Ears

[t-dog]

We talk about lots of different physical aspects of dogs. One thing I like to see personally is good ear. I like the houndy ear set best with some length. I don’t want the blood hound ear length but I also don’t want short ears either. I guess the best way to describe it is more ear than the typical cur types and less than the full old school hounds. The modern hounds are pretty nice as they don’t seem to have as much ear as the dogs of yesteryear, to me anyway. It’s mostly cosmetic but I do think that longer ear is beneficial to some degree in grinding a track out. What are y’all’s preferences?


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[Judge peel]

To me the perfect ear is what the gsp has


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[Cajun]

If you are referring to length of ear as being colder nose I can tell you there is no correlation between ear length and whether a dog is cold or hot nose. I have had several Plotts that had shorter ears that were extremely cold nose and have had the opposite. Ear length is just another phenotype gene. The pic. Below is a cur dog I had that had prick up ears and yet one of the coldest nose dogs I have owned including Plotts. This is IMO of course.


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[Reuben]

Yes…I like a 65 pound dog with good length of ear just like T-dog said…no droopy eared snoopy types…
The inside fold corner of ear to be even with the top of the skull…and I like the outer fold lower than the inner fold…

[t-dog]

Lol, I’ve heard that old tale in reference to ear length correlating to how cold their nose is. I’ve had similar experiences as you regarding that Cajun. What I was talking about with ears helping was when trying to move a track that’s cold or in dry ground. I’m one that thinks that the long ear might help flush a little scent when an old dog has his head down grinding slow. The blood hounds for example have all the loose hide that almost looks like rolls or wrinkles when their head is down. They also drool a lot. It’s said that these wet folds collect scent and that the long ears flush the scent up so that it can collect there. It’s one more tool to help the already extremely cold nosed hounds. Like I say, that’s just something I always felt was an extra tool but definitely doesn’t have anything to do with how cold a nose a dog has. I’m a little more drawn to hounds so that could be part of the reason I prefer more ear too.


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[t-dog]

That old leopard dog sure has a nice eye about him. Looks like he had a lot going on in that old head.


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[l.h.cracker]

I prefer a good ear flat across the head with some decent length and width that doesn't droop much and are held high across the top.

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[t-dog]

That’s a fine animal. I like that ear too Cracker.


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[Cajun]

Lol, I’ve heard that old tale in reference to ear length correlating to how cold their nose is. I’ve had similar experiences as you regarding that Cajun. What I was talking about with ears helping was when trying to move a track that’s cold or in dry ground. I’m one that thinks that the long ear might help flush a little scent when an old dog has his head down grinding slow. The blood hounds for example have all the loose hide that almost looks like rolls or wrinkles when their head is down. They also drool a lot. It’s said that these wet folds collect scent and that the long ears flush the scent up so that it can collect there. It’s one more tool to help the already extremely cold nosed hounds. Like I say, that’s just something I always felt was an extra tool but definitely doesn’t have anything to do with how cold a nose a dog has. I’m a little more drawn to hounds so that could be part of the reason I prefer more ear too


I have heard and read that too T dog. I prefer the ear length on dogs that just flat get it done. lol

[t-dog]

Cajun are there certain families of plotts that come shorter eared. I don’t mean to the extreme of course but maybe more comparable to the cur types than the hound? I ask because because of my understanding of how the plotts evolved from start to present day.

Let me ask this of those of you that have hunted hounds. Has it ever seemed that the truly long eared hounds seemed slower and the shorter eared hounds were faster? Of course there’s always an exception, but in general it seems like every really long eared hound I’ve been around was just flat slow, more similar to the blood hound I guess. It seemed to me like I looked up one day and started seeing all these hounds with less ear and they were marketed as being fast and fast tracking. Most of it seemed to have started with the walkers around here and mainly with the competition hounds. Now days it seems like you can almost see a head shot of hound and tell if it is old foundation bred or more the modern breeding just by looking at the ear on them. I did say ALMOST. 


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[TheRednose]

Cajun are there certain families of plotts that come shorter eared. I don’t mean to the extreme of course but maybe more comparable to the cur types than the hound? I ask because because of my understanding of how the plotts evolved from start to present day.

Let me ask this of those of you that have hunted hounds. Has it ever seemed that the truly long eared hounds seemed slower and the shorter eared hounds were faster? Of course there’s always an exception, but in general it seems like every really long eared hound I’ve been around was just flat slow, more similar to the blood hound I guess. It seemed to me like I looked up one day and started seeing all these hounds with less ear and they were marketed as being fast and fast tracking. Most of it seemed to have started with the walkers around here and mainly with the competition hounds. Now days it seems like you can almost see a head shot of hound and tell if it is old foundation bred or more the modern breeding just by looking at the ear on them. I did say ALMOST. 

Here is my answer and opinion to your question, yes it has seemed the extremely long eared dogs have been slower but I feel that is due to having more of the bloodhound influence or bloodhound type dog in them vs the foxhound. Foxhounds tend to have higher set shorter ears compared to bloodhounds. So its not the ear itself but those slower long eared dogs also tend to carry other bloodhound traits such as a heavier set looser build and so forth.

I am not sure on the Plott side of things as they are a breed all to their own, but I did read somewhere that the Pioneer dog had bloodhound in him and that is why he was so huge and had such long ears vs most other Plotts of the time but I am not sure how accurate that is. I am sure some of the Plott guys on here might know more about that and how true it is or is not.

What I have seen more correlation in regards to nose and style is whether a dog is silent or open. I would like to hear if anybody has any observations or opinions about that.

[l.h.cracker]

I know (in my head at least lol) that cur dogs down here with a longer bigger ear and the set and type of ear I like tend to have a better nose and bigger bottom as a general rule than that of a cur dog down here with a higher shorter more bulldog type earset and I believe that is because just that I believe the smaller eared dogs tend to have more bulldog in their lineage and the longer larger eared dogs have more hound in theirs.This is only my own observation and opinion based on dogs I've either owned or hunted with but it could all be in my head too.

[t-dog]

I think there is a lot of truth to that cracker. There are always exceptions. I had a mentor that had a dog that I couldn’t stand. The dog was an Eskimo Spitz or at least half. Fluffyish white hair and short ears that stood straight up except for about the last inch that kinda flopped forward. That sucker might wake up today with that let me show you what a hog dog is attitude and next time you take him he’d make you want to play in the road. I’ve seen it when the other dogs were baying a sounder and when they would start shooting hogs, they would break out. Had a boar about 150 weight break out of the brush 10 yards from us. Casper (the spitz) was standing there and lit out after it. The hog hit more brush about 30-40 yards later and Casper hit the breaks like a reining horse and came right back to us. It was like he was saying “nope, too thick maybe next time”! I’ve also seen that short eared sucker put his nose down and straddle a track that no other dogs even knew was there and put a hog at the end of it.


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[Shotgun66]

Too much ear….well bred English hound. He straddled cold tracks till they heated up, then he would drift and was pretty accurate when he treed.



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[Shotgun66]

Not quite enough….good length but set back a little too far. Red BMC. Primarily a winding dog but he can trail. Totally silent until bayed. Bayed more hogs for me than any other I’ve hunted.


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[Shotgun66]

Perfect ear length for me on this dog. Set just a touch back but not too far. Silent track dog that preferred to ground trail. Gave a hound locate when he found the hog. Once he picked his head up and galloped off, you were about to be in hogs. Relayed on groups better than any I’ve hunted.


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[Cajun]

  Rednose, You are correct. Dale Bradenburger of the Pioneer kennels had bigger houndier dogs. One of his main dogs in the early years was Pioneer drum and you could look at that dog and see the bloodhound in him. There is alot of specuation on the anncestory of him but I have heard that the bloodhound traits came from his mother but seeing pics of him with his sire and dam, I dont know and probably never will.
  I know this is a topic about ears but their are dogs that stradlle a cold track and mudhole it and there are others that can just drift a cold track and get it jumped. A lot also depends on just how old the track is. I'll see if I can dig up some pictures of some ears. lol

[cajunl]

Look at he guys that run dry ground lions. As a whole they are probably some of the coldest nose dogs. They look houndy but not huge eared bloodhoud types

[Reuben]

I too believe in the moderate long ear makes a better hunting dog with more bottom and better nose which is the type of dog I like…
Sometimes when we breed for a certain trait, we get other traits along with the trait we are breeding for without realizing it is happening…
Example…Again personal theory…we are breeding racing greyhounds and we want to breed the absolute fastest so we can win wherever we go especially when entering the bigger races…it is somewhat easy breeding this trait on account our dogs are fast and win their fair share…we know the fastest times out there so we have our goals set accordingly…as we consistently breed faster dogs something else is happening…the heads are getting smaller and the nose more aerodynamic and that makes logical sense…the lighter and smaller head increases speed, is more aerodynamic and so is the nose…something else we did not see…the skin got thinner…so why is this happening? There are two possibilities that make sense…one is that the dog is lighter in weight with the thinner skin making him faster…the thinner skin is also allowing him to run cooler as he speeds around the track using a tremendous amount of energy while creating lots of internal heat…but with the thinner coat it is much easier to give off more heat allowing the dog to run cooler…some of those hidden traits are genetically associated with a faster dog and other hidden traits are due to other reasons like already mentioned…lighter weight and aerodynamics…the little things that give the winning edge…
The longer ear…tends to be on a slower dog that keeps his nose down in the track when trailing…
The medium ear dog tends to trail with his head up…sometimes tracking off wind currents and looking to see or hear the game ahead so the dog can leave the track…the good ones use the wind currents to find the hot end of the tracks…I wrote enough about the greyhound whom I know very little about…the same type of examples apply to the long eared dogs….and as different traits apply to medium length ears…
There are exceptions to every rule, but I tend to look at the averages for better accuracy on personal theory…

[Reuben]

To me the perfect ear is what the gsp has


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Yes...they have really nice ears to them...