Kicking out rabbits and hounds jumping them

[DRamey]

Donnie, may be that the air is more still in the valleys than on the ridges? I have run in places in coal country in this area where I could smell the shale cooking in the ground. Pressure from overburden with improper compaction of waste from coal prep plants leads to the shale actually catching fire in the ground. The burned cinders from it are referred to by us as "red dog" and was once used to pave mine roads. It packed like concrete but is some sort of environmental hazard, probably due to sulfur. Some areas around here smell like sulfur, esp. after a lot of rain. Not sure about the chemical process involved but if it stinks to me I can imagine what it does to a hound. I know that isn't the case everywhere but I brought it up to say this: Everything has a smell of some sort and we don't know what is coming up out of the ground on any given day if the area has been used for any sort of industry. What about fertilizer?

[Ky. Hunter]

We had the same problem this past weekend. I saw two different rabbits cross an open cow pasture and the dogs acted like a rabbit never crossed there. That was early in the morning but later in the day they did better. They seemed to be able to run them in the thick stuff but when the rabbit hit the open you could forget about it and like stated above I know I don't have the best dogs in the world but they have brought around 25 rabbits to the gun just for me this season so I know they can run a rabbit.

[DRamey]

maybe we should stop talking about this, may be able to buy some good hounds cheap if we don't let them know that everyone is having problems! I know I have sold some really good hounds cheap based on just a couple of performances, including the hound that was in the winners cast with Buzzsaw when he championed. I have concluded from this discussion that there are times when good hounds struggle and that we may have to give credit to our hounds for working hard for very little sometimes.

[warddog]

DRamey, I will have to agree with you and you brought up one thing that I never considered and that is the old coal country. I have always lived, ran and hunted in Indiana coal country and we have tromped these old strip pits for years. As I have stated previously I have seen some pretty good dogs at times that I wouldn't give you a dime for. I have seen hit and miss running even though they were working their heart out to do so, out of the best dogs we have ever been behind. We just attribute it to a day or a place that for whatever reason they can't smell the track good enough to keep it moving and give them their praise for trying their best to do so. We don't ask the impossible out of them but only that they give it their best shot. I know one thing for sure, I can't smell a rabbit or keep it moving in the best of conditions so whatever they do is better than what I can do without them. The last couple times out they looked like crap and the tracks just blew up out of nowhere. We did however bag one rabbit each time and had we not had the dogs we wouldn't have even known there was one in that square mile. They looked like crap but got the praise for doing what they could do at that time and place.