Randy Holtmeyer
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Iberia, MO
Posts: 576 |
Hey Doug sounds like you're gonna have a track dog on your hands! How much Lightfoot? I only ask because I think we can easily get caught up in these older bloodlines (I know I do) and just because a dog has "some of" something doesn't necessarily mean it's enough to mark him... The thing with track dogs is it's not encouraged today. If you've got a 6-7 month old pup that runs in their and gets wooded, he gets petted up regardless of what is in the tree! A good dog tries hard to please, so he soon realizes that "hey treeing is good" and at two you've got a dog that'll get wooded at the drop of the hat... A track dog on the other hand may not make that tree the first night in the woods, or the second, or for three months, but he'll always be active and always be trying to be right, when coon scent leaves the tree he's following it and we can't stand it so we give up on it, and all he's doing is trying to figure it out! If he has some tree sense and we can stay with him, once he gets it we've got a coondawg on our hands but most of the time we don't have the patience to hunt one to that point!!! We haul kids up and down the road starting at 5 years old to expect them to be high school superstars, they suck at 5 years old, but they learn! These dogs are the same way, sure it's instinct but they've gotta learn how to track! That's why things go so good when we turn that seasoned cooner lose, he knows where to go to find to find that track! He usually don't open at first scent but once he's got it rolling! He's also figured out what to do when that track disappears at say the waters edge, he's not gonna stand there and bawl! In my opinion these are all acquired things from many nights in the woods! Everyone wants the old blooded track dogs, but they forget these guys where hunting for the dollars and where more concerned about a 30-50 dollar coon hide, when he parked it they wanted the meat and if it was their they probably weren't concerned about speed, also without the trackers how close did they follow a dog? One that showed them a tree with a coon and went on trailing the next one, might've been worth a fortune!!!! I've seen this in my old Oney bred dogs, and in the Durbin Rambler line of walker dogs, who have a Finley River base! Not a lot of exciting 18 month old dogs, but a lot of really solid 3-4 year old dogs!
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