What do you think?

[Guest]

I've been told by an old Beagler that a good jump dog is normally not a good track dog and a good track dog is usually not a good jump dog........

[jackrabbit]

my experiance has been that if a dog is a good jump dog its because it is aggressive and loves to hunt therefore once the dog ages and gets enough time in the field it will also be a good dog on track. sometimes these dogs do take a little longer to learn to calm down and concentrate. i have seen a few dogs that didnt seem to ever catch on to the fact that the bunnies are in the thick stuff, not the path or the road. they could track once they got the time in the field and experiance, but never did work good on their own. now if i only had one dog to hunt with.............. it wouldnt be the later dog....lol. but you know thats the thing about the board. we all have the same experiances with differant results and look at them form a differant angle. so im sure my experiances wont be the same as some others.

[James Carman]

I believe that jump power and tracking power are both dependent on the same nose. Both "skills" have to be bred into the dog. They are not "learned" skills. Of course, practice and exposure do make it possible for the skills to be improved on, but the breeding must already be there. I personally think that if both are not there you should look for another dog. I also believe that a dog can be taught not to hunt. A steady diet of running with another hound with superior jump skills will teach a hound that it is not necessary for him to hunt. "Ol' Blue will have one up for me before long." I once had a pair of hounds which were hunted together almost every time out. The one hound jumped almost every rabbit because the other did not hunt. Leave the jump dog at home and the second hound hunted as hard as the first. While he did not jump as many rabbits as the first, he did jump rabbits. I also believe that a pup can be taught not to hunt because the owner jumps too many rabbits for the pup while getting the pup started. In effect, the owner is the jump dog. Again, I know a man who loves to run the hounds at night. He drives along until he sees a rabbit in the headlights. He then puts the dogs on the line. In effect, the red chevy is the jump dog. He can't understand where his jump power has gone. Breed both into the dog and give him time to develop both skills and you will have a "complete" dog.