Muleman that's just my experience, hunting the dogs I've owned or hunted with, in the areas I've been lucky enough to hunt. Someone else may have completely different experience on which race is better or animal harder to catch, based on the areas they live in... I don't know what it's like to run a ...

Depends on conditions. I can run a cat on frozen solid ground in January and dogs look outstanding and sound great, and not ever put near the pressure on a grey fox to catch him in those conditions, a lot of times hardly trail him.
In the summer when it's good scenting and lots of leaves on the ...

I also think location and terrain affect the traits a dog may need, pack size, and difficulty catching

His catch rate tripled? Or he caught 3x as many cats? Bc that's potentially 2 different things, I'd prob catch more cats if I lived in an area with more cats, but do not know that I would catch at a higher rate.

No catching a cat doesn't make a dog smarter necessarily, but usually makes a dog ...

But again muleman plenty of men out there way more successful, smarter and better hunters/breeders than I am. And have better packs and individual hounds than me

Muleman, I like dogs that are smart, have good noses, run with heads up when scenting allows it, and have a strong prey drive (desire to catch and kill). If a dog is intelligent and seems to learn through experience, has a good nose to follow the scent, and a strong prey drive wanting to catch and ...

Muleman, they cross well and are complimentary to each other. In some crosses I've seen some improvement in the things I see lacking on either side when I cross them, and in some crosses some still lack in the area I want the traits improved.

No difference I particularly want to say in writing for the world to see, as people who don't know me and read this may read into it as me identifying one superior to the other, in general I've noticed a difference or 2, Nothing drastic though.

One thing I have noticed over the years is if you want ...

Muleman the answer to those questions are yes and yes. A buddy of mine with clay dogs just bred a pair of his older tightly bred littermate gyps. One to an old male outta stock I been raising for 25 yrs, and one to a younger clay bred male I had raised. The old male has crossed well on clay stock ...

And that wasnt me saying I have a knack for it, just an observation about the successful houndsmen from what I've seen

I have been lucky in the hound world, Im a 4th generation hound hunter. My dad who is my biggest influence, and we keep a combined pack together, he is a good houndsman, with an abundance of patience with a hound, we generally argue over 2 things, he feeds dogs more than me and I don't like a fat ...

I'd say all good families of dogs fade away or are substantially changed within 2-3 generations after the passing of its creator. Everyone breeds for minor differences, and breeding towards the traits we kike can change the quality of dogs, for the good or the better. Heck my daddy is one the best ...

Those clay dogs were judicially bred as any I know of, the breeding since Mr Finney passed, and esp the last few yrs has been not bred as judicially, with some crosses of things not necessary just to make pups to 'see' what they become. They do have some room for improvement in traits, some of the ...

Yeah it's a shame but the only 2 options are keep moving forward or quit! I still have the other stuff I been breeding for years and lucky to have some of the stuff Finney Clay bred for years, so I still got plenty of stock worth breeding, or at least enough to suit my needs. It is just easier if ya ...

Having a good dog or stock of dogs to build from is a nice thing, all of mine go back to 4 different males, or more so now a combination of their off spring. I lucked into some good stock years ago and have tried hard not to let it go. I did have another line I was breeding and lost due to an ...