Open Hounds...

[Reuben]

I just wonder if open hounds were bred that way in the old days before telemetry/GPS because long range track dogs needed to be heard so they could be followed???

I like a dog that opens 3 or 4 times when he strikes a hot track and then again when he jumps the game...some like loose bay and I like teeth on...makes em back up to a big tree or a big dry creek bank... 

[Shotgun wg]

My guess would be ur right. I spent many a hour trying to run down walkers by stopping and putting an ear to the wind.


Shotgun
Arkansas

[Bo Pugh]

Yea some of the old timers I hunt with tell me back when they was young they would start off jogging behind the hounds on track and walk after a while to where they last heard them at and if it got dark they would just stop and spend the night in the woods right there til daylight then go look for them. I don't think that would be very much fun because I have seen with the garmins how many times the dogs would circle and go the other way and I think about them old men to my self and say well they would definetly be going in the wrong direction if they was after these dogs.

[Reuben]

when I was young I didn't mind the long runs...but got spoiled pretty quick with the tracker...

[Shotgun wg]

I have been trying to get my old man to come run with me. He is a open mouth dog guy. Years and years of running walkers, Black and Tans, and redbones on deer. If a dog ain't singing a song he can't enjoy it. He loves the race. When I was a kid we would sit on the porch and listen to the dogs run at night during the summer. We might sit there 2 hours with them coming in and out of hearing. I guess that's why open dogs are fine with me now. I too always enjoyed the race.


Shotgun
Arkansas

[Bowhunter1994]

Gotta love that tree brawl


Sonny

[Juan Horton]

I am like that, I have 30 hounds deer and hog. Hogs I have 13 Plotts. My granddad and I would sit on the porch and he would say that the deer are getting in his truck patches. I would go out to the pen and turn 6 or 8 walkers loose. Those wr the days. Luckily I am in a club that is 12,800 acres and I run dogs lol.

[Cajun]

Evolution, progress, & breeding are funny things. I would say you were right. Back in the day, hounds had big mouths & were a lot slower, I guess so people could stay up with the hounds. Also most hounds hunted with their master & woud check in with them if they did not strike any game.

 I know I have seen a big change in Bluetics & Black & Tans since the 70's. JMO they were slow compared to Walkers & Plotts. No hate mail please, there were slow plotts & Walkers too but on a average Plotts & Walkers were the fastest hounds out there. In the last 10 years or so, I have seen B & T's & Blue dogs that could keep up with any dogs.
  Since we could not keep up with them on foot anymore, tracking collars were developed. Now instead of walking, we have 4 wheelers or ATV's to help get to the dogs.
  To me, a big mouth hound is just a pleasure to listen to, but we do not need them. We have a garmin that can tell us when the dogs are bayed.
  A lot of dogs have lost there homing instinct because with tracking collars, they are just picked up & do not have to return to their starting points.

[Shotgun wg]

Evolution, progress, & breeding are funny things. I would say you were right. Back in the day, hounds had big mouths & were a lot slower, I guess so people could stay up with the hounds. Also most hounds hunted with their master & woud check in with them if they did not strike any game.

 I know I have seen a big change in Bluetics & Black & Tans since the 70's. JMO they were slow compared to Walkers & Plotts. No hate mail please, there were slow plotts & Walkers too but on a average Plotts & Walkers were the fastest hounds out there. In the last 10 years or so, I have seen B & T's & Blue dogs that could keep up with any dogs.
  Since we could not keep up with them on foot anymore, tracking collars were developed. Now instead of walking, we have 4 wheelers or ATV's to help get to the dogs.
  To me, a big mouth hound is just a pleasure to listen to, but we do not need them. We have a garmin that can tell us when the dogs are bayed.
  A lot of dogs have lost there homing instinct because with tracking collars, they are just picked up & do not have to return to their starting points.

Mine are still pretty good at finding their way back. I also don't always go get them either. If I see they are back tracking I sit and wait for them to come to me. They will find that wheeler. I hunt near my house some and have had them get to far out of pocket for what ever reason. I have seen them back track the wheeler till they got within range of the house and head straight to it. My dogs spend most of their time on the ground when we are out so I think they get a better lay of the land than one that spends most of its time in the box.


Shotgun
Arkansas

[Reuben]

good points everyone...

I remember the complaints back then...hounds are being ruined by competition hunters...they are hunting for themselves etc...etc...the average hunter liked dogs that hunted with them and took colder tracks and ground them out which will not win in the competition hunts...dogs that cut and slash a track and are looking for a hot track were the ones that won and now like Cajun has stated there are more competition type dogs out there...I have seen a few dogs that kick up dirt and rocks in your face when leaving out that ran right over good hog tracks that a cur would take and put a hog on the other end...

[hillbilly]

Yea I agree the fox pens have ruined the running hounds IMO. They just run roads looking to cut in front of other hounds or a hot track.

[shuttin em down]

I don't have a tracking system so I always keep 1-2 hounds in my pack so I can know the easiest way to cut em off helps me out a lot

[justincorbell]

Heck for the first couple years I hog hunted we didn't have any type of tracking system, we had Amos, my big loud mouthed walker dog. He wasn't wide open barkin every step but he would let out a few bawls every couple hundred yards and you could hear him bayed up LONG before you could hear the dogs. There's no telling how many hogs that we bayed that had it not been for amos we would have never found or heard the bay. Lost amos to damn snakes and haven't kept another hound around for long since, not that I don't like em at all but i must have went through 3-4 before I realized I wouldn't find another amos, he was one cool dog, he had that way about him that made everyone like him.

[halfbreed]

  yep Justin a good dog that sets an extremely high standard will ruin a mans chances of finding another dog  . lol   . I know now that I will have to lower my expectations when it comes to owning another good walker hound due the high standards that my last gyp set nearly 30 years ago .  but the hunt is on , and I will go through I'm sure many good dogs looking for the dog that will at least be something I can live with . but not in the caliber of what I had ,   those real good dogs are  the curse of the dog man   lol  it's a shame to loose one they are irreplaceable .   but in the end anything that comes even close will be a pretty damn fine dog in everyone else's eyes . 

[justincorbell]

Yes Sir Mr. Whitten, I won't say he was a rockstar by any means but he was as solid a hunting dog as i've ever owned and I know I gave up tryin to find another like him. Bought him off a younger guy in nome Texas for 100$, the fella had him in a pen for over a year from the date I met him and I never once saw that dog out of the pen, honestly felt sorry for him back then. the fella I got him from picked him up to coon hunt with him but never did use him, his dad was a friend and huntin buddy of ours and knew I liked the dog alot because every time I went over there I messed with him so he told me if I wanted to start workin him to start totin him to the woods so I did, next thing I knew I was told to give em 100$ and he was mine.........probly the best hundred dollar bill I ever spent on hog huntin