My dogs noses seemed to have soured

[Engstfeld]

I have a brace of gyps, litter mates. They're about 4 years old now. They took to hunting fairly quickly and with a lot less work than I thought it was going to take. The first couple of years they did great. One of them even retrieved a rabbit I'd winged and had run off into the marsh (we hunt in coastal Louisiana).

Then we got hit with yet another hurricane (Ike) that flooded our family property where we hunt. Which really did a number on the rabbit population, that with an infestation of coyotes that were around before the storm. We tried hunting that year some, but I never saw any sign and just figured there were no rabbits or few.

This year I know we've had rabbits because I see the sign and have jumped some while hunting with the dogs. The problem is they can't seem to get on line, at least not for very long. They'll start mouthing for about 30 seconds, maybe a minute and then they'll stop....I don't think they're doing a very good job of checking anymore. They're plenty eager to get into the briars and underbrush, but just aren't getting the scent. And they seem to work an area way too quickly.

It's frustrating.

[ddetar00]

Gotta get back in shape.... consider it spring training
They still remember what to do.... just rusty on how to do it... they will come around.