The American Beagler Forum

Whats the term dogs blowing up mean. I hear it thrown around alot but dont understand the meaning. I guess I never had a dog blow up. Please help me understand.

Things I have seen that makes me think a dog is blowing up are:
1. Retracking a rabbit backwards after it has been killed.
2. Overrunning a track by a long ways
3. Backtracking
4. Ghost tracking.

To me blowing up is you have a nice young hound that hunts good and is really doing well.Being so you run him alot!! of hours at a time and maybe with faster dogs or rougher.After every time out he is worn out and frustrated and not looking foward to the next time out.As time goes he doesnt hunt or make a effort to even run,likes being with you better than hunting or running,in other word he lost his mojo. Al

IMO, its and excuse to cover the bad outcome of a planned mating. We expect the dog to run a certain style, based on parents and pedigree. As it matures it reaches the peak of its genetics, whether those genes are line straddling close hounds or over competitive idiots. We don't know until the dog reaches maturity.

Newt wrote:IMO, its and excuse to cover the bad outcome of a planned mating. We expect the dog to run a certain style, based on parents and pedigree. As it matures it reaches the peak of its genetics, whether those genes are line straddling close hounds or over competitive idiots. We don't know until the dog reaches maturity.

I disagree....Saw a female whom two littermates finished for FC and she flat out blew sky high. She went from not being able to buy the dog to a ghost running and dog tracking idiot that ended up being given away as a pet. When she blew up it was like two wires crossed up in her brain overnight....it was a sad sight to see.

I have a male that when I was trying to finish him came roaring through the gallery like he was tied to a rabbit, the problem was there was never a rabbit. That was the last trial he ever saw because I knew the pressure of trialing week in and week out for 3 years straight had destroyed his ability...basically his brain had fried from pressure from keeping up with younger and faster dogs. Everyone at the trial said he was "blown up". However, I still have him and at 12 years old he can still pound a rabbit by himself or in a pack...backing him out of trailing allowed him to settle back down and be the dog he use to be but in reality he was too old to be competative and I should have pulled him out before he embarrased himself by trying to do too much.

I considered my male as "trialed out", it was fixed with less pressure and giving the dog a break. From what I witnessed with my own eyes, a true "blown up" dog is worthless because you have no idea what they are doing or why they are doing it....the dog just snaps and is never right again.

Just my opinion of course....I use the term "blown up" very infrequently

I agree with Ohiohntr. A breeding that doesn't turn out usually shows from the start. But if you have a young hound who does well on its own and then throw it in with a pack of competitive older dogs you run the risk of blowing the dog up if it's not ready for that kind of pressure. I believe a young dog has to have absolute confidence in its own ability before you put it down with a "just as fast or faster" older hound(s). Which is why alot of guys will introduce pups to packing up by putting them in with a good slower hound. One that doesn't put pressure on them, yet does it right.

I am gonna ride with Kelly on this.If Rabbit season was 200 days long i still dont think you could damage a dog as much as a couple years of hard trialing. I have seen some nice hounds go sky high after constant riding the roads chasing the gold.I am not sure why but after campaing a few i have witnessed it first hand, took some me time to get there feet back on the ground-So to say.My dogs never cold trailed but they wanted the front at any cost and thats a fault to me, guess they get wise to trials.Nothing like watching a dog do it right and bringing it back to the gun. .... I also think that age and breeding has a piece of the puzzle to the picture.

A service manager from ky once told me once...."Just like a Chevy, they run the best right before they blow up"

lol, You had to pick on Chevy didn't ya? lol

You know, here's another thought. Maybe this should be a whole new thread, but what has been people's experiences as far as which dogs tend to blow up more. Males or females? Because as I sit here thinking, about every dog i ever heard of blowing up the people were always talking about males. I have only ever had females and so far in my early experiences none of them have ever blown up. What do you guys see out there?

I am voting males, Turn a big pack of 9 loose that never run together they look nutier than aunt martha fruit cake.Of course that why they get picked up.

just had 20 month old female blow up dog tracking ghost trailing what happen i dont know only have six dogs she at one time was i thought going to b as good as it gets . but thats history lets face it they all don't make it . . over night them wire's got crossed . its a bad thing

I'm by no means an expert! But, my experience has been running too many dogs will cause this, as well as too competitive dogs. I try to be careful about running an unfinished dog with a large pack. I don't trial either so that makes it alot easier for me to be choosy about running a large pack of dogs!

I won't say dogs don't blow up because you may have a different idea of what blowing up is. But it has been my opinion of what most people refer to as blowing up is the fact that their dog ran better at ten months old than they do at twenty months old. this is very common and I believe that most of us have seen this time and time again. This is not a dog blowing up this is simply a dog whose full genetic markers has come into play and he is running as to how he has been fully programmed to do, the full program is now on display. You did nothing wrong and this dog will generally not return . But because he ran better as a ten month old than he does as an adult we think he blew up, he did not, he simply came unto his own, which in a lot of cases is not pretty.

Something else, I have seen quite a few good ones, I have never seen one you could blow up, as to what I believe most folks opinion of blowing up is. That is to say they will not under any circumstances be a better rabbit dog at an early age than they will be later on. Now, with that said we all know what a rabbit wise old dog will do on occassion.

Nope, when one blows you will know it....it is as ugly as it gets. No rhyme or reason....they turn into something you would not wish on your enemy.