south to Vinton county to hunt with our good friend, and TOO's very own, Switchhitter. By all accounts, this was one of our best hunts of the season. Lefty running on all cylinders, shooters getting it done, weather pretty rosy for end of December. all in all, just a fine day to be skipping around the hills of southern Ohio. we wound up with 9. 7 greys, two fox. had fiver or six more dive into holes.
after taking a break for holiday stuff, we headed south to Vinton county to hunt with our good friend, and TOO's very own, Switchhitter. By all accounts, this was one of our best hunts of the season. Lefty running on all cylinders, shooters getting it done, weather pretty rosy for end of December. all in all, just a fine day to be skipping around the hills of southern Ohio. we wound up with 9. 7 greys, two fox. had fiver or six more dive into holes.
I've been told repeatedly that Lefty is a perfect example of what a Mountain Cur is "supposed" to look like. athletic build, cat-like feet, proper size, skinny waist, barrel chest, etc. I wouldn't know the difference, really, as I'm not really a cur dog aficionado. the breeding of these dogs is out of control and largely poorly done, so I'm told. lots of sloppy hound dog traits being bred into curs for competition purposes. maybe you are looking at Black Mouth Curs or Treeing Curs or some other?
Lefty's pedigree is loaded with dogs with lots of bird dog in them, which is very desirable in a meat dog. they hunt with their head up as much as nose on the ground. he hunts with his ears and eyes as much as his nose.
Lefty's pedigree is loaded with dogs with lots of bird dog in them, which is very desirable in a meat dog. they hunt with their head up as much as nose on the ground. he hunts with his ears and eyes as much as his nose.
Archertl
Senior Member
I know people are adding hounds and pitbull to good black mouth and catahoula lines for these stupid hog bay competitions. Hounds have also been added to bmc and catahoula lines for mt lion hunting. There has always been a lot of backyard breeders of cur dogs. OMC are smaller than BMC Catahoula and treeing curs. However OMC tend to be bigger than Tennessee treeing brindle and stephens stock.
Part of the problem is mt curs (actually all breeds of curs) are breed for so many different types of hunting and work with out a very good registry of blood lines. There are stock, squirrel, coon, upland bird, coyote decoy dog, hog, mt lion, bear and probably more lines of dogs with in the same breed of cur. So when someone that doesnt know any better decides to breed mt curs from different lines of work together you get dogs that have unknown and or little ability.
Part of the problem is mt curs (actually all breeds of curs) are breed for so many different types of hunting and work with out a very good registry of blood lines. There are stock, squirrel, coon, upland bird, coyote decoy dog, hog, mt lion, bear and probably more lines of dogs with in the same breed of cur. So when someone that doesnt know any better decides to breed mt curs from different lines of work together you get dogs that have unknown and or little ability.
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last year we gave up over half the month of January to Arctic weather, and we're off to a flying start again this January. only thing that made waiting it out through four more days of deer gun hunting tolerable was that the weather was uniquely atrocious every day. we went out for a couple of hours this afternoon after the sun popped out. didn't expect to do much, but squirrel rut is on and you never know. Lefty ran his ass off and found the meat. five squirrels in one tree (three of which escaped), three in another (two of which escaped). we got six in a couple of hours. all of them boars. try again in a day or two when we climb out of the single digits long enough to loose the dog.
we've had two pretty good days in a row. spent the day with Switchhitter yesterday and we got five Fox and one grey. steady action all day with all the den trees we made. another buddy cancelled on me today, so I went alone with Lefty. He's really been in a groove the last few times out, and really hammered them today. we got two on the first drop while it was still snowing, three on the second drop and one in less than one minute on the last drop. shooter poked the eyes out of five of them and put one between the eyes on top of head on the other. gun and dog unconscious today.
I peeled the first two before driving on, but here is the first five.
and just for fun, my Bluedog inspired squirrel selfie
number 6
I peeled the first two before driving on, but here is the first five.
and just for fun, my Bluedog inspired squirrel selfie
number 6
Great pictures Jamie. accept the one with me
I have had the pleasure of chasing Lefty and Jamie a couple times this year. It is amazing to watch Lefty work, there is never any doubt there is a squirrel there when he barks treed.
The last time we where out he winded a squirrel that was up in a tree. He did not know which tree but he would not leave because he could smell the squirrel. We finally gave up and where leaving when Jamie spotted the squirrel in a scrawny cherry tree. The unlucky squirrel ran around to my side so I got to shot him out:smiley_crocodile:
Thanks Jamie and Lefty
I have had the pleasure of chasing Lefty and Jamie a couple times this year. It is amazing to watch Lefty work, there is never any doubt there is a squirrel there when he barks treed.
The last time we where out he winded a squirrel that was up in a tree. He did not know which tree but he would not leave because he could smell the squirrel. We finally gave up and where leaving when Jamie spotted the squirrel in a scrawny cherry tree. The unlucky squirrel ran around to my side so I got to shot him out:smiley_crocodile:
Thanks Jamie and Lefty