Originally Published in the July 1966 issue of Full Cry Magazine
Written by: Al Lynn
Western Varmint Hunting
Received a letter recently wanting to know why I quit the Treeing Walkers. I am primarily a bear hunter. I did not quit the Walkers, they quit me. The spotted dogs treed lots of bears for me before I started running into too many bad bear, the I found out that a hound bred for hunting won't always take the punishment a bear sometimes sometimes dishes out and still run the next one they are put on. I mean good.
I want you all to know that anything I say against a hound is about my own dog, not about a breed or all dogs of that color. I have said many times before and still do, a good bear dog is liable to be any color.
For small varmints it is hard to beat the Walkers or any of the treeing fox hounds of good hunting stock. Some of those with the old ticked hounds strong enough in them are good enough for any bear hunter. Looking back through the past 30 years at the best bear dogs I have owned I find the majority of the real top dogs to be from big game hounds bred by professional hunters for many years. Most of them were ticked with spots. Some blue, some red, and some mixed and in between.
Many of you will be surprised to know that my favorite hound color has always been and still is black and tan. I think a shiny black coat with rich tan trim is the most beautiful of all but I don't keep let it keep me from owning the best pack of bear dogs I can get. Right now my best bear dog is black and tan in color, but the fourths Bluetick, sires bluetick pups. Well, anyway he suits me. Looking out the window of my trailer house I see, besides the black and tan, a white one, one light red one with white points, the other seven are ticked and spotted various colors. Only one dog in the lot that was ever registered and I don't have papers on her. I keep pedigree records up on all my dogs and accurate records of the breeding. Much more important is the performance record of each dog, ability rating, type of voice, confirmation, etc. I keep this record religiously and judge my dogs' ability more severely than anything else.
Burgess of Washington is having trouble getting good registered cat dogs? I can't see why? Won't Earl Kendall let you have any out of his stock? I know he has the right kind for cat. He wouldn't keep any other kind. Check up on the breeding of those 15 month old grade dogs that are treeing cat, they might be better bred for the job than the registered dogs you are getting. They don't have to be registered to be well bred. If these young cat dogs are from good good cat dogs for several generations back then they are just doing what they are supposed to do. Age doesn't seem to make much difference with some dogs. About the best and fastest cold trailer I have is only ten months old. He does it all, strike, trail, tree, no trash trouble. Yes, he is a grade dog too, but as far bask as you can go all of his ancestors were registered, some were not. Anyway it's hard even for a good experienced old dog to beat young Blue. He just gets out there on that track and says: Come on, old timers, anything you can do. I can do better. Most of the time he is right too. Blue started acting like that when he was five months old.
There are smart dogs of practically all breeds that will tree but they don't tree as naturally, or as long, or as hard as dogs that have been selectively bred for hunting tree game for many generations. What we call a tree hound here in the west is, according to the best information we can get, 3/4 bloodhound, 1/4 fox hound. Probably the best strain had its origin with the Lee Brothers as I recall from correspondence with Ernest Lee may years ago, they crossed the foxhound on the bloodhound to get dogs with enough nose to follow a cold lion track in the semi-desert country where much of their hunting was done. Most of the other western strains of big game hounds were probably developed about the same way. The original foxhound is a result of a bloodhound, greyhound cross. This is the purebred English foxhound which is the granddaddy of all fox hounds, running or treeing.
The enclosed picture gives a good view of the heads of typical treehounds, note the broad heads, medium long rolled ears, and medium size. These two hounds, male on left, female on right, will tree until they get so hungry and/or thirsty they are forced to leave. Among other things in the photo is Dave Handrich on left with Smokey. Joe, one of Dave's happy hunting parties, with his bear, and the writer holding old Belle. She is bred to Dave's best bear dog, Jed, who looks just like Belle. Belle is pure Lee Bros. stock. Jed was bred by Jack Dozier along the same lines but no relation to Belle. The best to the best and the good ones are not accidents.
These two will work tracks that are so cold that a lot of real good trail hounds will not even try. This of course can sometimes be a nuisance when bear hunting but sometimes pays off. For cougar in the dry season it is just what is needed.
Incidentally, Belle is the mother of the young Blue dog mentioned above and his daddy is one of Merrill Vann's best lion dogs. Blue is doing what he was bred to do. We don't breed these dogs to sell, we just like to have the best we can get to hunt with. If there are any leftover after we pick outs we give them to hunters who we know will give them enough hunting to develop themselves. Only one string attached, if they are not good, they must never be bred.
My life story appears in the May issue of Hunting Dog magazine, here will be seen some more old hunting pictures, along with a lot of malarkey about where and when I was but nothing about how or why.
Maybe some of you might be interested in the color of the original Lee Bros' hounds or the foundation of the Western Big Game Hounds. Again, from memory, I believe Ernest told me their first pair of good tree dogs was a Bluetick male and a light red female. This produced blues, reds, and redticks. These were crossed on a red colored bloodhound. From this foundation stems a strain of registered Blueticks and Western Big Game hounds. You tell me the difference. I'll tell you which is best.
I believe there is still another strain that had their origin primarily in the Lee Bros.' hounds and that is the big and Blue hounds bred by Bill Green, Rex Moyle, and others. These big headed, big boned, long eared, big blue hounds are I believe the result of the hounds Bill Green got from the Lee Bros. being crossed on the South American blue roan bloodhound, if so these dogs are 7/8 and about as near as we have to a pure blooded tree hound.
The old time Black and Tan AKC registered foxhound is the only other breed used for generations for hunting tree game that could probably be considered more purebred than the big Blues, when you need more hound blood either these Big Blues or the old time Black and Tan is the best place to get it. It is no longer necessary to use the bloodhound cross when good hound blood is available from hounds that have been worked on tree game for many generations.
Because many hounds, registered and grade, used for hunting tree game today are less than fifty percent hound they can be improved, especially in trailing ability and voice by introducing more hound blood from the above mentioned hounds of good hunting strains. Be sure you breed to hounds of ability as well as looks.