I agree with Cajun...it is genetic
However, I have 4 pups out of a Pocahontas Plott gyp and the sire is an open 1/2 mt cur 1/4 redbone 1/4 pitbull dog...these 4 pups should be open on track but they have been running silent...the only thing I can figure is that the bark collars they have been wearing at the kennel has caused that so it is possible a dog can be trained to run silent...in the woods they will not have a bark collar but they will be wearing a quick trac and a Garmin collar...
I am thinking they would default back to open if I leave the bark collars off for a long while...
I have wondered about the long term effects of bark collars. Have you noticed any reluctance to bay in the woods or does that hunting instinct overtake the learned behavior of not barking for the dogs?
I think that if I were to always keep the collars on the pups here at home they would remain mostly silent in the woods because it would be habit or a learned behavior making them to be silent...but if I used them sparingly whatever the genetics are in each one would make them open or silent...
I pay close attention to the small details that can be causing bigger issues...right now I have been looking at what has been going on with my pups and bark collars...
When I ordered the collars I did some research and these are supposed to be some good ones....they have 3 options on how to use them...
one way is that the collar can be preset at a certain level...
another way is to set it where it will start at a low level and slowly increase until the dog stops barking and then will reset to the low level and will repeat the procedure when the dog barks again...
I set it at the third option which is to increase intensity until the dog stops barking and it stays at the level...
the collars are to never go off unless the dog is barking according to the manufacturer...after about a month of them wearing them I noticed that if a dog that does not have a collar barks...that it triggers the collar on the dog wearing it...also, when I was cleaning out the kennels the train went by about 75 yards away and blew the horn and one of the dogs yelped...this tells me that what the instructions say about only correcting when the dog barks is not true...
This makes me believe that when the dogs bay up the pup might not get close to the bay even though not wearing a collar...so I have taken the collars off...I cannot say this was the problem for sure...maybe the pup could not keep up...or maybe he hung back because it is a problem...so I will take the pups and put them on a staged hog and let them bay just to make sure they understand baying in the woods is a fun thing...
