cold nose?

[dwalton]

What do we mean by cold nose? Do you like to cold trail or not? I hear it being one of the most important things a dog can have, which I agree with. But think we have a lot of difference of opinion on what it is? Their are no right or wrong opinions just opinion. I think it varies with the area amount of game and the game we hunt. I think all dogs can smell plenty good enough but if they don't have the desire to use their nose it doesn't matter how good it is. I have seen 20 minute tracks the dogs could not trail and catch 24 hour old tracks with the same dogs. I have seen several times my Leopards trail and catch a bob that the hounds came back on and the hounds trail tracks the curs would not. I KNOW can teach a dog to cold trail better and have seen people teach them not to cold trail. Different scent conditions different dogs work well in. Again this is just opinions no right or wrong answer here. What do you think and why? Oh by the way I have the coldest dogs in this country if you don't believe me just ask me. Well any way until someone comes along with a better story. Dewey

[Unreal_tk]

I have 4 dogs that are similar in taking older tracks, but one that is what I call hot nosed. Not sure if the fella before me made her that way or not. the other 4 are about equal, one is better than the rest but I think its just because she don't give up.

[Ker_man]

Mr. Dewey, would it change the meaning of your question if it was said "Natural cold trailing dog" I think that a lot of dogs will learn to trail older and older tracks even more so on snow.
The *natural cold trailers will show signs quite young of wanting to work old tracks, the more obvious ones are opening on the old track.
I like the ones that will move out and cut for it(within reason) when they lose it.
Also in my limited experience i think that the *natural ones I described above might be more prone to wild tracking mistakes than the ones that learn it slowly.
Does any of this make sense?

[Dads dogboy]

Mr. Dewey asks the age old question “What do we mean by cold nose”?

Well Science has proven that almost all breeds of Hounds (Hounds not Dogs) are all born with approximately the same number of Olfactory Receptors. This being said why do some Hounds seem to be able to “Smell” better?

Mr. Dewey goes on to say “I think all dogs can smell plenty good enough but if they don't have the desire to use their nose it doesn't matter how good it is.”

Desire? Hmmm….Could the word BRAIN be substituted for Desire?

Now is it truly a COLD Track (yes you fellows in MN, ME, WI, et al up North do fight with COLD frozen Tracks) or is it a BAD Track due to TIME and Conditions?

Just some more Questions for Pondering, ones for which I have thoughts on, but NO Answers for!

[merlo_105]

My Opinion is condition of older tracks being worked out by dogs that stick to them tracks that alot of dogs come back on. I have a Bluetick that is crazy about tracking and I have put her on Old tracks that other dogs wouldnt take and she would take them as if they werent that old at all. I feel she has the best nose in my pack or is it she is just so driven to complete a track IDK.

[al baldwin]

My Opinion is condition of older tracks being worked out by dogs that stick to them tracks that alot of dogs come back on. I have a Bluetick that is crazy about tracking and I have put her on Old tracks that other dogs wouldnt take and she would take them as if they werent that old at all. I feel she has the best nose in my pack or is it she is just so driven to complete a track IDK.

Is that the young bluetick that is showing the nose & how does she show when for nose when hunted with those run-tree crosses? Al

[merlo_105]

Al,
She is one of the young dogs I picked up from West Virginia. She has been taking tracks that the running crosses wont work period now thats different kinds of dogs on the east coast now how would she compare to the dogs I normally hunt with on the West coast I would believe same end result. I feel she has the best nose or has the most drive on figuring out aged tracks. I'll be taking her out tomorrow night with the running dogs maybe we will happen to run across tracks and might be able to answer it better. Now for the dog I picked up from Nora, now she has an amazing nose atleast when she was a pup. All the tracks she has been on in her young adult life have been in pretty good condition. When she was around 5 months old she would strike and run two day old Bob tracks in the snow so alittle easier. She worked out a old cougar track at the same age and I couldnt put a age on the track except it was way old and something I wouldnt turn out on.

[dwalton]

Ker-man: It might change the meaning to put natural cold trailing. I not sure what you mean by natural cold trailing? If you mean dogs that pound and open on a cold track from a early age. That is standing on their heads to me. A lot of what people think it is cold trailing to me it is not what I want. They have to move a track. I hear drifting dogs on here and my dogs are referred to as drifters by some that have not hunted with them, they are not if you track then in snow you will see that they are not 5 to 10 feet off of a track. A drifting dog is one that cuts and looks for a track more than they are on a track to me. I don't mind one in there but a bunch of them will blow a track away. I can show you dogs that take a bobcat track in dry conditions open from scent on a bush once or twice them move on open 50 to a 100 yards ahead with head up moving a track. I want a hound to work a track with head up taking scent off the bushes they will be able to move a track faster. I will see this type of dog put it's nose to the ground as a last resort to work a track. I think that depending on the area, type of hunting and type of dogs one hunts a lot of different opinions as to how old a dog can work a track how to do it. Again it is each to their own no right or wrong way. As been mentioned on here by some of the more traveled hunters it is hard to see or understand what one tries to get across because people hunt a small and limited area and type of hound. If it is the way it has always been done it is the way it is.... or is it. Dewey

[Ker_man]

One question MR. Dewey,have you seen dogs as apt to take sent off of brush and weeds in snow conditions?

[dwalton]

Ker-man: In the areas that we have snow we don't have much brush. In western Oregon where we have some snow in brush country I will say that they will work it both ways. On the east side where there is not much brush the dogs have learned to sight track the tracks in the snow. In areas of snow that have a lot of tracks they have to work it putting their nose down at times on a cold track. In real cold [below 0 ] the Leopards can out cold trail the hounds. I have seen several times through the years where different dogs do better in different scent conditions. Dewey

[CRA]

The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.
Thomas Jefferson

There is a lot of truth in this quote especially pertaining to cat hunting and hounds.

[dwalton]

CRA: That's kind of like it's all ones opinion? We all see it how we see it until we see it different. Dewey

[Ker_man]

OK if the young dog that is naturally opening on a cold track, honestly, in the right direction, and not barking off track and moving well would anyone call this''Standing On His Head''?
Again that would depend on what you call moving well

[al baldwin]

Ker-man: It might change the meaning to put natural cold trailing. I not sure what you mean by natural cold trailing? If you mean dogs that pound and open on a cold track from a early age. That is standing on their heads to me. A lot of what people think it is cold trailing to me it is not what I want. They have to move a track. I hear drifting dogs on here and my dogs are referred to as drifters by some that have not hunted with them, they are not if you track then in snow you will see that they are not 5 to 10 feet off of a track. A drifting dog is one that cuts and looks for a track more than they are on a track to me. I don't mind one in there but a bunch of them will blow a track away. I can show you dogs that take a bobcat track in dry conditions open from scent on a bush once or twice them move on open 50 to a 100 yards ahead with head up moving a track. I want a hound to work a track with head up taking scent off the bushes they will be able to move a track faster. I will see this type of dog put it's nose to the ground as a last resort to work a track. I think that depending on the area, type of hunting and type of dogs one hunts a lot of different opinions as to how old a dog can work a track how to do it. Again it is each to their own no right or wrong way. As been mentioned on here by some of the more traveled hunters it is hard to see or understand what one tries to get across because people hunt a small and limited area and type of hound. If it is the way it has always been done it is the way it is.... or is it. Dewey

Dewey are you saying your dogs never vary from a track more than five to ten feet? Are you saying that when working a bare ground track in dry conditions leave brush. onto a road, they never drift that track , always trailing with there heads up getting scent from the brush? Can you smell that cat & if not how can you be so sure about this? If that is your theory, it sure is different than most of the houndsmen I have hunted with. You could be correct. But could some others be correct on this? Could it be those hounds are sight tracking when they are moving those old tracks that fast & tight in the snow. Dewey I had one female who at a year old was trailing & opening on cat scent that my older hounds did not know existed & with age she only got better, kinda hard to convince me she was just standing on her head. She was a registered treeing walker, as good a box dog on bobcat as I ever hunted with. Was not the modern treeing walker stuff. You have some interesting theories. But hound hunting is just that and we all see things different sometimes. I have hunted close to home, but I put my time in, formed some theories , but always can learn. Just tough to accept every thing you believe. Thanks Al

[treetalkingjp]

I had a cold noes dog named ole blue coldest in the business . We turned him loose one night coon hunting he struck and took the track up the mountain and came back down to the field , while he was running through the flat empty field he jumped out of no where , he kept trailing and later on sat down on a big ole hollow oak . Now ole blue has never been wrong so we cut it down . To our suprise out came a coon Skeleton . My buddy I took asked me why ole blue jumped for no reason in that wide open field ? Well it's simple there was a Bobwire fence there when the coon came through hahaha