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I was wondering what everyone calls a trail dog. I was reading the rigging off the box thread and I do know of people who use to rig bear but we never hunted lion where I am from so I am not real sure how cold of a nose most lion dogs have to have. But I would guess of all the big game hounds they appear to be the all-stars when it comes to a cold nose.
And before getting started I know conditions are different everywhere you go and some people don’t have the conditions to track hunt so guessing the age of a track is difficult.
So how cOLD of a nose does your dog have. And what do you expect your dog to trail as far as age goes. My dogs are getting game spoiled because of so much game my dogs usually jump before finishing the track job now day. But each year I take a week and go to N. Florida to hunt where there is very little game and because of the lay of the land they usually have to trail 2-3 miles before jumping.
I use to say if my dog will open on it then he will jump it. And 99 out of 100 times he would now they will stay with the track unless they come across something else fresher. This is a big problem for someone hunting a specific animal (trophy). This is why I keep wanting more nose and I have seen a few people on here that are looking for the same quality so hopefully they will chime in.
I would say my best 3 trail dogs will take a track at 6:00am that was made at 5:00 pm the day before and will probably take the same track at 4:00pm also. But I don’t have the confidence I once did. I start them in the track and they take it opening from the road but they are now looking for the first chance to get on something else so they get less work on the old tracks.
And although I did not chime in on the rigging thread I road and rig a lot for hogs and if he gets down many times without getting a hog I break him of that. I have one bitch that if she opens just let her down and I have never had her come back without jumping the hog (unless she jumps a bear instead). (Again I know nothing about lions).
Finally I am pleased to see some hunters still breeding for nose. I only know of 1 person around me that has nose dogs I would breed to. So the few left need to try to maintain the nose dogs. And not fall into the bawling fast races that everyone wants and breeds for because when the going gets tough the trail dog is the one that straightens it out. Wish I had the money to travel around and try dogs on leopard, Jaguar and lions like some on here do.

we have a couple of dogs that will run a track thats from the day before, but the place we hunt is full of bears so usaly the track we turn out on is not that old. a lot of times we will turn out one dog in the block to jump the bear and hold the rest in case the bear has already crossed out into the next block or if he crosses out and we see him we dump the dogs right where he crossed. from what i have read, the way we hunt in Coastal NC is a lot different than the way they hunt else where. hog hunting i like a dog that is silent on track, doesnt realy have to have a realy cold nose.

I guess a trail dog is the same no matter what kind of game you pursue.

I know some dogs just are natural to a certain type of game. like I know some people raise dogs that seem to take natural to soft padded animals and you never really have a problem with the running deer or elk.

but i think if you take a good lion line and start it as a puppy it will probablly trail bear or deer or maybe ever a coyote or fox.

so who has the trail dogs. I saw where they are now breeding with those garison and i watch the talk about cameron or nace lines. then someone will knock what ever line we are talking about. I know there are good and bad in every breed and the best way to get a dog is to breed and cull what is left is you dogs.

but i think everyone will agree when someone turns out on what ever kind of game you run and the dog cant take it and someone else turns out and they trail jump and run it, we would all agree that is a better trail dog. my question is who is feeding those type of dogs.

I am in the search to have the coldest nose dog i can. I even have contact some bloodhound breeders but i have never found one that has a nose any colder than my hounds. in fact i raised a few bloodhounds (even though they are slow) and they never had over about a 5-8 hour nose but my dad crossed his redbones with a prison bloodhound when i was a teenager and the pups were awsome then he corssed those dogs with a walker and they got faster.

the best dogs i have seen over the years are a walker crosed with something else. Black and tan, Red bone, bluetick and evern beagle. i think the cross gives them some sense and makes their head right the slow down and use their nose.