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This is an honest answer.Get his teeth checked and probably cleaned by a vet.Rotten teeth can really screw with a dogs nose and his brain.At seven he should still be good for at least this year.While your in the vets,tell him that he's been a good dog and just started not acting himself.Maybe he'll suggest some blood work,but I am deadly serious about the teeth.Think about how far the sinus' are from the teeth,not very.

An old dog jockey (don burks ) told me that back in 66 / he said he didn`t make much money of the dogs that stood trial, just the ones he kept getting back and payen a little less for than they payed too buy the dog and then hed have a vet check their teeth and do the work and the dog would get his act together again and go on.
I told ya 7 is not normally the age they go out in starting but in some hunting ares its very normal cause of slues,river bottem jungles,tuley paddfs and ditches and crop drain off water with chemicals in it/ by 7 some of em have tumors hangeing down off em and gettin owled frosty faced.
No some times ya forget, and I think the statement on checking the teeth at the vets maybe is agood idea and do a chemical balance on his system also/ just too be sure.

I'd say at least 90% of dogs will occasionally take a track backwards, I actually have had way more problems with this on bobcats than anything else. Although when they go backwards on a traveling lion in country without roads it can make for real frustrating day. I wouldn't cull a dog for occasionally taking a track backwards, but if one is upending the track, going the right way for a ways and then turning around to run it back it needs culled. I have an old dog out here (about 14) who started doing that when she was 12, I had raised her from a pup and she had been my main dog for quite a few years, so I just retired her and made her a yard dog. I still take her out a couple times a year because she wants to go, but it is a frustrating experience because she has just gone senile, and I never know exactly what she will do on a track, other than it will be something she never would have done when she was younger or she would have been culled for it.

I can agrre with that ole boy who posted befor me cause hes right .
aaaaaaaaayes a cat or fox can and does back track some then hop off and line out somewers else and leaves dogs runnen nothen but a memory and that need correcting ! And for a dog that not old but continuley goes from foreward too back trackeing/ hed better have a good alabi or he ain`t stayen in my yard too much more I`ll mess with him some but not so as its goen to interfeer with my brace and double brace of hounds.It don`t much happen but it can sure make a lier out of a guy when he finds out in the snow there was but 1 set of cat tracks going out and comeing back around, but his pack left a wore in path in the snow all night and thers no cat track in it/ the hunter went down in the canyon early of the next mornen while the pack was makeing its rutine rout and finds whars there and he possissions himself in sight of what comeing but hidden from view and here come the dogs and no cat and no fresh cat tracks either and so his eyes didn`t lie !
He calls his dogs and quickly gets em leashed up and all but 1 dog is there and that 1 dog was gone all night cause he made the right switchlike the cat and lined out quietly and pulled up about a ridge and a creek line over the other side of the hill with the cat sitten up! Kind of tells ya which of your dogs is the cat dog !

Enjoyed you guys talking about backtracking dogs. Never hunted for big game, just coonhuntin'. Sounds like you guys hunt alot in the daylight hours and maybe you can tell if your dog is backtracking a little easier by being able to see the tracks better. Hunting at night seems like it might be a little harder to tell. Haven't been there with you guys- just an observation listening to your stories. Here's one for you to think about and that is a dog running a ghost track.....you guys ever heard of it???? sparkieg.........

any good cold trailer ive ever seen ran backwards occasionally - occasionaly isnt even the right word-- pretty often, is more like it-

not 5 times in a row tho

hot nosed dogs always turn around first -



-have seen dogs suddenly get worse when they got old- but your dog isnt that old

i think checking teeth and ears is great advice- he hasnt had a heat stroke has he ??


I was kind of wondering if he doesn't want to get close to the bear he has never been one to get in and pull hair.


thats possible-- i had a dog once that would go to coldtrailing as soon as he got close to bear-
if bear hapened to climb hed get under tree in a hurry lol

he had been the gritty one ,up to that point- my hunting partner at the time had a fit --u are not culling that dog lol

well , he was right ,he was back to himself in a few months -

Funny thing. I get some dogs that run the heck out of a yote til they get close to it at night. Then all of the sudden the track breaks down and they are cold trailing again. Wonder why that is?

Same dogs during the day will snuff a coyote as quick as they catch him. By the way, these dogs wont open on a cold trail so them cold trail coyotes at night crack my ass up.

Ghost trackin is pretty dog gone common and some coondog lines thats for sure. If a dog does it right, its pretty funny how convincing they can be.

Dan, We do alot of coyote hunting. It is a rare dog in my experience that will stretch them at night. In the day their in trouble.

BKMFR wrote:Dan, We do alot of coyote hunting. It is a rare dog in my experience that will stretch them at night. In the day their in trouble.

Where are you from sir. I would kind of like to know what kind of dogs you run and some of your experience. I been coyote huntin I think goin on 5 years now fairly hard. I try and run 3 or 4 days or nights a week depending on the time of year. I run mostly in the day in the winter months. Spring, Summer, and Fall I run at night mostly. I like to even run when they are pupping cause the yotes are mean as a rattle snake then and you get to test the metal of your dogs when they are caught in a crossfire. Some folks say it will ruin them, I say I dont want to own a dog you can ruin so so be it if it does. I like the dogs that will stay with them mean yotes at night even if they aint doin much but just stay with them. During the day them kind of dogs will usually pick one up and shake it like a rag doll.

First off sorry to hijack thread. Secondly, I hunt by myself with a max of 4 dogs, day or night.

I find when my dogs run track the wrong way. Its probly a hot trac to begin with, or the dog just way too cold nosed. But the good ones should straightin it out if you give them the time. But if it is an every race thing get warmer nosed dogs. My cold nosed dog are the only ones that do it to me. But hey I have a 50/50 shoot there going the right way LOL.

Yeah he is one of the coldest nosed dogs I have ever seen. I took him to the vet and had his teeth checked and everything else. The season ended a week ago so I haven't got him on any more bears to see what he is going to do.