Brains

[Varminator]

Reading some of the past post, I feel that many times"Brains" should have been brought in to the equation. if the dog has desire and drive to catch, he/she still must have Brains!!
For example- A dog that thinks about the obstacle or situation and uses all his senses to find the cat= Brains.
I like a dog that uses it head when needed and to me that is all of the time. I know it's hard to beat desire, most with will find the cat after falling off the log or sliding down the rock bluff a few times. A dog with brains would just run around some of the obstacles.

In my mind a good cat dog has to be a good "Rock Dog" because of the bluff's and rock pinnacles ("Old Dog" calls them cat magnets) which we have many in this area.

Also in this area we have blow down or wind fall patches that crisscross each other some times for hundreds of yards and many places that would kill or cripple your dog if it was to fall.
And of course we have heavy brush and thinning. All of the obstacles I wrote of, I believe in this area a dog that uses it Brains will out catch a dog with just the desire. TMO

[1bludawg]

Brains are what separates the Top cat dogs from just good dogs.They're always using their heads to figure out how to catch that cat.If you're running more than one dog,many times that top dog Will disappear or you'll hear him break from the pack and when you hear him again ,he's Treed! Those are the type dogs i'm constantly looking for ,probably most of us are .

[Old dog]

brains make a big difference with a road runner! you got a smart dog you almost hope the cat wants to run the road imo