The hounds are working hard, opening, but frustrated after an hour of pursuit. The track looked fresh, the boys sounded like they got it jumped. The Garmin Alpha is a hot mess of circles, but the hounds aren't showing (or finding) the adversary treed. The chase goes on for a while longer until I lose patience and walk in only to find a mess of dog tracks and loose faith in the hunt. The boys and me hang our heads and walk out telling ourselves next time...for the hundredth time.
Lynx can be difficult for hounds to catch because of physical attributes, habitat and escape tactics employed when pursued. Physically, a large male lynx is around 26-30 pounds with the females being slightly smaller. Their large feet allow them to float on top of deep snow, and the haired paws cover the pads, releasing very little scent compared to a cat that has a pad with direct contact to snow or dirt. They tend to occupy thicker mixed timber, swamps and hard to penetrate rabbit habitat. Tactically, a lynx has several escape tactics they commonly employ to reduce the dog soldiers pressure and create distance. A lynx can walk or trot for eternity and each hound hang-up buys them distance. Lynx also tend to make tight circles under pressure, leap from tree to tree, tree at the top of the highest timber, back trail, and will seem to locate blow down. The following are few tricks I use to increase the odds of winning the match and ending the day with a lynx in a tree.
Terrain selection. Sun Tzu stressed the importance of selecting the correct terrain when engaging an opponent. Select terrain where the dogs have a chance, and wait until you find a track there before dumping the box. Avoiding blowdown and especially gullies laden with blowdown, is a good way to increase your odds of closing the gap. Lynx will run for miles and dance across the top of snow and logs, while dogs take a beat down often getting stick jabbed or slowed down in the mess of horizontal trees. Roads and trails are a huge benefit and can reduce the brutal bushwhacking distance. In my area 20 year old replanted pines provide a nice clean forest floor for the dogs to run at a higher speed. Clean open forest can be especially helpful when catching your first few with a new dog.
When starting a track let one dog out first. If a track is older, too many dogs can erase its existence from the face of the earth just milling around. Getting one dog out in front to at least line the track out allows them a better chance of moving it. A cold trail can go on for some time but you can tell a lynx is being pressured when it starts to make tight circles, and the dog intensity increases. Up until this point the lynx may be wandering aimlessly or in one direction.
The dogs might have it treed and just not know it. Walk in and look where most of the hound action is occurring on the Garmin Alpha. Not having much scent to start with and jumping 10 feet high into a tree is the Strat of the hounds loading challenges. The lynx may have switched trees or be hiding high up in the branches. Errant winds can further challenge the situation. If a couple good circles outside the mess of hound tracks doesn't produce an out track, take the time to use binoculars. They can be amazingly hard to spot but patience pays. When the lynx has been found take the time to reward the dogs at the base of the tree and show them.
And lastly, have faith. Sometimes it just takes time or lucky break. Allow the dogs adequate time to succeed or fail. A good hound guy told me when I started "as long as your hounds are chasing, they are learning." Keep at it and you will start to win the game of catch with the lynx. At first it may be one lynx catch every several races but choosing the right terrain, allowing one dog to start the track, walking in when they can't find it are all tips that will help with catching more lynx.