Wrong way.

[scrubrunner]

This has probably been hashed and rehashed but since it's been kind of slow on here I'll start this one.
This past winter I was rigging a couple dogs about a hour before dark one afternoon. Both dogs blew up on the box. I cut them both loose and they left there to the left side of the road trailing like it was pretty fresh. While looking to confirm the track, all I found was a fox track that came into the road on top of the last truck track from the LEFT went down the road 30 yds and went out to the right. Dogs got worse and petered out about 300 yds so I know that's what they were on and they were backing up. Was close to another road where they quit so I drove around real quick and called em out. Went back around to the track and no matter how hard I tried could not get them to take that track the right way. I know they could not smell it on that side of the road or they would have taken it. But if they could smell it good enough to back it up 300 yds why couldn't they smell it good enough to at least open on the other side of the road. Did get some tail wringing and they went out a ways but came back and never opened. The woods on both sides of the road was exactly the same, not like it was a clear cut on that side or anything.

[South Texan]

Sometimes we just leave there scratching our heads and none the wiser.

[mark]

Im pretty fortunate right now with a dog that is real good at flipping a track and a couple others that are fair at it. That being said i still have tracks that they will spin around from 100 - 200 yards and come back go the other way the same distance and not be able to go any further. Im in Robbies camp on this one.

[merlo_105]

Story of my life. I have one that will cast out of the country if you let her and situations like that as is explained I'll let her go do her thing. She starts a lot of tracks 400 yards out in situations like explained

[1bludawg]

I've seen that happen many times over the years,especially when its dry or dusty .If i could go back and find the track leaving the road or find a trail or someplace it might have left i would walk the dogs in that direction . After getting away from the road sometimes the race would be on or they would be cold trailing again as the case might be.
There has also been times when the dogs would strike and couldn't get the cat going out of the road. I would go on hunting and hit another track and the dogs would eventually trail back to where they struck the other track,hit the road and get the cat going again on the other side with no problem at all.
As the guys said sometimes you're just left scratching your head .I can usually come up with a reason as to what i think happened but unless you see the varmint in a tree or caught you never really know.That's cat hunting !

[dhostetler]

One thing I have noticed that almost all back track races go uphill. I can't really figure out why. Anybody else notice that?

Most times my dogs will turn around a back track in 100 to 300 yards if I catch it. Otherwise if there are no tracks and the race just eventually falls apart I never really know if it was a back track or not.

[merlo_105]

Dhostetler, Most might hot tracks are up hill tracks kinda funny the difference from regions. If my dogs flip a track with in 100-300 yards it's a pretty decent track that they will most likely get jumped. It's the ones like 1bludawg mentioned that get me scratching the head trail to where you couldn't move one then to only get it across the road and jumped. My dogs are decent about flipping tracks but anytime your moving a old track they might try it one way to confirm which way is the right way. Back trailed cats mile and half to flip then trail the right way an Aditional mile and a half to get it jumped and caught. Them days are probably due to excellent scent conditions idk

[dhostetler]

Merlo, I should've explained it better. I meant a track crossing the road that is rigged, if the right end is going uphill my dogs seem to always go the right way. A track going below the road it is more likely that they will try it backward first. I am talking about cold strikes. A hot cat strike for me is pretty rare.

Flipping a track 1.5 miles out is pretty incredible never had that happen.

[catdog360]

D, it sounds like to me you have a dog or dogs that thinks a track always goes up hill.
Dad had a plott bitch that always started a track on whatever side she hit the road off the truck. Even if you had dogs trailing on the right side of the road and she came off the truck on the left she would go backwards. You had to physically put her the right way.

The other night I was roading about a 1/2 mile into it they acted catty but got nothing going. Went on down the road about a half and they started. The crossed the road behind me about where they acted catty. This track didn't appear warm and definitely wasn't jumped. I guess we just loaded over it.
My guess is there was a pee post or scratch where they started it that gave them enough excitement to get connected up.

[dhostetler]

catdog, I hunt my dogs as a pack and usually rig with 3 to 4 loose on top and they all come off at once to start tracks. On colder tracks in steep terrain they are more likely to try the uphill direction first before they turn it around and go downhill. I am talking about bare ground tracks that are moved a mile per hour.

It has been 2 years since I had a definite back track race. Rigged a lion on a bare road and ran it backwards 2 miles. Right above the road snow started and by the time I got them stopped the snow was 2 feet deep. Took the dogs back and made them go downhill and they treed it in 700 yards.

Dogs that take a back track on a packin are either not to smart or to independent minded for me.

[dhostetler]

This past weekend I had cold strike. The dogs took it uphill 150 yards flipped it moved it 150 yards on the downhill side and lost it. It traveled 20 yards down the road edge like a cat. The angle of the track I figured it would cross again so I walked the dogs down the road a ways then one of my young dogs jumped a moose, which screwed everything up. That is how most of my bare ground cat hunting is like minus the moose (takes a lot of patience).

[perk]

Not sure why, but seems to me sometimes dogs have to cast off the road to get a track going, I've seen it a lot of times in days where smelling wasn't the best and I was harking dogs up closer on the fox, I see the Fox leave the road holler for the dogs they break to me and can't take it out the road gotta cast a little farther to make it go, other times they leave there piled on him tighter. Was ground muddy, also seen where dogs struggle to smell Fox when they have this red clay mud on their feet from the path, once mud is off feet they run him again fine. I know Florida is more sandy than here though, but maybe something along those lines scent is stronger going back

[scrubrunner]

No mud there Perk, just dry white sand with oak scrub brush 10' tall so thick I can't describe it. Thick enough there is no walking them down the track a ways. But I agree, I have seen game several times and dogs act like nothing was there but walk them out or get them to cast out a ways and they strike it.
Shortly after this particular incident happened, I put all 6 I was hauling in the road in front of the truck and had a fox going pretty quick but it was dark by then so the scenting conditions had probably improved.
The sand in the Nat. Forest where I hunt is very poor scenting conditions, it is a very dry environment (at least by southeastern standards)I have sent a many a deer hound over the years to the gulf coast that didn't have quite enough nose to get the job done here, most of them excel there.

[Andyva]

I don't know why, but in the days I used to coon hunt, and saw a coon cross the road in front of the truck, I have seen a lot of backtracks. Some of these were dogs that I thought at the time should know how to run a coon. I mean stand and look at the coon setting up a bush on one side of the road and listen to a pack of dogs going the wrong way on the other side of the road. I've seen packs of bear dogs do the same thing, either red hot crossings or cold feeding tracks. You got to figure, you have a fifty fifty chance of getting it right.

I studied on it for quite some time, and this is what I came up with to make me feel better. I have no way of knowing if this is right or not, but it does make me feel better. That road is a different surface and holds scent different, so they have either one side or the other to choose from. If you ever study an animal crossing a road, sometimes they approach a road real slow, maybe hang in the ditch and look and listen for a little. Then when time comes for crossing they hit the road wide open and keep on going til they get back to cover on the other side. If they heard or though they heard a car coming, they might not let up for a couple hundred yards. So they had time to lay down a lot more scent on the approach side, than on the exit side. This is what a hound has to go on, a split second decision of which side of the road smells stronger, once they get going in a direction they just follow scent. Three hour old and three hour and three minute old scent can't smell much different. If they come up on it when an animal was going a steady speed and the ground was all the same, they have no problem picking it out, but something about a road crossing is bad.

[david]

Andyva, you think about some things I have never thought of and they sure make a lot of sense; and it makes me wonder why I never thought of that. I don't think you have been long on this board, but I sure appreciate your posts. Glad you showed up.