Tracking ability

[biguns]

The hounds split and work their own track. When they open, the other dogs will go to the bay if they haven't struck their own track yet. If you have get gone, deep hunting dog that other dogs are strikings good tracks behind, then you have a problem.

All the curs I've ever had wanted to hunt together. You couldn't get them to split if your life depended on it. Some hunters likes this, just as some hunters like rig riding dogs. But I don't mind walking (or running), and I won't feed a track dog that doesn't work its own track and won't hunt at least half a mile deep on its own.

[l.h.cracker]

Once again I disagree mine are always in 4 different directions alone and I am constantly having to choose which one to go to and they're all ruff dogs that are gonna try the hog and if 2 are there together it makes me feel better on my walk run swim crawl to them but I do agree every mans got a different style of hunting and so does every dog.I would never say that hounds do this or curs do that because each and every dog from every bloodline was bred to suit the man who was breeding them at the time.

[BA-IV]

I am very lucky in having found a group of dogs that suit me pretty well. They're pretty versatile in my opinion.

My lead dog winds well, and will cast pretty decent, but I have him cuz I can put him on a track at noon or later and he will walk and grind it out and bay that hog a lot of times. They're independent, if you get a few of these dogs on the ground, you'll probably be walking to a few different bays.  It's just how I hunt. Most people don't just cast dogs when they pull up to a spot. They are constantly looking for some sort of sign whether tracks, rooting, wallows, or so on, and putting dogs in sign is WAY DIFFERENT, then pulling up to a block and putting your dogs down, and expecting them to get bayed.

I like a real cold, and I mean COLD cur dog. I could always improve on my dogs nose now. I'd be happy if the hog walked last night and be able to pull up that next evening and put a dog down and them go bay that hog. That's what I strive for.

[biguns]

Each dog has its own way of working, but if there weren't similarities, then there would be no such thing as different breeds of dog. A pure bred dog is supposed to breed true to type, which is what distinguishes it from dogs of a different breed.

That said, personal preference on the part of the hunter basically determines what kind of dog he likes. Since I hunt on foot, I have no use for rig riding scent dogs that only run hot tracks and hunt together. I also don't want a dog that's so independent that it splits just to get alone. The dog needs to work the best track regardless of what other dogs are doing.

My experience tells me that the cold or hot nose business is probably overrated. You need a dog that puts game on the end of the track. In east Texas that generally means you need a fast track dog. Hogs can move quick and so can coons, and the coons aren't real thick here like they are in the upper Midwest.

[Reuben]

when I say I like curs I am talking about the ones I bred and raised for about 29 years...I forget every dog in my yard right now has hound crossed in there and I hope the 4 week old pups I have now will hunt how I like...they are 1/2 plot, 1/4 mt cur . 1/8th redbone and 1/8 pitbull of the leggy type...

[Reuben]

typo...20 years not 29...

[Reuben]

I sure do appreciate you guys posting up these types of posts...I like a good hunting story when it involves excellent dog work...but I like open discussions on the working dogs natural abilities and different working styles...

a good hunting dogs ability is natural...and a good handler can bring out the best in a dog or dog pack...

some hunters are always in a hurry and their dogs tend to look for hotter tracks because of it... and these will usually be shorter range dogs while hunting...

others want their dogs to have the time to work out tracks and work/encourage their dogs to work them and that pack of dogs will work colder tracks and tend to hunt further out...

and lets say both type of hunting styles are dogs of the exact same breeding and natural ability...so yes I do believe we can change some of the dogs style by how we hunt them...but we can not train a dog to hunt if it is not in them...and we cannot teach a dog to take a very cold track if it is not in him to want to do so...

[Judge peel]

Most of this stuff I take with a grain of salt no dog is 100% or is any method of hunting. I truly feel like my dogs can hold there own against any dogs for what there good at. I met with a farmer I hunt for while we where seeing the lay of the land this lady showed up on a buggy and said what are y'all doing. So I told her and she said I can show the biggest track we have ever seen on our place I said ok. The track was good size I would say 250 area pig. She said that track was from that morning as she goes to that pond every morning. So we get there unload the dogs we are on foot go for few min see a bigger track on the edge of wheat field and is going in to the tree line the track looked like it was a weak old from the last rain dogs are out few hundred and really speed up go bout a mile and split up then we here my dog baying broke and bay went on for two hrs then as where on a corn field we see a bigger track it was one heck of a track and it is on path of the dogs had to go back to the truck around 5 hrs later we get to the bay my dog has been baying for two hrs plus dump some dogs to him he broke two dogs picked him back up at this point we where totally whore out cut the dogs off in the truck at the wheat field the dogs had 16 miles on Garmin and the cd had 9 miles that's what we had walked we never got the hog. So what does this story mean that where all chasing bacon there is no right or wrong go with the flow adapt and find what works


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[Shotgun wg]

When it comes to tracking I want a dog that can pick up a track that may be a few hours old and move it fast. I want a dog that will search for that track 3 to 500 yards out. I want a dog that has the drive to go after it at full tilt. A dog that wants to put teeth in the producer of the track. I actually like them trashy dogs. They tend to have my drive to me. I prefer them to focus on the desired prey as much as possible. But they do get bored when they have that drive.


Shotgun
Arkansas

[hillbilly]

I have seen a curdog leave from a feeder and bay the hog that was there 6 hours earlier according to game camera pics. He might take older I don't know this just happen to be one time the camera was checked.
I want to hear how to make a open dog silent also.

[Jason Dunn]

Reuben

I agree with you about giving a dog time I know we have bayed a few hogs when we just stop and shoot the crap next thing you know Garmin says treed 2 miles away ha-ha.
I have a few hogs not many like I said earlier I consider my dogs nose warm or hot depends on who you talk to but they will hunt out 500-600 yards in no sign but if I stay put after they check in a couple times they will move out farther I know most hog hunters want to keep moving but sometimes it pays to stop and have a cool one and see what happens. I almost never turn out in sign cause there isn't any I hunt one place that has a lot of feeders I cast them at the feeders if a hog had hit it in a reasonable time they will jump them up. Now I got curs but they are mixed with English hound but they look and act more like a cur. As far as I can tell from my limited experience and what I have read here on hounds is they don't always have a better nose than a strait cur what they do have is the ability to focus on scent where a cur sometimes wont it may be my dogs smell where hogs have been 12 hours ago but the desire isn't there to work the scent when its that faint. If I could have one thing it would be a good dog that I could cut loose as a last ditch effort to find pork the kind of dog your buddy's say aw Lord and look at their watches when you turn it out I thought this dog would be a hound but now I aint so sure.

[l.h.cracker]

People brag on there dogs just as they do their children and rightfully so because it just shows that you love them.It's my understanding that most cur dogs got some hound in them down the line one way or another some further back but most have it but different curs are made of different concoctions so it's really impossible to generalize the cur dog.Now if you break it down to a specific cur then you can get a better round about of the style and nose on them.I researched dogs that fit the way I hunt found lines from hunters I respected and raised dogs I keep some and cull some.In my yard for example I have some cracker dogs and some Cambell dogs mine compliment each other well my cracker's are shorter to medium range 100-500 and my Campbell's longer range 300-1000  but all will get gone if one don't want to stop but in general they stop them with a mouth full of ear.I to like dogs that you can stop and let the dog hunt I want the dog to find the sign not me I don't track hunt but I have confidence that my dogs could because they hunt to find the track then work it out.

[Judge peel]

Cracker I agree with that most any dog if dropped on a decent track will do some thing. I just don't hunt that way. That's like dropping a kid off at the mall there going to get something lol. A good hound is worth its weight in gold if it's what you want I wish I had one. My flash dog is pretty well rounded runs a track very fast big bottom and a very good nose if only he had his man hood


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[biguns]

A hound's tracking ability is more refined than that of a cur. Nose, instinct or whatever it may be, a good hound can lock onto a track and move it in a way I've never seen a cur do. If you look at studies on the subject, curs are said to use a mixture of scent, sight and sound, whereas hounds track almost solely by scent. If this is true, then one could say that hounds have a better nose than curs, individual variation notwithstanding.

[warrent423]

I prefer the front end stopping ability of an old timey stock bred cur dog, over the mile deep tracking ability of a straight hound myself. When I'm hunting hogs, I'm only concerned with the ones that are close As for being open, my curs had better not make a friggin sound, unless they are looking a hog in its eyes. Lots of different styles of hog huntin these days though. To each their own.

[Judge peel]

Warrent423 ya I like that to but it's nice to know that you can go ether way the more tools you have in your bag the better your chances. One certain way don't always work that's why we all miss hogs at times


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[warrent423]

Warrent423 ya I like that to but it's nice to know that you can go ether way the more tools you have in your bag the better your chances. One certain way don't always work that's why we all miss hogs at times


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My dogs and I are old school and only go "one" way. Like I said though, lots of different styles. Living here in the SE Tennessee mountains for the past 10 years, I've become friends with some local old timers who are bear hunters. The Plott dogs they feed are number 1 grade. Their ability to "rig" from the box is second to none. Complete dogs that will rig, run, and tree bears on their own.

[BA-IV]

Cracker I agree with that most any dog if dropped on a decent track will do some thing. I just don't hunt that way. That's like dropping a kid off at the mall there going to get something lol. A good hound is worth its weight in gold if it's what you want I wish I had one. My flash dog is pretty well rounded runs a track very fast big bottom and a very good nose if only he had his man hood


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I don't agree with that at all after watching countless dogs work. Track hunting to me is an art and having a dog that can do it with style is rare. I guess it all boils down to the country you hunt in. You can't free cast in this pine timber I hunt a lot of times because you will flat wear a dog out before the first hog is ever jumped. It might take half a day of free casting to get on em.

Track hunting for a specific big hog is more like sending a kid into a sporting goods store and telling him to go get you a specific ball outta the many that's in there and not giving him much help on anything else.  If I had a spot where it was a few thousand acres and the hogs had one spot to where they'd be laid up, I'd be more apt to start raising a more specific cur dog geared towards purely free casting, BUT I like my cur dogs to be well rounded and do it all, just be geared more towards track hunting and really like BIG hogs.

[Judge peel]

Warrent that's cool I got family all thru the smokies I lived in Mars hill NC. I worked in maryville and sweet water sure is pretty country up in there. Wish I did have a set of them plots. But what I got now ain't to bad.   
 Ba iv when I say any dog I mean any old guys best dog some are better some are worse



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[Bo Pugh]

I have one full hound amd the rest are curr dogs. A couple of the currs I got will take a track my hound didn't even know was there. My hound is one of my favorite dogs cause shes young and has plenty of bottom she will be there til the end type dog. She don't hunt out real far and will rig out of the box off my four wheeler. The currs I have been fooling with lately are pretty much based off one dog. He's criplle now in his front leg but he was the type dog that you had to make plans to hunt. He won't let you cut him off a track or come to you when you call him you usually had to catch him at the hog before you grabbed the hog or he's be gone again. I bought him the day I bought him I turned him on some sign at 1pm he got it jumped in about 30 minutes and I caught the hog at 9:15 that night in a bad thicket and according to the track Id say it was the same hog. He won't road hunt you put him on a track or free cast him and he kicks rocks and coming back is the last thing on his mind. I got 3 pups off him now out of 2 different litters. The oldest pup was a fast starter and has out lasted the dad in races a couple times when I first started him. The other two I haven't hunted quiet as much but when I let them go coming back is the last thing on thier mind too so that trait was definetly passed down. One of them I was going to let a buddy hunt for me and he told me to come get him he had to much go to him he said he didn't look back til he hit two miles but that's what I wanted in these dogs I hate turning a dog loose and seeing that dog looking up at me. I haven't hinted much lately due to some stuff I got going on but I'm planning to start getting back going here pretty soon and getting these two littermates on some tracks and hope fully making some track dogs out of them. I want a dog like baiv described. One I can load up and ride and look for a big hog and no matter within reason how old it is put that dog on his track and find him bayed somewhere even if it is 8 hours later. I don't care nothing about catching a 100lb sow or little boar any dog can do that I like to catch big hogs. So I guess I like a dog with a ton of bottom a lot of "go" and a better than other dogs nose.