Tracking ability

The curs didn't hunt deep enough, fast enough. The cold, hot, warm nose deal is hard to say. For example, I have a Walker grnitech female that would be described as hot nosed by most people. As best I can tell, however, it's not that she can't work a cold track but rather that she keeps moving until she strikes a track that she can hook on and tree quickly. If there isn't a fresh track available (and she'll go two miles looking for one), she'll circle back and work a colder track. I prefer her working style to a "cold" nosed dog that takes the first track it comes to and works the track for an hour. That's what I mean by getting deep fast. A good dog will find a good track and do so quickly without wasting time.

My Bluetick gyp that I use on hogs and coons is a head up, fast track dog. She can take a pretty cold track (couple hours maybe) and warm it up fast because she runs the track with her head up. She's much tighter on hogs than coons. She has yet to develop into a hard treeing dog, and she may never be a real hard tree dog, but she is a true hunting dog, a real track driver. She's only 11 months and still makes mistakes, but she is a real track dog.