Hound speed

[Ron Conroe]

well said dhoundman.

[Budd]

Anthony,

She found her limits yesterday. It was high temp of 3 deg F -5 overnight and 12-14" of dry powder snow. Not impressive.....would like to own a pair that could get it done in those conditions.

Dave, how often do you need such a dog? Myself I wished I had a little better running conditions all the time so I never had to look for such a hound or just stay home those 3 or 4 days when condition's get bad, but I have to run in your described bad condition's (usually worse) almost ALL WINTER. It is -40 air temp as I type this out.

[NorWester1]

Anthony,

She found her limits yesterday. It was high temp of 3 deg F -5 overnight and 12-14" of dry powder snow. She didn't like to swim in snow to find rabbit and when she found a hare it was 10 min at slow pace and she lost it never to recover it. Not impressive.....would like to own a pair that could get it done in those conditions.

Respect for keeping it real Dave!

[Bellmorekennels]

Dave,
Not sure how many days like that you have.
But here in NY, not that many. Coldest we run in is the teens.y
Snowing now, but gona be 40 deg and rainy sun and Monday.
And I have had dogs that could run hare in those conditions but when I ran them here in my conditions and terrain, they were very disruptive to my other dogs.
As they would run on tracks that were very old and not produce a rabbit.
So I could not keep.

Very hard to get that dog with extreme nose and a brain too, lol.
Most have either or, but not both.
Anthony

[mybeagles]

I've owned 2 hounds in my life (mother and son) that would have run steady in those conditions. They were good down to -15 on dry snow. Rarely get anything colder than that. Once you own two that could its hard to be completely satisfied with ones that can't.

I work 60+ hours a week....when Im not working I'm in the woods. Don't have the luxury of picking my days. I like to hunt/run in cold temps. Sparks my curiosity to run in conditions that test the dogs limits. Most hounds look good in favorable conditions and most hounds are worthless in tough conditions.

If you have one that can run well in these conditions I have 3 empty kennel spots right now that I would love to put 1 or 2!!!!!

[NorWester1]

You're gonna have to put up with some baggage when the running is good Dave to get hounds that can run in the tough stuff

Gettin off topic some but here's a real short clip from the other day. We hit -40 that morning on the stick. The radio said with the wind chill it was -51 celsius (-59 F) @ 8 am.
I didn't go out in that
We waited until it was a balmy -28 celsius (-19 F) on the stick...no idea what the wind added to it at that point but it wasn't the most pleasant to be standing around in.

A loss is made and my old Boomer dog picks it up....it will sound like he is cold trailing but as you can watch the hare go by, clearly it's a hot track going cold in a hurry and there isn't much room for error
This old dog has years of experience under his belt and as far as winter running goes there isn't much he hasn't run in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQerlBB6 ... MmG2Xx5OoQ

[mybeagles]

Put me on the list for two just like Boomer!!

[Ron Conroe]

very nice work by ole boomer, there is a lot of people that don't realize how much nose and brains it takes to run in them kind of conditions. that was some very nice hound work right there. great video.

[mn_beagleboy]

If this was a field trial, boomer would won easily. He ran through the line. You have a nice dog there.

Sao

[mybeagles]

You're gonna have to put up with some baggage when the running is good Dave to get hounds that can run in the tough stuff

Does Boomer have "a lot of baggage"? A little cold trailing before jump or some extra barks don't bother me at all. I wouldn't want a dog getting hung up on cold trail but I also know some of the cold trailing dogs jump most of the rabbits.

[NorWester1]

Thanks for the nice words on Boomer guys.
The baggage appears usually only when the scenting is ideal, which around here isn't often even when it isn't winter. Some cold tracking, but not much as I tend to hit the woods mid day usually. You'll get some re-running in the old trench, likely to happen if the hare is intent on running small loops and I've seen him take the back track as well, but again, not very often unless the scenting is really good.

However, and this may seem ridiculous to some but Boomer doesn't have the strongest nose I've seen or have even now. There are a few hounds I have with more raw talent (nose power) than him, they just don't have his experience...yet or they're just too old to run now.
Of the young hounds they will do all of the things (baggage) I mentioned at times....but they will learn with experience how to direct that raw talent......hopefully. A good example of this would be my Stitch male. I'm sure, right to the last man on this forum (with the exception of maybe one or two guys)......would have culled Stitch....hell, I came close. He's carries a big gun so to speak but handles it like a 12 yr old driving on a nascar track....so he looked like an idiot his first winter.
BUT...if you want hounds that can run in sh*t conditions you gotta think outside the box a little and be prepared to flirt with disaster so to speak.
Stitch's mom is probably the best snow,tough winter, appocolypse is here type hound I've seen. His sire was a real good one too.....so I'm patient.
But all those bent on breeding dogs with "brains"....would have no use for such a hound, and truthfully, why would you?

However....if you find yourself getting stone walled every winter and consistently wishing you could run on your schedule not when your dogs decide you can then maybe it might require an approach that is a little different .