Aging tracks

[Bluedog88]

How do you choose if a track is to old? I've been dropping a dog on it and see if she takes it. It's Only my second season with a 3 year-old bluetick. She'll break if she smells cat. Last winter I started leashing her and walking the tracks if I thought they were fresh and she didn't take them 10 feet later she'll go nuts I'll cut her loose and she'll take off. What's the reasons for this?

[Mike Leonard]

Most of the time you are starting these tracks off a road or trail. for whatever reason we have all found that scent just doesn't hold well on a near roads where motor vehicles pass. At times you may have to walk these tracks a little further (couple hundred yards) to really find out what you have.

Don't me why, but it is what it is.

You are doing the right thing letting your dog be the judge of the track, just help them all you can. conditions are never equal either in different terrain, climate, elevation wind, and sun. that's what makes this all so much fun....

[Bluedog88]

So how how much time do you you spend on a track? Say your dog dosent strike on it and it looks fresh to you? A whole day? With weekends to hunt I think I'm sometimes wasting time. I know depending that a few day old track you could catch up to it.

[Mike Leonard]

Should not take that much time for you to determine if your dogs is going to be able to run it for you. the track may look a whole lot different to you after you follow it by sight a few hundred yards. It may look fresh as a daisy on the road and you get over in the sun a bit and you might find out it was made earlier than you thought.

It is hared to judge a dogs nose by just a few track because conditions and elevations, temp. sunlight, humidity and so many factors effect scenting. So the only way to know is follow it a ways if you can see it.
Heck I know a lot of hunters that will walk tracks for hours with their dogs on a lead, and only turn them loose when they start to jerk their arm out of socket. May not be your way or my way of hunting but mark my word they catch a lot of critters.

[Bluedog88]

Roading my dogs Monday. Built a strike hood and was trying it out one dog hates it rather be on the road. Anyway my oldest dog starts working the road real hard back and forth running circles but is slowly moving down the road. Waited probably a hour ready to push them down the road. Then the sun came up broke twice. Then another 20 minutes of circles. Then up a big pine covered Butte. On top of the Butte opens op full boar. Still don't know what there on.... close to 2 hour race after it's jumped. Ended up down a canyon dogs baying a 50 yard circle. My lead dog was checking all the pines climbing and sniffing till she found the one! My first dry ground cat.

[scrubrunner]

Congrats on the cat!
Bout all we can do is learn our dogs and let them tell us if it's a runnable track. You really never know, a bad track can get worse or turn red hot any minute. I wish I had a dollar for every time I've wondered if I was wasting my time on a track. I've called em off a bad track and struck hot on down the road a little ways and I've also called off one they might have jumped only to hunt the rest of the night and morning without another bark.

[Bluedog88]

Just never know.