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I believe its a little of both, some dogs have it and some dogs don't, but also some dogs have learned what to do and some have not

I have not had any good hound, but do have cur dogs that suit me fine. I have also been wondering this as of late and am glad you asked this question.

I feel that game cameras are a good tool to judge a dogs nose by. Myself and a group of friends hunted together earlier this year and first drop of the morning was on a heavy Hog track at a feeder that had a camera at it. I took a cur dog of mine down from the truck and put him in the track, patted his head and told him "good boy, look for him" he left out and bayed that boar hog in his bed. We continued the hunt and cuaght quite a few other good boars and sows that day behind much better dogs than he.

Around lunch time, one of the older gents went and collected SIM cards, the track I had put that dog down in was layed @ 11 pm the previous night, that's about 7 hours. After learning this, I was happy, but I noticed that none of the other guys thought much of it. (We all have similar bred dogs from close related lines) this has continued to stick in my head as the majority of curs in the close held lines I like are better than mine.


I say all that to say, I always used to assume a generic, off the shelf hound had a far colder nose than the curs I love but the more I see, the more I believe the average hound in my parts is a 3 hour dog. In my opinion, all dogs noses are incredible, but its the brain that makes the difference.
There are cocker spaniel pound pups who are trained to sniff out cancer in humans, that's why I say all their noses are incredible. When I've seen a few curs put in a rootin and simply trot out and bay the hog that good hounds had been grinding for 40 minutes, well that's where I gather its the brain that makes the difference.

I've definitely seen on cold tracks where dogs stuck there noses in the track and couldn't get enough scent to follow it. They know why they are out of the box, and they know they need to stick their nose in the depressions to find scent, but they can't get enough to follow it. Then the "cold nosed" dog sticks his nose in the track, snorts, goes to the next one and the next one, lets out an occasional cold trailing bawl and takes it one track at a time till it warms up. The other dogs know what they are doing and want it bad, but can't get enough scent. To me that's the difference. Some very smart dogs can have less nose. Just my experience.

My definition of a cold nose dog is a dog that can get a track started and the animal gets treed at the end. I have seen "cold nosed" dogs that will open on very cold tracks but can't move the track.

I definetily believe that it takes good breeding to get a cold nosed hound but an equal requirement is brains and a desire to catch it. With age a hound can learn to move a track by knowing where to go for the next potential scent. I hate cold nosed hounds that get hung up on and can't figure out how to get it out of there. What I consider a good cold nosed race if you have a hound that will open up every 300 yards or so in the first 2 miles of a race and it is caught.

There are to many variations in scent conditions to compare age of tracks. I have seen cougar tracks under the right snow conditions runnable up to week. I have also seen 2 hour old bear tracks not runnable.

I agree with lot’s that have been posted. In the end like Dhostetlers, mentioned all that matters is the game is treed or bayed. If they open there mouth, I expect them to beat feet and do whatever it takes to catch the game. I like the ones that keep their mouth shut, or a short bawl to let there buddies know, while they are gaining ground and surprise the game with furry. If you test a litter of pups on a weekly basis, you can tell which one has the coldest nose and more often than not he or she is the smartest. I have seen where long drags were made and one pup, would cut off the trail and go straight to the tree and blow the leaves off. So to me a cold nose means results, because without results, nothing else matters.
They are incredible.
JTG

I've been wondering to . Opening day for bear me and a feller
I hunt with watched a sow and a cub cross the road .We sat on there tracks to make sure the other hunters didn't turn on it . Remember now this thing crossed 8ish am . So trucks passed by with dogs rigging and on the rig . Not a one outta all theses trucks rigged this thing just a hour or maybe more old ? But the same guys have struck tracks close to 12-14 old . Maybe it had something to do with the area or wind or something

Well We talked about that this mornin huntin. We've been sittin there talkin for 10 minutes and move and had a blow the top of the box strike 20 yards down the road that the other dogs never hit. It's all in the wind there.