not finishing track

[cougarhound]

some of you older houndsmen - what do you think, my black and tan walker x is only finishing 60 % of his lions he's 11 years old,is it time for retirement?

[roscosrokons]

I've found over the years that old hounddogs are kinda like older guys that like to compete in sports. In the sport world they make classes for us older guys so we can still remain competitive with each other. But in the hounddog world if you can't keep up thats just too bad. It seems like the older dogs get tired of getting beat and either quit the track and come back or wonder off and try to find something they can run on their own. I bet if you ran this dog with either real young dogs that he could outshine or just ran him by himself he would perform just fine for you. Its hard to keep your enthusiasm up when you keep getting beat. Ross

[Darvin Ecklund]

I agree 100%. I have had a few dogs that lived to be 12-14 yrs old and I have seen the same thing. The others get out in front and at times the old hound even begins to back track. Kind of sad to see that outstanding hound come back on a track or just not finish. They sure make good pup trainers if you only run one pup at a time with them so there is still plenty of scent if the pup gets out ahead of them. I will use an older dog to help train my pups or will put them down to line out an old track and dump some others in later and pick the old dog up when it crosses a road. Sure is hell getting old!