training to improve cold trailing?

[Nufo]

I have heard it mentioned, but how is it done? Please share any tips you have. Thank you.

[GVBEAR]

I guess my theory on this topic is you can't create a cold nose they either have it or not. But you can teach a dog to use its nose or trail. The best way i have found to help benefit the dog in the trailing is fresh snow. You can walk the dog down the track and praise it and keep putting it back on the track if they leave it to emphasize what you want them to do. Just takes a lot of time and walking but you should know by the end of it what kind of nose the dog has.

[Cajun]

Exposure and experience will help dogs but kind of like GVbear says you cant create it, a dog is either born with it and you just cannot put it in them. I have seen 8 month old pups that could trail what other dogs could not smell. Why? Their genetics plain and simple.

[Henefer-hound-hunter]

Put your dogs on old tracks and walk it out with them “snow makes it easier” over time they will learn old tracks turn into fresh tracks and start taking them on their own, that being said not all dogs will make cold trail dogs, some just don’t have the drive and patience.

[rickyfarrell10]

This is a topic that seems to come up a lot in the group of guys I hunt with. I believe they are born with it but it’s more about the hounds brain. Are they smart enough to use that nose or slow down and work the track. I have seen hounds seem to follow a track in the snow by sight and not by scent. That’s just my opinion and we all know what they are worth.


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[macedonia mule man]

It’s a trait like anything else. Most dogs will be slow and careful on a cold track and speed up and be a little less careful on up to the jump or until they fell comfort of being in control of the line. I’ve seen dogs get good at it in just a few trips and some it took longer. To say you trained them I don’t think would be right. To say you took them to the woods enough to let them practice would be right

[macedonia mule man]

Only two things that makes a good hunting dogs is traits and the handler. Handler being most important.

[scrubrunner]

Had hounds my whole 64 year old life, my dad and granddad had hound.
I don’t believe you can make a cold trail dog, they are born. I’ve seen a 9 month old puppy out trail good older dogs. I’ve always bred for nose but most of the time there may be one pup out of a litter of 10 can do it. Lately have been less than that. All my life up until now, before my cold nosed dog died another one came along to take its place. My last one got killed 5 years ago, haven’t found a replacement yet. My dogs find a cat or fox about every time a go but we have to hunt hard to find one they can trail, there ain’t no cold trailing. I find a lot of tracks I think my dead dogs could have trailed but I don’t even get a tail wag.

[al baldwin]

For sure one never knows how cold nosed dogs are if you hunt alone. However, in my experience dogs that are worked with others that cold trail have sure improved in ability to cold trail. The more they were allowed to work the old stuff the better they got at doing so. It became very evident a few times when I would buy back a dog I sold as a pup. Recall one particular male bought back at about two, at first showed no interest at all in cold trailing, however he became my best cold trailer. And yes have seen some at 9 months to year or so that just had the nose & brain needed to cold track very well.

[Nufo]

Thanks for all the feed back.

[1whitedog]

As far as training I have had the most success either walking tracks out in the snow with a dog or 2, or hunting 1 old cold nosed trail dog with a young dog. I'm a huge fan of 1 on 1 training with a single old cold nose track grubber. I do think genetics are key if you want to consistently produce track grubbers but I will agree with Al you can take a dog and greatly influence it's trailing ability based on the way you hunt the dog etc.. I have seen medium nosed dogs that learned to trail, maximize every bit of nose they had, brains and patience. I have also seen lots of cold nosed dogs that couldn't trail a lick, they were constantly put on hot tracks and never learned to slow down. Some dogs will never have the nose to trail and some will be young grubbers by themselves but there are a bunch in between that the way you hunt and handle will greatly affect the end result.

[minero]

Has anyone tried to get back the cold nose, example is to use the founder of the bluetick, the grand bleu de Gascogne or petit bleu de Gascogne, and get to have say about a 1/4 or 1/8 of that hound and 3/4 or 7/8 of bluetick to get back nose power to your hounds.
Those hounds still have very cold nose, they still breed them looking for that.
The bluetick is a faster on track and tree way much better, but for cold trailing that could be a great option, just an observation.
I am planning on getting back to hounds and that is my plan, have been really looking into getting some petit Gascogne and some blueticks to get them better colder noses. I am in Mexico in the north and is dry ground has been more than 10 years since we go some snow.
Petit Gascogne are same size as Blueticks, The grand is taller.

[macedonia mule man]

I guess a cold nose is necessary somewhere but for what I do it really is not needed. With the game population being as good as it is and the way people hunt nowadays cold nose is not needed. from what I understand all dogs have the same equipment for scent detection but it takes something in a dogs brain to be excited enough to carry through.

[Rowdy Fitz]

I’m not sure I agree with the belief that all dogs have the same scenting abilities. I have read about dog anatomy a fair bit. The way I understand it, the square inches of the old factory surface area in the animals nose along with the brain size determines the potential for superior scenting abilities. Hence why we have blood hounds, hunting hounds, bird dogs and what not. Now, dogs of a specific breed may all be comparable enough to say they’re the same and it depends on intelligence. Personally I believe that the SW lion hounds are better than the “old blood” everyone thinks about. Lion hunters down there have been breeding the best to the best for over 100 years and they culled the rest.

Then it’s up to the trainer to expose them to scents and train them to use their nose.

[macedonia mule man]

I had a customer that had a little shaggy dog that might have weighed 5 lbs. he could pick up a piece of gravel, rub it around in the palm of his hand mark it with a pencil throw it out 50 ft in the gravel parking lot and she could retreive that rock. She did miss some but not many.