Eyeball vs cold nose!

[Unreal_tk]

Most of the people who've hunted snow knows what this means. I've seen a couple of dogs that could barely smell a track but yet smart enough to look and see each track and make a catch. And then the dogs who've just got a damn cold nose.

Seems like dogs who can eyeball a track can take a older track or frozen even, but its a very slow cold trail. Curious to see what twist has to say about this. He's the veteran snow man.

[Ker_man]

It seems to me that most dogs that are run on snow a lot learn to help themselves move the
track by sight...but need to be able to use their noses when they get into tracks and trails of other animals such as rabbit or deer trails.
A friend of mine had two half beagle females that would shut up and run by sight when in openings on good snow then go to open trailing by scent in the heavy underbrush and rabbits.

Also a dog needs to stick their head down in and check to make sure it is still the cat track.
Just my thoughts...be glad to hear others.

[twist]

A cold nosed dog is needed to start most night old snow tracks is this area as conditions are cold and dry. Yes a well seasoned bobcat dog learns to use its eyes a big percentage of the time but still has to be able to use thier nose to poke in an old cold cat track every so often. But once the track has warmed up and moving a hound needs to be able to pick its head up and run the track and yes sight and scent is both used at this stage of the hunt. Alot of dogs never learn to do this I believe it is breed into them I use the expression DRIFTING a track and if you get hounds that can do this your percentage of catches go up! Andy

[Unreal_tk]

Awesome response twist. Do you think eyeballing tracks is a trained trait or are some more natural than others? My dogs are still young however are eyeballing tracks more this year already.

I have a couple of those drifter type dogs... I think my cold trailing is lacking however.... hoping with more experience it will change.

[mondomuttruner]

My old female opens on a track in clear snow but is semi open when the track gets into rabbit, deer or is in tags where there is a track going opposite directions every 10 ft. My younger experienced dogs ( their 5 now, my they grow up fast) run a night old track like it's jumped, using their eye's more and the nose when needed. I must be a poor handler, at times I have no clue if their cold tracking or jumped, I have to walk in and look at the track to see...lol

I believe a dog moves a track much faster if they use both..

Our deer season just ended. All we do is make deer drives and I found some really big cat tracks. After the muzzle loader season ends this weekend I cant wait to get the dogs out on some tracks...

[twist]

For sure a bred in trait as the ones that start out young doing this just get better and better with more exposure. Yet some hounds that are smart, with out much nose power learn to cheat with thier eyes by hunting with dogs that are seasoned at doing this. Andy