BigGameHoundsmen.com

How do you know that blood stick scent better than body scent? Drug dogs can smell drugs in vacuum packed in gasoline, that is better than my hounds can do. Is it training or better noise? Dewey

Most of the best single purpose drug dogs (or other odor detection dogs,bomb dogs etc) out there are nothing more than a black lab type dog or some type of mixed mutt. What separates them from the other dogs is ball drive or toy drive.

Basically they are the dog we have all seen who drives you crazy playing fetch with a ball. They are ball crazy and will wear your arm out playing fetch. They learn through training "I find the odor, I get paid with the ball." So it really comes down to motivation. The good ones are more motivated than other dogs.

Think about the dogs who really love to work a bad track (what people typically call cold nosed). Those dogs are very motivated. Maybe they are driven by the animal at the end of the track, but maybe they are driven and motivated by the pure and simple joy of trailing/tracking. In some circles its called tracking or trailing drive. Some dogs have it, some dont.

Dan,


With your comments in mind would you say that Big Shirley has similar drive for her intended target as say your Belgium Malinois has for his?


I know you have the opportunity to learn from some of the top canine experts in the law enforcement field and I think a lot of that can be very valuable information as we study it in the light of scent hounds as well.

I'll bite.

I don't think he was asking for a factual answer. I believe he was asking for an opinion based on our experiences and that is all this is.

I've hunted with a lotta Plotts, quite a few Black and Tans, and a lotta Walkers.

In my experience the Black and Tans consistently have the most nose. The Plotts and the Walkers are much more varied from very cold noses to very hot. I've seen this even within the same strain of the same breed.

All that being said the best trail dog and 3rd best rig/strike dog I've ever had the pleasure of hunting with was a Cascade Plott female.

The best rig/strike dog and the 3rd best trail dog I've ever hunted with is an Albert bred Black and Tan male.

The second best in each catagory was a Trackdown BT male.

We also owned a Lipper/Finley River bred Walker male that was exceptional at both.

I've only hunted with a few Redbones, English, Blues, or Leps. I have not had nearly enough experience with them to judge.

Hope that is what you were looking for.

Mike, the answer is yes.

All of the good dogs seem to have 2 things in common: Drive and trainability.

Look at all of the very motivated trail hounds. Im talking about the ones that come home with a bloody nose, lips an a brush whipped tail. They have the DRIVE. Now if they are trainable and you can trash break them. If you have those two things, you have the foundation.

Now for different dogs and different disciplines, the drive can be something different too. Like border collies are high in herding drive, and if they are trainable.........you get the picture.