The Cold Track

[NorWester]

Dad's dogboy wrote,

You suddenly do not have sorry Hounds!

They are doing the best they can with the Conditions surronding them!

True, but even a sorry hound is doing the best it can

There comes a point where if the conditions seem constantly too tough that you have to come to a different conclusion.
Sometimes doing their best isn't good enough anymore.

[briarpatch]

Well, I think it goes without saying that a GOOD dog can SOMETIMES handle bad conditions while a bad dog oftentimes cannot handle good conditions. Certainly weather constraints can often have a negative impact.

briarpatch

[blueticker78]

Somethings to think about a cat or anything for that matter does not shut down its scent, these common losses are do to conditions ie weather and temp as well as terrain and the signature the animal is leaving behind for example a cat that crossed the road dirt or pavement we all know that an animal doesn't leave much of a signature on a hard packed surface like that that's why typically if you take the dogs further off the road into the timber they will pick up the scent either from the cat rubbing on something or in the wind current as for seeing the cat and the dogs make a loss it happens even the best of noses can be fooled given the right conditions for example how many deer hunters out there have had deer walk right to you because the wind was just perfect and they couldn't smell you untill they were right on top of you sometimes these thÍngs can play tricks on the best of hounds. I started a very young female this past year on bobs and coon her first cat by herself started with atleast a two day old track I know this because I found the track on thursday we went and worked it on saturday temps were in the 20s all week with snow on the ground there was some kinks but she worked this cat up and finally treed it, I watched this same young hound struggle the next week with a coon that I flashed with my light on the ground about 200 yards ahead of us it was cold that night 0 temp maybe even a little below.

[cab]

Scent is something none of us know very much about. An animal holding its scent at will? Does he release his scent just so he can be caught on the ground? Tracking on a road with all the auto emissions, ect. that have been deposited over the years, is simular to smelling a cookie in the midst of a garbage dump. Flushed quail are tough to point when they first set back down. Holding scent? No, they have only shaken off all the loose scent molecules in their burst of flight. They have been "washed" in air, and it takes a few minutes for the scent to begin falling from them as before. It is said that dogs can smell "fear". If true, there could be a very different smell suddenly coming fron the animal that isn't what the dog is looking for, therefore passing it up as nothing worth running. The small amount of scent of an animal at rest, may also take longer to drift into the air so that a dog is able to wind it without sticking his nose into the track.
This happen quite often hunting birds. A good pointer will locate and lock down on a covey 50 yards away. Return to the same spot the next day, same time, same dog, same covey, ect and the dog will run through and burst the birds before he is even aware that they are there.
Dogs also have days when they "have a cold" and the nose just isn't working as well. When one family member tha whole pack seems to have a "touch" of it.
We could go on thinging of things that effect a dogs ability to smell at a given time, but to say an animal knows how, and chooses to hold and release scent at will, I just don't buy the theory.

[blueticker78]

NEITHER DO I AND YOU MADE A GOOD POINT WITH THE FEAR STATEMENT AND THIS DOES HAPPEN, WHEN A CAT GETS FRIGHTENED IT DOES RELEASE A PUGENT SMELL, AND SOME DOGS MAY RECONIZE THIS AND IT MAY NOT EFFECT THEM AS OFTEN BUT FOR SOME THIS NEW SCENT IN THE AIR CAN BE CONFUSING AND THE HARSH SMELL THEY LEAVE BEHIND MAYBE COULD MASK THE SMELLS THE DOGS ARE TYPICALLY USED TO TRAILING BUT I AM NOT A BELIEVER IN THE FACT THAT ANYTHING CAN SHUT DOWN ITS SCENT. ONE MORE THING WHY DO WE HUNT MORE THEN ONE DOG BESIDES FOR THE FACT THAT WE LOVE TO LISTEN TO MORE THEN ONE HOUND? I DO BECAUSE EVEN THE GREATEST DOGS HAVE THERE BAD DAYS, AND TWO NOSES AND BRAINS ARE BETTER THAN ONE SO ON AND SO FORTH.

[rooster]

this past winter i was forced to hunt in the snow which is very rare because we seldom get it and i hate it. in two trips my 2 year old dog started striking deer, coyote tracks and even tracks that were so old you couldnt make out, simply because he seen them off the truck. he would jump down and go put his nose in every track and start following them without barking, he was not smelling anything but simply going by sight, he thought they were all cats it was frustrating because i wont show them a track and my plan was to hunt just like there was no snow but they got wise to it very fast, so i can only guess that if hunted in snow all the time some dogs would get very sight prone. as far as not smelling tracks that you saw the animal, i have seen the varment cross the road and thought ok here we go, driven right over it and thought what the .... and drove back and they erupted, i geuss the scent had to rise or something? catching the ones that i have seen has not been easy, id rather not see them because it is like they are jenkxed.

[Lil Joes BigGame hounds]

I hunt alot of snow and agree that it does make your dogs sight prone. But i dont think of that as the worst thing in the world. It really makes it easier to break those dogs off of the bad and move on with the good. I hunt my dogs by roading them alot with or with out snow. In the snow its easier to check make sure they are going the right way and its the right game. You can break your dogs off of running just on sight. It will make them investagate the right track with more percision before opening. JMO