Rating a dog's nose!

[Daniel Tremblay]

Earlier I made a post that asked you guys (and gals) what the Best/Most consistant producing walkers are. A lot of you suggested that I get out and hunt with different strains and see which on fits my hunting sytle the best. I agree with this so my next question is how do you guys (and gals) go about rating a dogs nose. I often hear people refering to a dog being super cold nosed because they trailed out on a 3 or 4 day old track. I understand that but I also realize that that oppurtunity isn't always going to present itself while out hunting. So if there isnt a track present that you have a solid idea that it is atleast a few days old. How else do you go about deciding what kind of nose a dog has on it. Hunting Bare ground and/or poor conditions is something that I want a dog to be able to handle as easy as a hound could be expected to. So with that being said my goal is to get a dog with as cold of a nose as possible. I'm just not 100% sure on how to tell that if it is an easy track that the dog doesnt have to work hard on.
Thanks, Daniel

[waylon]

MAN! thats a dangerous question to ask you got guts I never met two houndsmen in my life who completely agreed on that subject and many more who thought poor track dogs were all cold nosed.Sad fact!
I would like to tackle your question but here in north east Oklahoma I might call a hound cold nosed that you might not, or vise versa. There is no hard fast rule nation wide to gauge hounds nose, to many variables from place to place ect.
To me running a 4 day old track Yeah right, Lions maybe, bobcat in any thing but "good" snow, you'll have to prove that to me every time. If i can run a bobcat that was out prowling at 6:00pm and i dump on the track at 8:00am that next mourning in perfect weather here where i live and they can work it out to where we can run him,That dog is real cold nosed, my oldest track ever that I ACTUALLY knew the age was 6 hours, I ran it with "coon" bred walker hounds and a grade bluetick and treed the cat,One last thing I don't know any cat hunter with tree dogs that doesn't want a cold(I will call it better)nosed hound.If you find'em i'll be first on the list cause I dont think 1 in 10 men has a truly cold nosed hound or why are all these cats treed with soft snow in the back ground of the pics I am sure some of these guys who actually own hounds that can catch bob's at least twice a year will help more than I did

[twist]

Waylon, you hit it on the head strictly depends on conditions and tempatures like you said most bobcat catches are with fresh snow and yes just because fresh snow doent meen it cant be a colder track completely depends on temp and alot of other factors. We had 28 below fresh snow and a smokin hot bobcat track a week ago and waited until the sun was up and warmed to 12 below and I had a couple vetran females out that can move what (I call a cold track and had trouble getting it started let alone jumped that day). I dont believe this ? can be answered to many factors later, Andy

[U.R.E.]

Being able to wag on a track is an orange to an apple to being able to moving a cold track.....

I couldn't agree more.........Although it's not the only factor it is a MAJOR one.........Conditions, Conditions, conditions......

[Daniel Tremblay]

I suppose I need to redefine my question. I was more wanting to get at what you look for in each condition. Say bare ground...will a dog with a medium nose move the track at a walking speed, where a "cold nosed dog move it at a half speed running. Or slushy snow or even fresh snow with not a lot of moisture(when its super fluffy and barely makes a pad print). So on and so forth. I was looking for what you look for in each condition or in each situtation. I was wanting to know what a person looks for to try to determine the ability of the dogs nose. Sorry for the miss understanding and thanks for the responce.

[waylon]

I'll say this one last thing cause I am not an expert " Dry ground hunter" or even a real cathunter. I will argue until i draw my last breath that a hound with killer drive to finish a bad trac or hell even start one will appear colder nosed than all my other dogs, why simple he wants to run this thing down and catch or kill it. It's prey drive he is a predator at heart. Lets breed those kind of dogs then we will sort through them and figure out which one has more nose. I LOVE TRASHY YOUNG PUPS, why? because at least they have prey drive, i'll take a trashy pup every time( If you dont beleave me look at my dogs ). I would rather trash break a dog off 10 different game animals than have to kick a straight dog out from under my feet. I think paco said his dogs would run all kinds of stuff with out an e-collar, thats my kind of dog right there

[jdw2825]

Like the others said its a hard question to awnser. As far as tellin in each condition? Well if you have a dog that will run a track on dry ground and runs it good than your in business, cause it will run the rest just as good. I personaly like a dog that can run with its nose in the wind. Dont get me wrong trail dogs are nessicary in some occasions. As far as speed? Well it depens on how your dog likes to work.

[Redplott]

I'll say this one last thing cause I am not an expert " Dry ground hunter" or even a real cathunter. I will argue until i draw my last breath that a hound with killer drive to finish a bad trac or hell even start one will appear colder nosed than all my other dogs, why simple he wants to run this thing down and catch or kill it. It's prey drive he is a predator at heart. Lets breed those kind of dogs then we will sort through them and figure out which one has more nose. I LOVE TRASHY YOUNG PUPS, why? because at least they have prey drive, i'll take a trashy pup every time( If you dont beleave me look at my dogs ). I would rather trash break a dog off 10 different game animals than have to kick a straight dog out from under my feet. I think paco said his dogs would run all kinds of stuff with out an e-collar, thats my kind of dog right there

I agree with Paco 100%