1,2,3 hour old track.

[cantexduck]

  Leave blood dogs out of this. How old of a track is too old for your dogs to follow ? It is hard to know exactly but I have seen heard people talk about their dogs taking a 12 hour track.  I have seen hogs then the dogs lose it  . That is bottom , I know.
  I really feel an hour at tops is the most for majority of dogs , agree ?

Again this is tracking based on no physical components , ie blood .

[b.b.b kennels]

Dry as it's been round here, asking a dog to take a trail over an hour old is asking alot.  Under optimal conditions in an area with high traffic its not uncommon to see a dog take a trail over 2 hours old, but doubt most of us have had optimal conditions in a while. Been trying to start out as close to hogs as possible right now just to give em a chance to strike something. Used to be able to turn out and watch a dog take a trail for a long way on gps before baying up but that's hard for any dog to do with no moisture on the ground or in the air.

[BA-IV]

I would say most don't even know what a dog is tracking on a hog to begin with.  Hogs don't have interdigital glands on their feet, dogs are tracking loose skin cells that have fell off, mud, and debris off a hog from all the research I've done, just like a wet hog leaves more scent then a dry hog.

Lots of factors play in when you're trying to track hunt. I've let loose on tracks that looked fresh and nothing and bayed a big hog off a big track (maybe not the same hog, hard to say, but I believe it was) off a track that looked real old to me.  Personally if I see a track I like, I don't care how old it looks, I'm going to drop a dog and see what he'll do. And as far as agin a track, I'll just make myself look stupid guessing 

I know track hunting is the best thing since sliced bread, but your dogs can sure piss you off doing it.

[halfbreed]

    I quit testing my Catahoula's on two hour old tracks done with drags , but have had them pick up four hour old wild hog tracks .  I saw the hogs that morning and run them off and put the dogs on them when I got back from town and had time to get after them  . but weather conditions play the most important factor in tracking  .

[BA-IV]

A group of hogs is far different then a single hog walking. Takes a better dog to grind a track out that's cold and keep driving that track when it doesn't warm up in a few hundred yards.

Hunting off feeders with game cameras will show you alot about a dogs nose and how hogs move especially those traveling lone boars.

[txhogsanddogs]

Ive seen the hogs prior so i know ive seen dogs take and finish 4 to 8hr tracks no doubt.  Curr dog not hound

1 to 2 hrs shouldn't be hard for any good strike dog IMO.

[Backwoods]

The dogs ability to track is by far the biggest factor followed by weather  or vice versa , IMO.  I have two really good strike dogs and both are 6 years old . when i put on a track I will put only one dog out, and agin IMO one dog can follow a track better than two, but take into consideration my dogs are very competative and when put on a track together  they will some times push the track to fast and loose it ... my female is cat, and my male is a brindle which came out of Texas but i dont know who from or where, but looks like parker cur to me. the oldest track that I can bank on was 7 hrs, but then i have put on tracks that i know were not that old and she or he could not finish it.  It is just hard to say when it comes to a cur dog, some just have better noses than others . And when I say not finished it , that does not mean did not find a hog, I just dont think they found the hog i put on .  and this is just what i have experianced.

[Mike]

It all depends on the conditions.

I've had dogs take 3 to 6 hour old tracks, but I've also seen the same dogs not even smell a hog that crossed minutes before.

[Easttex91]

I think there's times when a dog by. Himself won't take a track but put another dog with him and they work it together...what y'all think?

[BA-IV]

I think there's times when a dog by. Himself won't take a track but put another dog with him and they work it together...what y'all think?

Most times two dogs on the ground are just gonna push each other harder and over run most tracks from what I've seen. It all really depends on the dogs and how you hunt them.  I've hunted my dog so much by himself, that's what he's use to, throw some more dogs down and he looks like crap, well come to think of it he does that by himself pretty good to.

[hillbilly]

It all depends on the conditions.

I've had dogs take 3 to 6 hour old tracks, but I've also seen the same dogs not even smell a hog that crossed minutes before.

Seen this same thing myself many times with curs or hounds.
I have turned loose on a hog that I just saw a few minutes before and the dog not even smell it. The dog would go another direction and bay a totaly different hog. Why couldn't the dog smell that hog if he could go smell another and bay it? I quit trying to figure out dogs a lon time ago. They do some weird stuff sometimes.

[GET.LOW.CURS]

It all depends on the conditions.

I've had dogs take 3 to 6 hour old tracks, but I've also seen the same dogs not even smell a hog that crossed minutes before.

X2
I hunt north Texas and the panhandle.  You will find out real quick conditions make a big difference

[Muddogkennels]

4 to 6 hours . when doing mock hunts i,ll wet the hog before letting them go with a drag able anchor. an i let a stike dog go then slowly walk my pups so i train on old scent .... key thing i found is i let my lead dog stay with the pups kennel to bond until the pups can finish a long mock . bonding time make pups drive hard , after learning from a old man that has rised hunting dogs for his whole life.