Goose87…I seen the same thing with some of the plotts…
I’ve done quite a bit of looking for a certain line known for their grit.
A while back I spoke with someone who hunts with the owner of that bloodline and also hunts that same line…so I asked how they hunted their bear dogs…they said almost always rigging or starting them from a bait…
Once I heard that I will not buy a pup because it does not fit my style…my number one priority is casting and finding…some of the Plott dogs are weak in casting and finding and I believe it is because of the hunting style I mentioned…
When we cast a dog in fresh sign I expect a dog to be running a track in less than five minutes…bayed or hearing a squeal…5 minutes is a long time…
The nose…I agree that a colder nose goes with the better hunting dog…but I differ on how it works but cannot prove it so it is a personal theory…
It applies to both winding or starting a colder track…there is a connection between the nose and the brain…some dogs trigger will trip very easily and others won’t…the gold nugget bred kemmer mountain curs can really wind or start a cold track but what I do like about them is they would rather start good tracks…
In open marsh I have seen none of the dogs get interested in the wind currents but one or two dogs…but it is not like blowing up the dog box interest…I just noticed a little interest…I looked to see exactly where the wind was coming from and turned into the wind…went close to a mile before I turned the dog loose and they went straight to the hogs…
I think the right Mt Cur line crossed with the right Plott line we produce Mt Cur type dogs from the old days…I believe back then there wasn’t much difference in the two…
Getting back to the nose…I’ve seen dogs come running by…two run right over a track and the switch doesn’t trip…a little later another dog comes by and opens a couple times and takes the track and lines it out…the same place the other dogs went right over…
Same thing with winding…if the scent is fairly strong in the wind they all can smell it and the trigger will trip but on a weaker scent the colder nosed dog might be the only dogs trigger that trips…and if it is a very weak scent it is up to the handler to set them up for success when one dogs shows little interest but doesn’t react…it is up to the handler to decide if it should be checked…
It’s all about what we do as breeders and handlers…we make the dogs better by how we breed and how we hunt them…
When we test pups at a young age we can see which has the hair trigger for winding and also which pups have a knack for finding which proves 3 things…nose, ability to find and the right type of brain to go with the nose and finding ability…to me it is all about selecting for natural ability first…
Rubs your last sentence is something I pay a good bit of attention to, I'll sit a bowl of food or scraps up on truck hood or anything elevated and watch to see who detects the scent initially and who can locate the source....
