training to improve cold trailing?

[Rowdy Fitz]

That’s pretty cool! All dogs have some ability to scent, but more than others. I have trained my daughter’s dachshund to track her when we play hide and seek. He can differentiate some between her older tracks in the house.

[Nufo]

This has been a pretty good read. I appreciate the different perspectives. My initial reason for posting is because I have a mountain cur who I would say has a pretty warm nose. I’ve noticed she’ll smell a colder track but won’t usually trail it when other dogs I’m hunting with will. She’s only a year and a half so I know she has room for growth still and was wondering if there is someThing specific I can do to encourage her to trail up some colder tracks

[Rowdy Fitz]

Just keep hunting her and you could try putting her out on those older track alone, so she can’t rely on the others to do the work.

[bowieknife50]

I don't believe all dogs can smell equally either. I have a plott who is gamey as they come and doesn't take much at all to open. I've seen him check a track in the snow and not give any indication whatsoever of scent and my bluetick goes over there and opens and starts trailing. I never thought the plott could cold trail but when I started hunting more by myself I learned that was only because my group never gave him much of a chance to start tracks. He is far from the best trailing dog, over runs a lot, but he'll go back and find it and start again and again, a hundred times if needed. Last year he jumped 5 bears on his own and twice that with help of the other dogs in the group. That's nothing to write home about compared to most other dogs but I'm just saying (like others have said) keep giving them the opportunity and they will get better.

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[tman308]

As far as training the dog to have a stronger desire to work in older track you have to stop running the hot tracks. I'm not sure what you're wanting to hunt but I would assume you're wanting to hunt mountain lion. If you run that pup on Coon for a year and then try to switch to lion some of them will have the desire and the brains to do it and some of them won't. If I'm training a lion hound I want them working Lion tracks and nothing else until they get a couple seasons under their belt. Another alternative would be bobcats. Coon races at least in my area are a lot like bear races fast and furious only difference with the Coon is they go up a tree quicker.