The American Beagler Forum

I have a 4 yr old dog who until yesterday had never run on snow. I have to admit he did not do very well could not keep line going. Runs great on ground. Will he get better with running time on snow or should I look for another dog.

I wouldnt give up after a first time with a 4 year old. but if he never improves , some dogs just dont have the nose

Running on snow depends a lot on the condition of snow your on just like the condition of the ground you are on. May have just been a bad day.

some dogs have it on the snow and some dont. your hounds nose has more to do with it than anything. i would probably be looking for a bloodline that is bread for this. your greenbay bloodline is killer on this stuff. we had a ice strom about 2 weeks ago took my shooter male out with my other hounds and he dominated all day long. it just depends on what your really looking for. go out and watch some different hoounds that are capable of running on this kind of enviroment to see if you like em or not.

Snowhounds arent born der made!! Keep running ur dog three ta four days a week on da snow in all da dog tracks don't move ur dogs when it gets all tracked up leave dem in da mess and make dem figure da track out!! Hell any dog can run on snow wid a fresh track in front of der face but most fall flat on der face when da hare continues ta run in his same tracks!! Experience is everyting when it comes ta running on snow from sun up ta sun down in da same bush all day!! JMO

Harry Snow Jr.

All this talk of how hard snow is to run in...I'll take snow and cold all day every day. Bare frozen ground is alot tougher to run on. Hunting in the snow is what I look forward to. Snow dog? I dont even know what the hell that means. A dog will either run the track you put it on or it wont. Not really sure why it matter if the game runs in the same bush up and down its own tracks all day, how does snow affect that? Is the dog running with its eyes or its nose....it's no different than running it's own track on bare ground the game is still laying down scent and a smart dog will follow the fresher scent. People over analyze everything with their dogs, and guys from up north and down south like to have a pissing match over whats what. Whats some people fail to mention is that depending on how wet the snow is, it can be the best running you could ask for regardless of how cold it is. I remember a hunt here two years ago we had 17 inches of snow here it was right around the 2-5 degree mark all day. We had a coyote up and running right at daylight and spotted another at 8am. We got the first one killed at noon and took our hounds over to the track of the one we spotted at 8. It was right at 4.5hrs when we cut the track and turned the dogs loose, they ran it like it was a hot track went through a 1 mile section before they jumped it. The right snow can be the best smelling you could ever ask for. I'll take snow all day every day ove bare frozen ground.