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I have a dog that will start a track really good she will bury her noes in three or four tracks and take off but she will never finish it she will go up to a mile sometimes and just give up. I've walked her tracks out and she is always right on the cat tracks but just gives up and comes back. Any suggestions on how to get her to finish one out. I've only seen her stick two cats out till the end

is she over running the tree? id walk the track as far as possible to try and see if she is.

how many cats has she been on

No she's not over running it cuz the couple times I've walked the tracks out she's right on them and she just stops and the cat tracks keep going right in front of where she stops. Last winter I probably put her on close to twenty sets of tracks and she took every one of them some not as far as others but only finished one last year and one the year before. It's just getting frustrating

Would help to know the age and breed and line of the dog, how the dog was raised, and would help to know the terain also.

But I had similar issues with some cur dogs that caught a number of cats but would only do it if they felt i was involved with them. This was unacceptable for me personally, but I could catch cats with them by coming up the track behind them. As long as they knew I was coming they were pretty good at catching bobcats. I don't know your health situation or age or fitness, or exactly the terain you are hunting. It sounds like you are describing snow hunting so if you can, try going with the dog as best you can and when it comes back just put it back on the track and encourage it. If you have to, leash it up and walk it up the track until you get it jumped and the dog is pulling hard to go. It is a lot of work but excellent training. You might decide the dog is not worth that much effort to you. But if you have it in you and you like the dog, it is a pretty foolproof system.

You almost have to decide that you are going to catch that cat no matter what and if the dog decides to join with you on that project, all the better. Most people don't want to work that hard, but I have seen amazing progress in dogs who have been trained by a hunter who won't quit until he has the cat. The only thing you really need that dog for is that sprinting push to make him climb.

If you don't have an older dog to show him how to finish that track, you become the older dog that he learns this from. Some dogs are very perceptive about the attitudes of their master toward the game they pursue. If that dog is keyed into you, and especially if he is your only dog, he might need to understand we ain't quitting till we have this cat.

Listen to David and go about it the way described. After a few cats let us know again how the dog is doing.

Not sure about your dog but sometimes if hounds are played with to much when they are young they become more like a pet then a hound. In severe cases a hound that has become the family pet will sometimes not want to get totally away from you and hunt. I try to play with my pups up to about 2 months then i don't pet or play with them at all, then its all hunting business! Keep at it like David said or get a second dog to encourage her to leave might help. Good luck.

Thanks for the advice I will give it a try

Some hounds hunt for you others hunt for themselves alot fall inbetween . you may have to actually get out and hunt with her or get a second dog to hunt with her. Its breeding or genetics more then experience for most. Although I've seen some hounds that got lost in big country start being more careful how far they get out on cold tracks most aren't as hesitant on hotter tracks. But its much easier to work with then those hounds that take off in a straight line thinking they'll trip over a track. That's a trait I'm not willing to deal with myself.

I have a red bone female that does the same thing. I've been wondering if I spent to much time letting her be my buddy as a pup.