Rip
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Morrison TN
Posts: 4927 |
I definately don't agree that chop mouth dogs are faster than bawl mouth dogs.
I agree that a dog getting treed first is usually pretty quick about something. Just may not be tracking LOL. In thin coon it's prolly tracking. In thick coon it may just be tree checkin. It's going to be difficult to judge track speed just based on trees made. You don't nessissarily have to track a lick to tree a whole mess of coons in Indiana. It's also hard to judge track speed if the dogs ain't together. One runnin a hot track vs one runnin a cold one. One runnin a grown coon, one runnin a kit that pops up the first bush it comes to. I think you need to have other dogs to judge it against.
And furthermore, I am of the opinion that true track speed is extremely rare (at least what I call fast).
If you have ever had a truly fast track dog you will understand what I am talking about. You may be like me and spend the rest of your life judging every dog against that dog. A truly fast track dog will catch coon on the ground with some regularity. They will run tracks so quickly that people that don't know them will think they are on a different track than the other dogs, only to have those dogs trail in and tree with them 5 minutes later. They will be accused of running a deer cause they run off and leave everything else so bad only to see those others come in straggling on that same track after you have already went to the tree and seen the coon. They make ordinary dogs look slow.
I had one of those, she was a little bitty 35-40 pound black dog that averaged catching about 2 coon every month or two on the ground. Open track dog, squall/bawl mouth. She caught them in cornfields, open woods, rivers, creeks, mountains wherever. She caught them in NC, TN, KY, GA, and Illinois (Autumn Oaks she caught 2 on the ground that year). She was a true speed deamon. I have her daughter, and she's quick, but her momma was in a whole different league. Never saw a chop mouth dog that could keep up with her, but I will likely never own another dog as fast as her in my life either.
I guess what I am saying is track speed is an individual trait, that dogs daughter is a better all around coondog than her momma was, but even though she is better all around she doesn't have track speed like she did. Sure she's quick. She still gets her share of first trees even at the age of 11, she caught one on the ground when she was 9 in front of a 2 year old nice dog, but she isn't the speed deamon her mother was.
The fast dog I am talking about(and will likely talk about until I die myself) didn't look like a greyhound, didn't have long legs, was a small dog and just didn't look like the speed deamon she was and was squall/bawl on track. None of that mattered cause she wanted to catch whatever she was after and she even cold trailed with her head up (if it was cold she would put her head down from time to time but most of the time her head was up, not straight up, kinda about knee high or so).
So no I don't think you can simplify it as saying "this track bark is faster" or "this breed is faster" or "this build is faster" cause alot of it is in the desire to catch of the individual dog.
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Last edited by Rip on 07-25-2011 at 01:01 PM
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