T-dog I agree 100% I was just having this conversation with my buddy yesterday and I was telling him that I believe you can force a cur dog down a cold track and that I do it if that's what I have to work with I actually read on here along time ago how to do it and I believe it was BA-IV who was saying that he forced his curs to cold trail but I could be mistaking.Either way I will follow a track as far as I can see it which alot of times isn't very far where I hunt and then I stop I don't talk to my dogs other than sending them down it once or twice if they come back I just sit there sometimes I sit in one spot for a hr quietly and watch the dogs and the Garmin eventually they'll trail it because I am not giving them anything else to work with.Like T-dog said if they have the want to then they'll work it out you just have to give em time.I enjoy forcing them down a track they don't want to try but it takes alot of patience to just sit back open a cold drink and wait.
This style takes individuals with PATIENCE, and the reason a lot of hunters can't or won't attempt it, I don't think this is true but believe it is and stand firmly behind this thought and belief all day long every day that it has more to do with a dogs desire to find the game that left the track they are smelling, my ex paw in law whom I got part my foundation of my curs dogs from always told me that that particular family of curs always had way better than average noses especially for cur dogs, I've seen them do some things and work some tracks out that even blew me away In their abilities alone and on the ground with or sent in behind some really good dogs themselves, one instance in particular I was past noon getting to a hunt one day and a pack of high power well known bear plott hounds from a state or two north of my location, had been hunting in there all morning and only Only 1 Hog had been caught all day and it was with a daughter to two of my curs and I was told that this blocks had been ran through and hunted out by the two packs of plotts, I trusted my dogs noses more than my friends observations and within an hr my old gyp, whom I hadn't hunted since the prior May and this being February, had one bayed and would eventually relay and bay another 4 more all within 3-4 hours in a section of swamp across the Rd from my house that my other buddy's bear hounds couldn't line a track out and keep it going for whatever reason, they are some great and very productive dogs, I've seen other instances before this that made me have this theory and saw it with both sides of my cur blood, both sides are built and bred around two outstanding females that I was blessed to own both at the same time, they are two totally different styles of dogs in every aspect, I also firmly believe in and have proven this with my own pack vs their litter mates and contemporaries owned by friends, I take one or two of my younger dogs that are showing all the right things and take them right by themselves at night and either send them in a block I know they'll hit a hog track or put them down on a track, and just let them be, a lot of times I'll fall asleep in the truck, I rarely bring a cd bc I have no intent on catching the hog, and if they put it all together and get one stopped and bayed, depending on the time I'll let them bay and work it a while or cause them to break and catch them off at a crossing and picking them up wanting it bad, a dog sees the world through his nose and when it's lights out they have to use their nose to be their guide, and by doing this I'm able to eliminate a lot of the distractions and deterrents that would normally grab a young dogs attention and focus, it's also been the deciding factor in some getting culled, bc if they can't perform at night at least to an average an above as they would in day light with other seasoned pack mates then they don't stay here, by doing that for the last 3-4 generations I've been able to select and breed for dogs that can put their minds to it and grub out a nasty track if needed to, I've tried and tried to explain this simple method to my friends early all of them say the same thing, "my dogs just don't perform or produce well at night, and those same ones also can't figure out why their dogs can't trail out a track past a certain window of time in which it was laid, the one or two that have listened have seen the benefit within a few hunts, I started doing this out of necessity bc of work and not by choice, I also noticed that my very first pack I ever put together got hunted nearly every night of the week and weekends and they just seem to bay a lot better so I tried baying my dogs now a bunch in a Bay pen bc I fooled with my old dogs every chance I could, didn't seem to help, when I started hunting them at night a few summers ago I noticed they started taking tracks in the day that were way colder than they would normally try and when they started putting game at them end of it I took a hard notice at what I was doing different and finally pen pointed that the night hunting was the key, just the other night my best friend and I were hunting some pups out of his old male and my old female, they are 1st cousins and I have yet to hunt behind a pair of cur dogs that can outdo them on a cold track, at least not around here, the pups just hit a yr on Father's Day and were in some god awful thick overgrowth, every time they'd bog down he'd get jumpy and want to put an old dog down, to "help them out", and I'd just say go ahead, send her in there to show them where it went and the next time after that and time after that when they bog down they'll just sit and wait for ol reliable to come and show them, or we can just sit here and let me enjoy my nap and listening to my young boooo tick run with his pups and let them figure out where they messed up and line it back out by themselves, that way they learn something and retain it bc they figured it out on their own and can apply it next time that situation is faced or get them dependent on a crutch that won't always be there to hold them up when they fall, it's taking him some self adjusting and developing patience on his end but this summer he has hunted his 3 at night a good bit and they are looking just as good and better than several dogs with a few seasons of hauling, I also watch my Garmin and see where the dogs either lost a track or had a bad break down they're having trouble recovering, it's not so much an issue with more seasoned dogs but more so with my young dogs, if they turn back and trail themselves back out I'll try to get to the point of the break down to see for myself what's going on and a lot of times entice and encourage them to grind it on out and get it back up on its feet at a brisk pace, if that becomes a habit for a particular dog then they won't stay here much longer, I'll talk to my dogs if I'm walking a hard track out with them but nothing like, cmere boy, or anything not business related, by the time they get to the woods they've already learned my basic verbal commands at home and I'll use them to keep the dog focused on what we're doing if I see track or sign of any off game or notice they're no longer following the track or scent funnel and are trying to take a path of least resistance, of course none of this can be accomplished if the hunter/handler has catching hogs or stacking numbers as his main objective, it takes an individual willing to devote the time and maintain the patience of biblical proportions to achieve the results and an eye for knowing when to pull the plug on a prospect and move on, next most important factor is having your hands on the hides that have the capabilities to work out and line out older tracks, it's just the way the world turns, some dogs have IT, and some dogs don't, once you've seen one do things that make you the one doing the observing say WOW, even if it's just to yourself bc your really not sure you just saw what you think you saw, you'll know it, one thing I've noticed and seen a correlation to trailing tough tracks at least in my dogs, is when they're young little pups is the ones who seem to be problem solvers and can find away out of pens built like Alcatraz, are seeming to make the better dogs that suit my liking, those are the two main most important factors to start with, there's also a number of other contributing smaller factors such as environmental and atmospheric conditions, the dogs physical shape, and how and what they're fed that all play small roles in scenting and trailing that when all combined all add up and can sway success in your favor or against you.....
I'll reply to the original post shortly lol, found a comment and paragraph that really always interest me....
