intelligent hounds

[pegleg]

Intelligence in dogs well they might not be so smart in some folks books but i cant help but feel a little inferior to even the little womans weiner dog! I bet he never wasted any of his time conversi.g with a rock thinking he could educate it. Ok back to my original statements. A ton of drive no talent and some intelligence you might get a dog worth feeding a high drive high talent low iq rock you can hope and shock something into it over time maybe. But you get a high drive smart dog and he'll work some version of talent in himself. But you take most of your average ability /drive hounds and thats when the extra intelligence starts making marks in the plus column now if god would just breed more intelligent hunters it wouldnt be so scary to ventor out of the cat threads. Who has a above average line of dogs you can think of ? I think if some of our hound breeders would look at what a few are getting in their whelping box and follow suit it would sure put hounds up there with most intelligent breeds. Ive been fortunate to own a few that made a believer out of me.

[al baldwin]

This is probley not what Pegleg was looking for when he ask about intelligent hounds. I had a large walker male years ago, used as a dual purpose hound. He did a decent job on bobcat, lion & coon and also served as a trap line dog. I just started taking him when i set coyote traps, had him taught to sit & stay on command. In the beginning he would sit & watch me set the trap, then with my permission run over & get in the trap. Had a few rodeos getting him out of a #3 victor before he wised up. After a lot of exposure noticed he became trap wise and learned to make a wide sweep to avoid my sets. I made some dirt hole sets on occasion using a small bone as the lure. Took some time but he learned to place his front feet wide to avoid springing the trap & I watched as be was able to use his mouth to steal that bone. Made one of those sets also added a coil spring blind set where i figured he would place his feet to steal the bone. A few days later took him to that trap watched as he was cautious but after some investigation attempted to steal that bone. Sure enough he got caught. That took care of his bone stealing. He and I were well bonded & he was very good at finding a coyote in the traps. I just told him traps gone and he went to searching Sure was a help especially at night. And I always prefered a light drag so he saved me considerable time. Thing was he would only give a couple barks when he located a coyote and then set back looking like I/m not going near that critter & after I located him he was headed for the rig looking like a kid that got caught in the cookie gar. However if the trap had a cat or coon in it he barked steady. Our rountine was to hunt and check traps along the route. He was always eager to jump out & head down a trail with me to check those traps untill one day, early evening, & after a morning run. I stopped to check a set that had over time produced several yotes & he refused to go with me. I was puzzled, went so far as to drag him out of the jeep, but he got all humped up & crawled back in the jeep. I walked away worried about him . Hiked down & checked the set with negative results. All the way back I keep thinking, hope nothing serious is wrong with Mac. AS soon as I opened the jeep door my worry turned to little anger at first, then brought a smile to my face. I had been tricked, he was not allowed in the front seat area, but had been there. However he was now lying in the back with my empty lunch sack. Head pressed low, sad eyes and a slight wag to his tail. That hound was the great, great grand sire of my ole skinner dog. Al