By Chris Powell

It is a real honor to write this column for Bear Hunting Magazine. When Kolby asked me to take up the mantle and share my experience of hunting with hounds, my first thought was what can I contribute that would be useful for this diverse audience. Bear Hunting Magazine is such an in depth magazine that covers every aspect of bear hunting; nuance to the max from spot and stalk to cooking to hunting with hounds. Finding regular topics for this column that will intrigue every subscriber will be a fun and fulfilling task.

 

My goal with this article is to bridge gaps in the hunting community; in this case - the bear hunting community. If you are a spot and stalk hunter, hunt over bait or run hounds I have found that there is room for all of us. There is common ground we share. There are common objectives we all have to unite around and achieve. It starts with communication and listening. We have to break down the tribalism, put egos aside and realize that being right is not nearly as important as doing the right thing. As a hunting community we have to stop shooting holes in the boat that we all depend upon for survival. We can do this.

 

My journey with hounds began forty years ago. I did not have a dad or grandfather who hunted with hounds but I did have an uncle through my step mother who was a coonhunter. I became completely enthralled with his hounds at a young age. He must have noticed my infatuation early on and gifted me with my very first hound. From there my infatuation turned to obsession. I read hand me down hound magazines, breed yearbooks, studied pedigrees and scoured the pages looking for information or people who could help me train my hound. My mother credits my hunting with me staying out of trouble. Of her six kids she says she worried about me the least because she knew I was hunting. Not to say that I didn’t give her plenty to worry about but at least the hounds eased her tensions a bit.

 

As an adult, I joined the United States Marines and took a temporary break from hounds and hunting. After my discharge I was immediately looking for a hound. I still subscribed to Full Cry and American Cooner during my service. Upon my discharge, I also started my career in law enforcement as an Indiana Conservation Officer.  During my career, I became a police K-9 handler and certified trainer. It was then that my hound training took a new direction and got some real traction.  Due to my professional life, I also saw a need for an organization that represented the interests of houndsmen and a friend and I founded the Hoosier Tree Dog Alliance in 2007.

 

Two and half years ago I launched a podcast called Houndsman XP. The goal was, and continues to be, to give houndsmen a credible voice in the hunting community. There were  plenty of podcasts that were touching on the tradition but nothing solely committed to the topic. Podcast hosts would touch on it and try to discuss it but it always missed the mark. Our goal was to tell our story, take control of the narrative surrounding hunting with hounds and educate houndsmen in how to be successful not only in having great performing hounds but also how to co exist and thrive within the hunting community.  As a community, houndsmen are woefully behind in public image, technical information, being involved in wildlife management practices and decision making processes. After 150 episodes we have covered all of these  topics and many more and have only scratched the surface.

 

If we are going to begin this journey together; we have to be able to communicate. There is an entire vocabulary used by houndsmen that most who are not involved will not understand. Even if you do understand, seasoned houndsmen will agree that what each means is highly debatable. To complicate the matter further there is a distinct communication between hound and hunter. Each hound is different and it is the hunters responsibility to decipher the code. Let’s run through the basics and you will see what I mean.

 

Strike: The point in time when a hound indicates that it has detected the scent of it’s quarry. This is normally by giving an excited series of barks. A houndsman will be able to gauge the quality and strength of the scent based on the way a hound barks.

Track: To a houndsman this is not restricted to a physical impression of a footprint in the dirt, mud or snow. A track is a scent trail that is not detectable to the human eye or olfactory senses of the hunter. A seasoned houndsmen and hound can judge the quality and freshness of the scent based upon how the hound reacts to it.

Treed: When the quarry takes refuge the hound will indicate the end of the track by voice change. Bears don’t always climb trees. They may take refuge in a hole or cave and dogs become “treed” in the ground.

Bay: When a bear stops and faces off with the hounds. This usually occurs in thick cover or adverse terrain such as a steep creek bank or downed timber.

Walking Bay: Some bears are just such studs that they are unaffected by hounds and cannot be pressured to climb or stop easily. A walking bay often looks like a UFC fighter walking through a hostile crowd. He is unfazed and ignores the jeering crowd.

Rig: This is a contextual term that is better understood through examples.

“I put my hounds up on the rig”: the dog is placed in a position of the truck for the purpose of winding or detecting bear scent. This could be on top of the dog box, on the hood or simply through holes built for a hounds head to stick out of the the sides of the box.

“I got a rig about a quarter mile back”: while the dog was rigging he detected scent and gave and indication of the presence of scent by barking.

Scent: A microscopic living organism that is unique to a specific living host. This is so complicated that I will have devote multiple future articles to it. To get us started lets just say it is how a bear smells and how a dog smells it.

Split Race: When hounds start a pursuit as a pack and at some point split up and go different directions. It is most common when multiple bears are present and the bears split up and individual hounds make choice to remain dedicated to a particular bear.

Cold Nose: To the unindoctrinated this term is absurd. Who hasn’t had a dog come up and stick its wet, cold nose in the middle of your back in the middle of the night? To the houndsmen this describes the ability of the hound to detect and follow a scent trail that is considered to be older. When a hound is capable of following a scent trail that other hounds cannot, it is considered to be a cold nosed hound.

Hot Nose: When a hound only choses to open on and follow scent trails that are considered to be fresh it is considered to be hot nosed.

 

That should get us started and speaking the same basic language. This is by no means a complete list. Basically all I have done is give you just enough to be able to order a pint in a Norwegian Bar. In the future I will be using these terms and even breaking them down. By being able to communicate we can establish a dialogue. We can build alliances and we can stand united to preserve, protect and promote bear hunting in all of its honorable facets.

 

Until next time, you follow your hounds and I’ll follow mine.