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I was wondering what you guys thought were the fastest hounds. In the area I am from most people consider Plotts and Walkers to be the fastest and Blueticks and Black and Tans the slowest but I am not convinced. I think it has more to do with bloodlines and desire but that is just me.

I have seen fast Walker and English coon dogs. I have seen some cur dogs that were extra fast on coon and coyote. I have seen some running dogs that were pretty damn fast track dogs on a coyote also. Much faster than anything else but I have seen a whole bunch of them that just down right sucked.

This is a very open ended question. It would depend on the kind of game you are running, how old the track is, the terrain and the conditions. So in my opinion it would not have anything to do with the breed itself, but moreso the dogs ability to run the track fast successfully given these circumstances. Now if you are talking overall athletic ability I would say there are a lot of high strung leggy Walkers out there that can run like a Greyhound. I prefer a dog that can finish the track and put the game in the tree than one that will blow down it and possibly make mistakes. Just my opinion. I also do not competition hunt so running a hot coon track as fast as a dog can is no interest to me.

I have seen some dogs that appeared pretty fast on a good running track but when faced with a less than great track they didn't look very speedy. I think track speed is all relivant to the kind of a track they are running. I have seen some dogs on a hot track that couldn't move it fast enough to scatter their own crap, and you can only imagine how bad they would be on a really difficult track.

I have seen fast track dogs in about every cross and breed but I guess I probably have seen more walkers that could really burn a track and also some of them that could really drift out quick on a bad track. However the fastest overall track dog I have seen was not a walker but he was all hound.

I was hunting over in Utah some years back with a guy that had a blue dog that he said could flat move a bad track. Well we got after a ragged running female lion, and she was spoiled bad. Well they started her pretty cold and the blue dog was in there all right but nowhere's near the front, but as they moved on he was further and further behind. when she got up and moving in front of the dogs in the bluffs he was plumb out of the picture. We had a little snipe nosed walker female that wasn't much bigger than a beagle in the bunch and she showed them others how to get in amongst the rocks and smoke a track. Now admittidly this track was good but still hard to push in that terrain but she got it done. Well when we finally got done gathered the hounds and were riding out we heard old blue still trying to trail it thru there and we had to go fetch him cuz he wasn't giving up he just wasn't having any luck. The guy that owned him said heck I just thought he was fast till I seen that little mutt bitch there.

This is not a condemnation on blue dogs because I have seen some of them be the best track dogs ever. It just goes to show you never really know about a dog until you see them along side some others.

Fastest dog that I have ever seen was half treeing walker half running walker.

It depends to me on the type of track they are running. Some of the dogs that look fast on hot tracks go around and around in circles on a cold track.
A lot of track speed is style. A dog that is sniffing each track and kicking his ears on a less cold track will be much slower than a dog that can run with his head up.
Many people associate a cold nose with the dog being slow. This is not true in my experience. While a hot or medium nosed dog is struggling to grind out a not so hot track a colder nosed dog has moved on and is that much closer to getting the game jumped.

all depends on track style, build of dog, type of nose, kind of game, etc....... i dont believe there is a blanket answere to this question.

On any given day, the fastest hound will be the hound that is in front.

It may change the next day or in different company.

Bill

The fastest dogs I have ever seen on track, hot/cold, good/bad, were Walkers. These were dogs that left all the others behind in any company, every time. Not very many of them. None were related. Some registered, some grade.

Some of the slowest dogs I have ever seen, were also Walkers. I can think of an English, some Blueticks, and a Plott that are also in that boat as well. No matter what they were doing they never ran faster than you could walk.

I know that speed is not really breed specific. I do think that it can be line specific sometimes, but I do agree that style and even experience/training has alot to do with it. I do find it interesting that the walkers have won by so much but there are still alot of people hunting other breeds. However I guess there is alot more to a race than just speed, they gotta know what to do when they catch up to what they're chasing.

In my opinion, and yall know about opinions, these type of dogs are the fastest track dogs you can get. And......if you get a good one, look out!

I have heard those can be scary fast, but I was really looking more at treeing breeds. Then again I have known people with running dogs that were supposed to be good tree dogs.

I hear ya Mose. I would think with some effort a fella can have it all if he really wants it though. I always say that if you want to catch game and not play hunting games, just take the sport out of it. Take the, "boy, he sure does have a great mouth, just listen to him" attitude and throw it out the window. I have a "did you see how fast he caught that sumbitch" attitude. How he did it means not a whole hell of alot to me except that I want more just like him.

These are the fastest tree dog type dogs I have seen.

One of the fastest track dogs I have ever seen belonged to a guy in southern utah. The dogs name was Cindy, and she was started on a track (she had been out all night on a bad track we picked her up that morning). The dog started the track in a canyon where the track looked pretty good. There was a few inches of old snow here and there, and alot of bare ground.(there was a young guy that walked the canyon and hit the track) but when the track came out in the open it was really melted out. The owner of the dog had a hunter coming the next day and didn't want this dog out again all night so we decided it was best to catch her. This dog was screaming the track....I thought for sure she was sight racing it...but soon found out with the herds of deer tracks she had trailed through this was not the case. We finally was able to get up in front of her and I ambushed her on the lion track. I only hunted around this dog that day, but would have gladly fed a whole pack just like her. I can't imagine to many dogs that could take a bad track faster.