Any trappers using their dogs to help

[Kyboy88]

I have just found out some k9 trappers use their dogs to help find spots to set does anyone do that? Also find some old books my grandad had that talk about dogs being used for finding skunk mink beaver and muskrat dens. Just want to see if anyone has done it

 

[Hunting Wife]

I used to know a guy that would sort of use his dog trapping coyotes. He would just find a likely area and take the dog for a walk. Wherever it would mark, he would put a set. He swore by it.

 

[Kyboy88]

That is what I have heard but I did not know if it was training or just dogs nature

 

[Hunting Wife]

My lab marks every pile of coyote crap or scent mark we come across if we aren’t hunting. She has only ever been trained to hunt birds. I think it’s just dog nature.

 

[huronmtns]

My lab marks every pile of coyote crap or scent mark we come across if we aren’t hunting. She has only ever been trained to hunt birds. I think it’s just dog nature.

I have watched the hunting dogs too. As a canine trapper that looked for sign to set on, the dogs did typically mark the same spots. Here in the UP, most marking spots are on the top of a subtle rise on an older logging road, trail or landing site. I'm guessing these locations being slightly higher allowed the scent to carry easier and farther. After a few years of learning to trap coyotes with footholds, I got to the point that I saw this behavior pattern and it has turned out that these marking locations has become very predictable. When I go for walks on these roads or trails, I just look ahead and think that should have scat on it. Most of the time it does. I kind of laugh at myself for even doing or being able to do something like this (trapping or not) and then post on a thread about it.

 

[johnrr65]

I have watched the hunting dogs too. As a canine trapper that looked for sign to set on, the dogs did typically mark the same spots. Here in the UP, most marking spots are on the top of a subtle rise on an older logging road, trail or landing site. I'm guessing these locations being slightly higher allowed the scent to carry easier and farther. After a few years of learning to trap coyotes with footholds, I got to the point that I saw this behavior pattern and it has turned out that these marking locations has become very predictable. When I go for walks on these roads or trails, I just look ahead and think that should have scat on it. Most of the time it does. I kind of laugh at myself for even doing or being able to do something like this (trapping or not) and then post on a thread about it.

+1

 

[Kyboy88]

So just instruct for them? Do females do it as well as males?

 

[IDFireLass]

All of our dogs that we've used on the trapline they all marked even the females. We have just one black mouth cur now and he's a marking machine. I swear his bladder holds about 25 gallons.
Dog's just learn or already know to mark things. They also become wise to trapping lures and traps. Sure they have to be trained at first but if they have any smarts they catch on fast.

 

[Kyboy88]

All of our dogs that we've used on the trapline they all marked even the females. We have just one black mouth cur now and he's a marking machine. I swear his bladder holds about 25 gallons.
Dog's just learn or already know to mark things. They also become wise to trapping lures and traps. Sure they have to be trained at first but if they have any smarts they catch on fast.

Cool I was thinking about a cur dog and did not know if I need to get a male or if a female can work. Would you have any suggesting for a beginner as far as training with a green pup? Also in your experience is a black mouth cur a good one to began with or would you go with a different one

 

[IDFireLass]

Get the pup off the teat and always have them by your side. Teach them come, sit and not to bark. Let them bond to you. It's just repeat, repeat and repeat on your training. Once they bond to you they will be by your side forever. If they are half way smart you'll be learning from them. Our dog would steal the UTV and go cruising if he could figure out how to open the door, turn the key and drive it. Find someone in your area with some pups that aren't over bred and registered to the hilt. Seems like they breed the smarts out of a dog all for show and titles. Our Black Mouth is just a mutt more or less and one of the better dogs we've had. It's fairly simple just work with them. Let them play as a pup because their attention span is very short but work with them from the start and as they grow they will catch on. Our dog just was't putting the nose to tracking thing together. Then his first fall while out trapping we got into some grouse and got him into them and the light came on. To this day hunting grouse is his favorite thing to do. He'll hunt anything but loves his grouse.

 

[Kyboy88]

Wow that a new one heard of them hunting a lot of stuff but never Bird's

 

[IDFireLass]

Had one male dog the loved to hunt chukars. He wouldn't point, love to bump them to watch them fly and he would retrieve.

 

[Mudder]

Just some info;Yotes mark their territorial boundaries with scat. Where two-family groups territories meet there is often a hundred scats, years old to days old. My dogs would lead me there. Most often by a landmark of some sort, a large rock slab that breaks up the brush, a wide spot on a fire or forestry trail etc. A good place to set up and ambush a Yote.

Side note; Wolves do the same thing. There is a local dog walker forest trail near my house. A handy parking lot and even a pond to swim your dog. Around a 125 yards into the trail, it seems most every dog takes a dump at the same spot. I spotted a Wolf taking a dump there. I thought it was a Wolf that may have escaped from a nearby nature park. I was almost certain it was a Wolf, the Scat was full of Rodent bones. It was way too big to be a Jackel and acted wild when it spotted me. On a hunch, I picked up the scat and sent it off to a regional Veterinary university saying It sure looked like a Wolf to me. It was a Wolf, just not one from the nearby Nature Park (Zoo) they had those Wolves DNA on record. First Wolf anybody had seen around here in near a century. I made the newspaper Local hunter spots Wolf.

 

[Shangobango]

I brought my blue heeler on my river line once. She managed to kick the boat out to the middle of the river while I was in the process of dispatching a feisty otter caught in a 1.5 meant for coon. I will never forget the look on her face that said " you are the one with thumbs, you shoulda staked the boat off better".

I know a few guys that swear by their dogs on a K-9 line, which makes perfect sense.