Testimonials

Below is a message sent by James Tremblay in August of 2004.

Hi Eugene,

I’m a coon/bear hunter from New Hampshire and I run a mixed pack of registered Blueticks, Redbones, and Walkers. In March I acquired one of your Pocahontas pups out of Cody II and Honey (male – whelped 10/02/03). He was apparently purchased from you by a gentleman in NY, who then, for personal reasons, sold him to a friend of mine.

I’d never had a Plott, but knowing your kennel’s reputation I convinced my buddy to sell him to me.

I know you sell lots of pups and probably get tons of e-mail like this, but I thought I’d give you a status report.

George (the pup) came to me at almost 6 months old and had never really been handled or disciplined, so I anticipated a bumpy first month. I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did he take to handling quickly, but he proved to be very affectionate with my children (I have 5, all under the age of 11). I’m also starting to believe he has more brains than most of the dogs in my yard.

I prefer to raise and train the dogs I hunt, and I always start them with drags and a caged coon. During this stage he was very aggressive with the coon (which I expected) and showed himself to have superb treeing instinct (which I hadn’t expected). I appreciate a dog who gets up on the tree with a consistent mouth, but who does it without being a spaz and jumping all over the other dogs. I’ve attached a picture of George and two of my Red pups treeing on a caged coon. It was taken in May when he was about 8 months old.

But what amazed me, and the reason I decided to drop you a note, was his performance on a bear this weekend. Yesterday was a designated “puppy day”. George is one of three pups I am working with, and I took all three plus 2 older dogs out to find a good, and hopefully easy, bear to run. I got just the opposite.

We struck hot and soon had all 5 dogs on the ground. Unfortunately, within minutes I had a split race. The two red pups stayed with a Bluetick male I was running and George went out with the other experienced dog, a female Walker. I had a friend head out after the blue/red dogs and I went for George and the Walker. All was going well until I realized where we were headed, and then I started to get concerned. In our neck of the woods there is a very well-known bear we tend to stay away from when we have puppies along. He is small, not more than 150 pounds, but he is a real dog grinder who would much rather fight than tree. Before I knew it we were into his range and running the routes he normally runs. To make matters worse, the Walker that George was running with is a great pup trainer but doesn’t have much in the way of grit.

Inevitably, the dogs caught this mean bear and tied into him. By the time I arrived the bear was gone and the walker female was alternating between licking some serious puncture wounds and limping through the woods toward me. George was nowhere to be seen or heard, and I was worried. He had shown himself to be headstrong and aggressive, and I was afraid he had piled into this bear and got himself killed.

Fearing the worst, I pulled out my telemetry. I then had one of the strangest moments I’ve ever had bear hunting. Many possible scenarios crossed my mind, but I never for a second imagined that Plott, at 10 months old, would fight with that bear, get his butt handed to him, then keep going after him on his own. When I pinged him miles away and still moving I couldn’t believe it.

I picked him up an hour later, exhausted, with long gashes bleeding across his flanks. Not only had he fought with that bear, but he had taken some serious claws and kept going.

An old great uncle in my family was a lifelong bear hunter. When I started running hounds he was too old to hunt anymore, but he used to say “there are dogs that run bear, and there are bear dogs”. I know it’s still early to tell for sure, but I’m thinking George will be the latter.

Regards,

Jim Tremblay
Lempster, NH

Below is a message sent by Tim Price in January of 2005.

Mr. Walker, I just wanted to drop you a line and tell you how Traveler (Bear Claw X Molly II d.o.b.5-5-03), and Cindy (Bill II X Jenny II d.o.b. 6-01-03), are doing. These were 2 of the easiest starting pups that I have ever had. By the time they were 4 months old they were trailing squirrels, cats, and rabbits around the house. I caught a lot of coons and possums at the chicken house for them to run and tree. They did it with no problems.

You could catch a coon with these pups by the time they were 9 months old. I guess that I am blessed to be able to let pups run loose, they learn so much more this than pups that are kept up. These pups spent 3 months at the North Carolina coast running bear,(October - December) They ran the first bear that they ever smelled. They will rig a bear out of the truck, strike off a lead. They will strike a cold trail as quickly as they will a hot one. These pups saw around 30 bear treed this year with 15 to 18 kills. They will stick a mean walking bear good.

When they tree, they are treed. Traveler and Cindy took their licks like old dogs and kept on keeping on. Several of these bear weighed 400-600+ pounds. These pups have good speed, grit, and lots of smarts. Travler is one of the most intelligent, laid back dogs that I have ever been around. When you take them hunting they are all business.

I would like to thank you for selling us such fine pups. They did exactly as you said they would, and I would recommend that ANYONE interested in a Plott buy a POCAHONTAS PLOTT. I believe you are straight up and tell it like it is. I will breed Traveler to Cindy in the future and once again thank you.

Tim Price

Below is a message sent by Cindi Williams in October of 2005.

Good morning Eugene,

Just a note and some pictures to let you know what has been going on with our 62 pound pup. Jenna has been showing him at bench shows and has been doing great with him. By the time he was 7 months old she had already made him a bench Champion, with every show they have gotten Best of Show. They are now working on Champion of Champion male with two Best of Shows already. They completed in a show for the New York Houndsman Assoc. and they swept everything. From the picture you can see he got King of the show. It was so exciting that at 8 months he out done all the Grand Champions of the class.

It sure makes you proud when we unload at the shows and people are talking about "there is that good looking Plott; we don't have a chance against him!!" Terry says with a sharp dog and a good looking daughter, they make a super pair. Jenna has done such a good job with him that people have come to her and asked her if she would be interested in showing their dogs at the shows.

This last Sat. 9/15 we attended a show and they completed against two other plotts. Again they swept with these dogs being grand champions and Kayne being almost 9 months.

Jenna has been trapping coon and with the road kills Kayne knows just what it is all about!!

Needless to say we could not be happier with our Pocahontas Plott!!

Terry wants your wife to know that those pumpkin seeds on his head really were the first sings of devil horns. We would have him no other way through.

Cindi and Jenna Williams

Jenna and Terry Williams

Below is a photo of some Pocahontas-bred plotts owned by Ralph Sheffield

Plotts

Below is a 478 pound bear that was taken in November of 2005

Bear

Below is a 680 pound bear that was taken in December of 2005

Bear

Eugene, this is Scrapper (Cody II X Honey) with another bear he stopped on the ground. Scrapper and one other dog stopped him; bear was taken by a young hunter (which was his 1st bear.) He is a top bear dog; he needs no help. Your line of plotts are for real; this dog is as good as they get. I thought you would like to see an updated photo of him. Thanks

Kirk Morris, California

Scrapper

Here is my Son, Dan, with GRCH WCH FCH 'PR' Corbin's Rebel Pride Magnum. This was Dan's first Bear, it was right at 200 lbs. This Bear was bayed up, and treed, and jumped 3 times before he finally stayed up long enough for everyone to get there. So that business could be taken care of.

Magnum is out of Eugene Walker's CH 'PR' Pocahontas Cody II, and Matt Grambsch's GRCH GRWC NITECH Mississippi Mud Dozer female.

Magnum is 2 years old, and is with no doubt one of the best handling, and no nonsense dogs that I've owned. He has a good nose, with lots of speed, and tree power. When he comes out of the box, he's looking to Git 'R' Done!

Take care, and God Bless!
Irv Corbin

Dan Corbin

Below is a message sent by Jerry Wilson in December of 2005.

Hi Gene. I am emailing you with an update on Vader, my Bearclaw x Molly II pup. He turned 6 months old on 12-7-05, the second part of bear season opened here in NC today and being down with the flu he was the only dog I took. I was going to take him in let him smell a fresh track and let my son take him in if we treed. What happened next still has me scratching my head a bit, this pup ended up doing the whole 9 yards from strike to tree and did it with true desire. The guys had found a good track and I was leading him in to let him smell of it. He got the track as soon as I got in the area and was ready to go. This is the first bear track he's smelled. We turned a couple of the other dogs in which he went crazy wanting to go. By the time we turned the rest in he was on his hind legs. I decided to turn him loose a bit behind thinking he would fall behind and come back out. He did fall behind, was from the start, but an hour and a half later when the guys got to the tree he was right there and doing it with style. The bear was shot out to him which he was right on it. The guys held him back during dragging the bear out then would turn him loose and each time a little more fur got pulled to say the least. He was turned loose with some of the best dogs in the area today and some of the most seasoned hunters; the little Pocahontas Plott was the talk of the day. This has been the easiest pup I've ever messed with. He's saw a couple caged coon and possums, was on a bobcat tree with one of my other dogs, caught a coon by himself Saturday night and then today made his first bear tree. This wasn't a pup following dogs, this was a pup willing to pull hair when it got there.... They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, this saying is much true seeing the natural ability of this pup. I have hunted a lot of years and messed with a lot of other peoples fine bear dogs, but I've never had the chance to bring one home, know he was mine and was of this caliber, I believe I did today.......Thanks a bunch for giving people like me the chance to own fine hounds such and what yourself have.

Vader

Below is part of a message sent by Nate Bartz in January of 2006.

Hi Eugene
Just sent you some pictures of our 2005 kill season. The picture below is all of my Pocahontas Plotts. The one on the left is Chauncey, the middle is Ruby out of Cody II. She is the last one you sent me. The other one is Ginny out of Cody II and that Dozer dog.

Happy New Years
Nate & Casey Bartz

Plotts

2006 NPHA Show Dog of the Year - Gr. Ch. "PR" Blackrock Waylon - Owner Henry Keffer, Jr. of Sylva, North Carolina. He is out of Walker's Pocahontas Cody II and Walker's Pocahontas Chalk. He is making a good bear dog as well.

Waylon

Below is an image of some of Tommy Perkey's hounds in December of 2006.

Below is a photo of Ron Frank's female obtained from Scott Buttars. She treed a bobcat after a 3 mile chase and is 35 feet in the air in the picture.

Below is a message sent by James & Lisa Waddell in December of 2007.

Eugene, Just wanted to send a few pics of my Katie dog. She is out of Cody II and Pocahontas Goldie. I know that most of your pictures are about bear hunting, so I thought I would send you one of a "small" Tennessee mountain coon. He measured 33 inches from nose to tail. 11 inches across the shoulders. He weighed in at 23lbs. Many hunters and older dogs have tried to tree this coon without success. My Katie dog is 2 years old and this is just one of the many coons she has treed this season. She is also adept at running and treeing bear as well. Thanks for the great breeding that made this dog. I would recommend this blood-line to anyone for big or small game.

James & Lisa Waddell
East Tennessee

Katie

Below is a message sent by DJ Mowe in March of 2008.

Eugene, I thought I would let you know how the pups I got from you are doing. I started them on bobcats this winter and was pretty impressed with progress they made for being so young. The female out of Gus and Chalk seemed to catch on a little faster but the male out of Linus and Nutmeg is doing great also. I wanted to thank you for selling me these pups and I will keep you posted. I am really curious to see how they are going to do on bear this year. I am going to attach a few photos for you. The dark plott under the tree with the other plott and the walker dog is the female. The male is the one mauling the cat after it was killed. I treed 25 cats this winter and at least one or the other of the pups was on 20 of them. Thanks again…DJ Mowe

DJ's Dogs

Below is a message sent by Shane Flaminio in March of 2009.

Hope this letter finds you and Mrs. Anne in good health. I once again want to tell you thanks so much for that Scout dog! That dog has converted more people over to Plotts than Me thats for sure!!! He is just amazing to watch hunt and bay hogs! Here is a picture of this past Sundays hunt. Scout bayed this sow on his own for about an hour and a half while the rest of the dogs were making short work of some small shoats. I need two more just like him! Harvey caught over 150 hogs last year with him and with this sow, Scout is over 40 hogs for this year. Please let me know when you have some pups I still need two females to breed to him.

Scout

Below is a message sent by Ralph Sheffield in November of 2009.

Eugene, these are the pictures I promised you. The image below is front row left to right me age 54, Stuart Johnson age 64, his grandson Heath age 13, back row is Gary Bird 63, Roger Johnson, Stuart’s brother age 74, Reed age 17, and Russell Smith age 65. As you can see our regular hunting party is small with some age on it. We have Reed and Heath the only ones under 50..lol. But we have great dogs and get the big ones. It helps to hunt smart! And you have to have dogs with plenty of grit to stay with bear of this caliber. We have taken 14 bear over 600 with these dogs. I have no idea how many 500lb bear they have caught. As I told you this morning your blood is the base with some Swampland and Bearpath mixed in. Thanks for all you have done for the Plott!

November 09

Below is a message sent by Daniel Williamson, Katie Williamson, and Justin Mobley in December of 2009.

Mr. Walker,

We are writing you this morning first of all to thank you for the three Plott pups we got from you a year ago and secondly to give an update on the progress they've made in their first bear training and hunting season. We truly appreciate all the conversations over the phone and can't wait to get back to West Virginia to visit with you and Miss Ann.

We started our pups running loose around our house, as we are fortunate to have land and woods to do so. Before the pups were five months old they were running and treeing the house cats and whatever other varmints were brave enough to come around. Here in Georgia our bears start walking in March. The pups were eight months old when our training season started and we took them hunting every weekend till training season ended (about six months.) We treed twenty-two bears with the help of these pups. Their natural ability to perform became apparent from the very beginning. They are hard hunting and won't back down from a fight. Sometimes I think the rougher it gets the more they like it. They are the most natural tree dogs I've ever seen and still stay on and fight a mean walking bear all day long. The pups have recently turned one year old and are doing more than we could have hoped for. We know they can only get better with age and are looking forward to our next season.

We hope the West Virginia season goes as well as ours and wish you a Merry Christmas and happy hunting in the New Year. Thanks again for such wonderful Plott's. Keep em' coming and keep em' brindle!

Poacher

Poacher (Gus and Jezebel)

Flirt and Butterfly

Flirt (Gus and Jazebel) and Butterfly (Linus and Lacy Jane)

Below is a message sent by Michael Walker in February of 2011.

Gene, the pups are doing real good. Showed them their first bigger hog today. I had shown them a couple 40 pounders earlier and they were real catchy. I put them in with a mean ass 140 pound sow today to see if they would back up a little. They did a real good job. Have a great evening!

Michael Walker

Below is a message sent by Jason Melton in January of 2013.

Happy New Year! Just want to tell you about mine. Jane's first hunt. First let me tell you about Jane the plott hound. She is the one you said I would like! You was right!! She may turn out to be the best dog I have ever had. First time she saw a hog he was dead hanging on a cleaning rack. Jane bayed it till I had it cut up. First time she was on the out side of a round pin she tried to catch the hog. I thought she was going to hurt her mouth on the wire. That was a thirty foot round pin. Mouth later ,I put her in a two acre bay pin with a older dog. They had to hunt the hog up. She tried to catch it. After that she would hunt it up and bay the hog by herself. I used her to start the other pups. I have been running the two males. They are doing ok. I took the other female a couple times. But have never took Jane. Well New Year eve we took all four Plotts and four curs. I found some fresh sign dumped the hole box. We jumped! these hogs don't stop! So now we off two the races.It's not long I am picking up dogs. Curs first, then the black male. The other male is way be hind so I cut him off. The two Females are running hard. They are fast! Out of the swamp and up the hill.That was at nine pm. Five miles later somewhere around one we had a bay. I tried to walk my curs in. I come up down wind with no light. Got so close I could hear it. My curs wanted no part of it. I was lost, A HOG THAT MY CURS WERE SCARED OF!!! Then it broke! O shit a bear that want tree. A BIG BEAR!!! The two females stayed with it and stopped it. I went and dumped the box on it thinking it would tree. It broke I cut all the dogs off. ALL but the females they were going back to the swamp on the bear i thought. It now four thirty am. I could not get them off this bear. I left them went to get a nap. Got a nap got up and found some more sign and turned out. Around seven am now. I tried to beep the two females all morning with no luck. about ten I got a call from a man that had my dogs. Five miles up river!! They had got on back track on the bear. went back to where we run the hogs jumped them and had them bayed when the man found them. He was hunting with his two boys and one cur dog. They killed three hogs. Man said they had ten bayed. I picked them up from him on the river. And that was Jane's first hunt. It was all her!! Thank you!!!

Below is a message sent by Richard Myers in August of 2013.

Hey up there in W.V.; hope you all are doing well. Just thought I would give you an update on the pup. We started him out in late December with our coon dog teaching him some basic stuff. We put him with the big boys this training season on bear; he been laying in there. Last night he struck his first bear out of the truck before the other dogs. I was impressed and had to laugh a little on that some boys thought he smelt a coon but when the bear cross road in front of them they had to give it up to him; he's going to make a good one. Thank you.

Below is a message sent by Chad Palmer in July of 2014.

Eugene,

Let me tell you I couldn't be happier with the Plott puppy we got from you! Jamison has turned out to be everything and more than we could have ever expected. Here is a testimonial you can add to your list of happy owners of some of the best dogs ever.

So I am in the military and have wanted a Plott hound for years but have never been in one place or even in America long enough to give the appropriate time and attention that is needed. My then fiancé didn't even want another dog since she had two of her own but they were beagles and couldn't handle the home protection that was one of the key needs for us. Right before my deployment her house was broken into, thankfully she wasn't home when it happened but it was enough to scare her. I called Eugene while I was deployed and got on the waiting list for one of his puppies. He answered every question I could have even after I already purchased and had the puppy for months. Customer Service A++ now if they can just teach the cable company that kind of support haha. He made all the arrangements to transport from Pocahontas Plott Kennels to Columbus, MS which has the tiniest airport ever. It cost me next to nothing and Eugene did all the work he had the medical records, and all of the travel arrangements taken care of.

My fiancé was pissed that I got home from my deployment and brought another addition to the house so soon. But when we went to pick him up from the airport she fell in love. He goes with us to dog parks, running and is around family and has had absolutely no problems with either. But he instinctively knows the difference between friend and foe without any training. His sense of being able to tell what is going on with his "pack" my family is amazing.

The home protection part is what surprised me more than anything. One day me and the wife are at home and there had been a rash of break-ins and people stealing dogs in our neighborhood. A couple guys came knocking on the door and offered to clean the carpet in our house (Common way to case a break in). As soon as I went to check who it was Jamison at 4 months old let out the deepest meanest bark I had ever heard from him and it sent one guy running down the street literally. It literally made my bones shake. The other guy who was screaming asked about our Plott hound but didn't know what it was and called Jamison a demon looking hound. I laughed at him and told him you should see what would happen had he been able to get out of the house and say "hello" to you. The guy got scared and never came back. That night two homes had been broken into on our block and one of the people described the same two guys as he saw them running away from his house with his stuff. Jamison is the reason our house wasn't picked that night because we weren't home and our house would have been prime with no cars in the drive.

On top of that we go running almost everyday and if you have a Plott and aren't using them to hunt regularly you need to exercise them daily. Like I said we don't exactly live in the best neighborhood and my wife has been too scared to run in the area until now. Jamison will protect her without hesitation and has shown that on the occasions that someone tries to get too close when we take our runs but he still listens to us which is one of the hardest things for a dog to do. Return or call off when they have locked onto a target. Another time someone's full grown German Shepherd broke it's leash and took off after me and my wife and Jamison didn't hesitate to jump in between us and protect us. Jamison wasn't even six months old but he was fearless already and had no problem fighting a dog that was two to three times his size at the time. By the way the vet said the max size Jamison should get was 60 lbs but he hit that at about 8 months and is still growing. I would guess about 70-80lbs now and he isn't even a year old yet.

The K9 bomb and drug detection teams that work with me gave me different tests to run on him with target detection and to test his ability to track and they were shocked how great he did. This is the easiest dog I have ever seen to train and he enjoys the training which makes it even easier. Sit took 5 minutes, Lay down took 10 minutes, Heel took 5 minutes and so on. Oh and we have a doggy door to the house and he learned to use it just by watching the other dogs. He is at a school now and has started his training for attack/home protection. And we are considering sending him to Cadaver training which the Trainers at base say are certain he will excel at.

I could not ever have imagined we could have a dog that could do everything we needed and more. Eugene has the best dogs and my wife is already begging for us to get another puppy because she loves our Plott so much. Thank you Eugene for getting some old military guy his friend he has wanted for years and making it so easy. My entire family appreciates everything you guys do. Keep up the great work.

Very respectfully, SSgt Chad Palmer

Below is a message sent by Rob Beers in September of 2014.

Evelyn and Emily got their first bear on Saturday during Virginia's youth day hunt. My 2 Pocahontas Plotts, Dozer (Dakota male) & Mexico (Chopper male) treed the bear by themselves.

I think the girls are hooked. They said it was one of the best days of their lives. I felt the same way. Nothing can compare to being out in the woods hunting with your kids.

Rob Beers

Below is a message sent by Ted Harris in October of 2014.

I was looking at your site the other day and noticed you needed some hog pics!. On the left is Harris' Hawg Wild Hawkeye. He is out of Cody 2 and Goldie he's getting on up there in years nowadays but can still get it done. This pic is from 2 winters ago and this was one bad dude killed on the Banks of the white river in Arkansas. They bayed him at the base of a sheer bluff and it took me over an hour to get to them. Pictured with him are two of his sons. One each from the only two litters to date that I have ever raised out of Hawkeye. The blue pup on the right, this was his first trip ever to the woods. The buckskin dog in the middle is dead now but was a great young dog. Hawkeye has proven himself in the woods over and over as an amazing hog dog, and both litters of pups out of him have produced top hog dogs as well. He has earned a spot at the top of my all time greatest list, and I want to thank you for raising such a fine hound!

Thank you and good Huntin!

Ted Harris

Teb Harris

Below is a message sent by Jenny Sanders in October of 2014.

Hi Eugene, I thought I should give you an update on the pup I got from you out of Poncho II and Ole Miss,. He just turned 1 year in September and he is so far a dream come true...more natural ability than any other young dog I have seen so far. He runs and trees with the other dogs, will work a fairly cold trail on his own, has all the grit of an older dog, loyal and protective and good with my other hounds, not to mention he is one good looking dog!! From the way it's going he might be my top dog as he matures. I'm sure you can tell I'm pretty happy with him...thank you for such a fine pup! Hope all is well...Jenny Sanders

Jenny Sauders

Below is a message sent by Chris Hill in January of 2015.

Hello there,

Just a little update on the puppies we got from you last year. There both doing great. I named mine Hicks and his brother is Cruise. I found the cat that killed my best dog last year and was hesitant about letting them go but I did. They both made the run and treed well. I am very happy with both. Just though I would send you some pics.

thanks again!!

Chris Hill
Cranbrook B.C
Canada

Below is a message sent by David Taboada in October of 2015.

Hello Eugene,

I hope you are better. Bad news, Moura (Linus x Ginger) has been killed by a wild boar yesterday. She died just like she lived... looking at the eyes of the boars, she never got back, always fighting and going straight ahead.

She was the best boar dog I have ever owned and the best I have ever seen. I will remind her forever. Thank you for your breeding work of many years and thank you for sending me this kind of hell dog seven years ago.

Best regards

David Taboada

Below is a message sent by Terry Moran in June of 2021.

Just a few pics of Sage. She is really starting to turn on and I think she is going to make a good hound I am really pleased with her and her size is just what I wanted. I want to thank you again, I really appreciate her.