BigGameHoundsmen.com

Looking for a colder nosed dog. Was reading about those gascons santogeois are they realy that cold of a nosed dog. 16 hrs I read somewhere. And due those blue gascons typical have colder noses? Right now I have comp walkers trying toget them to run bobcats fell like I'm spinning my wheels. Thanks mike

I do not have any personal experiencewith GS hounds but i do believe they have excellent noses, and yes for most bobcat hunting tight competition bred walkers many times do not have the nose you need, but in some areas where conditions are favorable they do work well and usually locate and tree well and this may be an area where the GS being a trail hound from France may be lacking. There are some western breeders on this forum that are working and attempting to perfect this breed for hunting tree game in North America but I would say for bobcats the jury is still out.

There are some proven strains of walkers that have been extensively bred and culled to reproduce bobcat hounds with excellent noses and the speed and tree power that bobcats require.

And don't feel too bad because even some of us that hunt strains that were bred to be bobcat hounds feel at times we are spinning our wheels. Bobcats are that tough! LOL!

the gs that i have has a very cold nose and is good tree dog. i will start to use him as a start dog on bear this season and will put him on some lion next winter

How cold of a nose does a dog need to run a bear????

as cold a nose as any hound running any thing.if you are going to run one that left a track some time the day be for or older than some hot nosed dog wont cut it.if you are just running of of baits all the time then maybe a hot nosed dog would be fine. my self i like the coldest dog i can have. to me that is what a real hound is not thees hot nosed things. if all you have is hot nosed that is all you are going to run. pretty easy to catch game when it is red hot.

"pretty easy to catch game when it's red hot".
Maybe with bears and coons, but I disagree with that statement when it comes to bears and bobcats. I like cold noses for sure, but there needs to be a lot more than that to be a top bear or cat dog or even a descent one.

FROM WHAT I HAVE SEEN HUNTING WITH FRIENDS I HUNT CURS HAVE SOME GREAT HOUNDS WE CANT BAT HERE SO WE RIG OFF TRUCKS MOST TIME RIDE HORSE MULES SOME TIMES JUST KNOW HEARE YOU RUN A BEAR 2 DAY OLD BY TIME DOGS CATCH UP AN CAN THEY CATCH HIM? IF THEY DO WHAT TO SAY THEY DID NOT JUMP A DIFFERENT ONE UP WE BEAR HUNTERS KNOW BEARS THERE FOR ONE REASON FEED SO DO WE THINK THAT ONLY ONE THERE ??? I HAVE CURS HAVE A SIX GEAR SEEN A BEAR STILL CANT CATCH IT SO ANY ONE SAYS BEARS EASY COME N M RUN SOME SEE HOW EASY A HOT TRACK IS TO CATCH OR NOT WHEN BEARS ARE NOT FAT WE START COLD TRACKS GREAT HOUNDS LOOKING FOR THEM END OF DAY I GESS THATS HOUND HUNTING I HAVE HARD TIME WHEN PEOPLE SAY BEAR 2 DAYS OLD HOW WOULD ANY KNOW UNLESS YOU GOT PIC WHEN CROSSED ANS IS IT SAME BEAR YOU RAN

what im saying is doesn't take that much to catch a bear or lion or any thing if it is a hot track im saying catch not tree.

I guess another question would be, how much game is in the area you hunt? My two old start dogs are med to med hot nosed and ive seen people with dogs that are super cold nosed in my area screw around with a track all day just to have nothing when its time to go home. Ill take my old dogs and go find something they can scream on and tree 2 different bears sometimes. I guess i like to see game in the tree most of the time and not just where a track went for 12 miles. JMO

I guess I'm looking for a dog to take a 6-7 hr track and run it hard to catch from the time they start a track. What do you consider cold nosed please qualify. I mean saw the game cross then ran dog on it that took. I saw a bob cross the road it took me 3 1/2 hrs to get dogs there one dog took it other dog never knew it was there. That is the first time I could actualy put a clock on my dogs. Those GS can run a 16 hr track that's a 4x colder track. What do most of your dogs run cold track wise thanks again mike

mike7776 wrote:I guess I'm looking for a dog to take a 6-7 hr track and run it hard to catch from the time they start a track. What do you consider cold nosed please qualify. I mean saw the game cross then ran dog on it that took. I saw a bob cross the road it took me 3 1/2 hrs to get dogs there one dog took it other dog never knew it was there. That is the first time I could actualy put a clock on my dogs. Those GS can run a 16 hr track that's a 4x colder track. What do most of your dogs run cold track wise thanks again mike

That six or seven hour old track ran hard might be achievable if your game animal was "big foot", but if you're looking for a bobcat dog to do that minis uniformed snow your asking a bit much. Cold trailing is just that a GS is going to stand on their head as are any other cold trailer ( Bobcat) when it comes to a cold track and yes I say cold track. So many times you hear of this hound or that hound cold trialing to have it jumped in short order and treeding. HOW COLD OF TRACK WAS THAT? Don't believe what you read on here, take it with a grain of salt and find out who's doing what in your area and go to them for advice they will tell you what can be done and what it takes. I will bet that the hounds in your area that are getting it done are not comp coon dogs nor the infamous GS's. I have nothing against either it what it is.

sourdough

we run a lot of problem bear and by the time we get the call it is almost always cold tracks 6 -8 -10 hours old. now as fare as cold nose i have personally seen my hounds start a track that was 24 hours old(bear) try ground i did not let them start it it was a bear we treed the day before. i wish now i wood of let them. i have also with the same dogs have a track that was only 2 hours old and act like it was never there. cold nose has a lot to do with the conditions.as fare as hot nosed dogs i think that they are fine if that is what you like but for me the best part of the hunt is a hound cold trailing hand hearing them make the jump. do not get me wrong ill dump on a hot track every time.

Bow wrote:what im saying is doesn't take that much to catch a bear or lion or any thing if it is a hot track im saying catch not tree.

No disrespect Mr. Bow, but catch or tree is the same thing to me. The animal is stopped. Maybe where you hunt a little pressure will stop the bear or bobcat you're after, but that is not my experience where I have hunted. Much of the time it's true, yes, but better than 20% of the time, depending on the year and the area, I better have my dogs in shape for at least a 3 hr if not a 6 or 7 hr jumped race and I mean jumped all the time, esp. bear.
As for cold trailing, conditions are everything. 1 hr. old tracks can sometimes be tougher than 8 hr. tracks. I would guess in the east with the high humidity, older tracks are much harder to run, but maybe jumped tracks are easier (I don't know). Here out west where it's dry I consistantly put out on overnight tracks the middle of the next day and my dogs can usualy fire on them because the moisture isn't breaking the scent up as fast. Catching them is a different story, but I really don't have good cat dogs anymore.
There is really a whole lot more to this discussion than just the dogs genetic traits. Most often training is a critical issue when it comes to catching game. If a young dog shows aptitude for cat when it's young and kept on cat until it is solid, I think many types of dog will work. It's what is made out of a particular dog, not so much the strain or type. If you think a colder nosed dog will do better, you should get one to satisfy your curiosity and expand your experience. I for one will not own hot nosed dogs. It's like owning an oven with only a broiler, I'm limited to what I can cook.

The GS does have a very good nose and like all breeds some individuals shine more than others but the strength in the GS is more their desire to track (nose to the ground always). This is probably the image most have of the Bloodhound/Saint Huberts Hound but the GS is more athletic and able to be hunted hard.

Small cats leave light scent (here in Africa at least) and sometimes even what can be considered a hot track cat result in a loss by the GS, but that said they will continue to search and search, head down and determined to find the track.

Not sure what the story about a 16 hr track is but my hounds have recovered a wounded Leopard 17 hrs after it was shot. But remember that large cats leave a lot heavier scent and deposit over a larger surface area.

I hunt a lot of Caracal and Serval and would catch a lot fewer if I did not have 'hotter' nosed hounds in the pack also. All are GS but some are more catch driven while others more track driven. Unbalance either side and you will only be trailing the whole day with nothing in the tree or only chasing jumped cats.

Just my experience for what its worth - use it , dont use.

cobalt no disrespect taken i agree with you. i tree around 100 bear or more a year so i know what it takes to tree bear. all my hound are as cold nosed as i can get that is what i breed for. as fare as are chases go are average run is probably around 3 hours but have some that go a hole lot longer than that.the ones that breed for the hot nose hound are the ones that spoiled some of them. that is the difference from a comp dog to a big game hunting hound.