When The Dogs Bark 'Treed' Quotes

“Look out! Here he comes!” Tom yelled, as the wounded lion broke loose from the dogs and bounded through the snow right toward us. We dared not shoot, for the dogs were right in line, and we couldn’t run. We froze in our tracks, ready to shoot at point-blank range if necessary.”
― Elliott S. Barker, When The Dogs Bark 'Treed'

“Then, too, there is nothing that gives one more pleasure and satisfying enjoyment than watching and listening to a pack of well-trained dogs as they work out an old, difficult trail. The intensity of interest shown, the untiring persistence, the amazing ability of a cold-nosed dog, the cooperation of one dog with another, their reactions when the trail is lost, when found again, when the scent becomes dim, and when it suddenly freshens, are delightfully fascinating to observe.”
― Elliott S. Barker, When The Dogs Bark 'Treed'

“Silent trailing was the worst drawback I found to most Airedale hunting dogs.”
― Elliott S. Barker, When The Dogs Bark 'Treed'

“Pup, Puse, and Queenie were the best-trained dogs I ever had. They were trained to hunt, to work and fight, and they loved to do just that. I had taught them absolute obedience in essential matters. They were loyal to me and tried, in all times to accomplish what I indicated that I wanted them to do. They worked together admirably, yet they differed greatly. Each had his own personality, and his own way of doing things.”
― Elliott S. Barker, When The Dogs Bark 'Treed'

“From the blood and hair at the back of the hole, it was evident that the bobcat had gone to the end and turned around to fight off the dogs. One of the dogs had gone in and faced teeth and razor-sharp claws to bring her out. There was not room for both dogs to work, side by side. Pup had a habit, in a fight of any kind, of boring in and taking all his opponent could give, for the sake of a throat hold. That is just what he had done here.

He had faced teeth and claws in a direct, frontal attack, where no strategy or maneuvering tactics could be employed. He had gone head-on into all that cat had to give, which was plenty, for the sake of getting a neck hold; and when he had got it, he had held it and dragged the bobcat out where Puse could help him kill it. The fact that the cat was dead right outside the miniature cave, showed that Pup had never released his hold.

That act, I believe, took more nerve than anything I ever saw a dog do.”
― Elliott S. Barker, When The Dogs Bark 'Treed'

“But before they got there, queenie’s voice changed again, and I knew she had a long-tail up a tree. In an instant Pup and Puse and then Kate verified the fact as they in turn reached the tree. It thrilled me as always to hear them bark “treed.”
― Elliott S. Barker, When The Dogs Bark 'Treed'

“How sensitive must be a dog’s nose to do a thing like that! The air must have been saturated with bobcat scent, for the dogs were running heads up, paying no attention to the actual track made two minutes before, while there had been ten hours or more for the lion’s scent to be dispersed. With great ability a dog must have to pick up and recognize a teeny bit of old lion scent from a great volume of fresh bobcat scent, when both enter his nostrils at the same time. Those are things which we have yet to learn from a dog.”
― Elliott S. Barker, When The Dogs Bark 'Treed'

“Puse was on a narrow shelf not more than six feet wide, and was barking viciously at the lion, which I could tell was backed in against the cliff, not three feet from him. He had followed the lion over the cliff, which had a sheer drop of at least ten feet, down to the shelf, which had caught the Old Lady there in a spot where she had thought she would be safe from the dogs. Puse was really telling it to her, right to her teeth, and I feared he would go in and grab her any moment and get hurt.”
― Elliott S. Barker, When The Dogs Bark 'Treed'

“She had gone over the first cliff where mighty few dogs would follow; then she had jumped off a ledge twenty feet high to get away. But in each case Puse went where she went and kept right after her. In Puse she had met her match.”
― Elliott S. Barker, When The Dogs Bark 'Treed'

“Turn a good saddle animal loose with a live bobcat tied on the back of the saddle, and there’d be no telling what would happen.”
― Elliott S. Barker, When The Dogs Bark 'Treed'

“Deer there on the Park had been subject to very heavy loss by lions. In the time I was there, over a hundred such kills were found. By killing sixteen lions that year, we can safely estimate that we saved about eight hundred head of deer a year. It is generally agreed that the average lion will kill a deer a week the year round.”
― Elliott S. Barker, When The Dogs Bark 'Treed'

“One cannot find out what goes on in a mountainous game range by staying on roads and trails. If one really wants to learn a new mountain country in detail, he should spend some time following a pack of dogs on the trail of bears, lions, and bobcats. They will show it to you. They will show you country which you would otherwise never see. They will take you to the scenes of the dramas of the forest are enacted day by day. Thy will reveal to you the records of many a tragedy in the life-struggle of the denizens of the mountains.”
― Elliott S. Barker, When The Dogs Bark 'Treed'