Tuff time running on snow

Joeyman · Post by **Joeyman** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:17 pm

We had some snow here in missouri over the weekend. So I thought oh yeah this is going to be fun. Well my dogs couldn't run a rabbit on snow even if their lives depended on it. The snow was like powder kind of like sand. We saw a ton of rabbits tracks everywhere, fresh rabbit dropping and yellow snow. So rabbits had been there but no where to be found. We finally jumped one up walking through the brush I called the dogs over and nothing. One of my female's kind of was getting the hang of it but she barely opened just tracking a bit. One of my other dogs didn't even open once. I don't get it.

SilverZuk · Post by **SilverZuk** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:32 pm

It depends on the snow.
If it is wet snow, they should pound a rabbit.
Certain dry powder snows will make dogs look stupid.

Crusted snow that was melting snow that froze again is like running on asphalt.

yellowdog · Post by **yellowdog** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:36 pm

dont feel bad joey ...i ran yesterday and it was like running on asphalt the best of my hounds looked stupid ...i had one race that lasted maybe 10 minutes...once this starts to melt things will get better and they will pound...good luck

Joeyman · Post by **Joeyman** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:45 pm

Yeah my dogs looked stupid too like they didn't even know what a rabbit was. Last week when it was 65 degrees out they pounded rabbits like you won't believe. We will be back at them once this snow melts.

Emery · Post by **Emery** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 2:30 pm

Joey, your dogs have to learn to run rabbits on snow, almost like starting over again. Give them more time and more experience running on snow and they will adapt to the conditions. That being said, powdery snow is tuff to run on anyway. The rabbit goes through, the powder falls on their track and covers up scent... you get the picture. Temps in the 20's and wet snow seem to be the best for running on snow.

Emery

crewchf · Post by **crewchf** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 3:22 pm

One of these days we're a gonna get some snow down here in Ole Ga,, then I'll let ya know if my bunch can run in it!!!

Crew Chief

Del · Post by **Del** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 5:33 pm

Put your hand in the snow as to make a hand print if the snow sticks to your hand it is probly sticking to the rabbits feet also . The running won't be very good.

Buckeye Bob · Post by **Buckeye Bob** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 5:47 pm

Try just one dog....if you have more than one they can be milling around in a loss and cover up all the tracks.A good snow dog will have to learn how to literally walk the line...not pretty but something they HAVE to do sometimes to circle the rabbit.Snow on the ground takes scenting to a whole differant level.The condition of the existing snow;powder,granulated,frozen,melting,old snow with a hard frost.The current weather;rising or falling barometer,rising or falling temperature,sunny or cloudy.I like to get young dogs on snow early to get them experiance....seems that the older they are with no snow experiance the harder it is for them to learn.I am not convinced that being a good snow dog is just nose but also brains AND early experiance.Good luck with it and now you know what us yankees mean when we say "snowdog"

.Its 20 degrees here tonight with our first good snow and I am taking mine out to see how bad they will look.

BrewerMo · Post by **BrewerMo** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 6:56 pm

Where we were running most everything was ice. We got about 2.5 to 3'' of Ice and not much snow here.

Joeyman · Post by **Joeyman** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 9:15 am

Buckeye Bob wrote:Try just one dog....if you have more than one they can be milling around in a loss and cover up all the tracks.A good snow dog will have to learn how to literally walk the line...not pretty but something they HAVE to do sometimes to circle the rabbit.Snow on the ground takes scenting to a whole differant level.The condition of the existing snow;powder,granulated,frozen,melting,old snow with a hard frost.The current weather;rising or falling barometer,rising or falling temperature,sunny or cloudy.I like to get young dogs on snow early to get them experiance....seems that the older they are with no snow experiance the harder it is for them to learn.I am not convinced that being a good snow dog is just nose but also brains AND early experiance.Good luck with it and now you know what us yankees mean when we say "snowdog" .Its 20 degrees here tonight with our first good snow and I am taking mine out to see how bad they will look.

!!Wow!! I never thought of it that way.

SilverZuk · Post by **SilverZuk** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 9:50 am

I agree with Buckey Bob.
I have seen my dogs look like brace hounds walking a track on fresh powder. I was glad to see they were still working the track.
At times we were walking the track out ahead of the dogs, jump the rabbit and put the dogs on it. We didn't kill any rabbits, but my dogs showed they had enough brains not to out run their noses.

BradWV · Post by **BradWV** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 5:28 pm

Brains, nose & experience.

Brains: Must have enough brains to know to slow down and not let their feet out run their nose.

Nose: Big nose...you know, the dog that everyone bitches about in the summer that cold trails for 15 minutes before they jump the rabbit.

Experience: Practice makes perfect. I run on snow for the better part of the winter. The dogs always look better at the end of the season v/s the first part (on snow)

I don't know if this falls under brains and/or experience, but a good snow dog WILL run tracks by sight. Laugh if you want but it is fact. If you don't believe it, come on up this winter and I will show you.

NorWester · Post by **NorWester** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 11:33 pm

BradWV wrote:Brains, nose & experience.

Brains: Must have enough brains to know to slow down and not let their feet out run their nose.

Nose: Big nose...you know, the dog that everyone bitches about in the summer that cold trails for 15 minutes before they jump the rabbit.

Experience: Practice makes perfect. I run on snow for the better part of the winter. The dogs always look better at the end of the season v/s the first part (on snow)

I don't know if this falls under brains and/or experience, but a good snow dog WILL run tracks by sight. Laugh if you want but it is fact. If you don't believe it, come on up this winter and I will show you.

Brad's got'er right in my opinion......especially the part about the big nose and cold tracking. I laugh

everytime I hear about a "SNOWHOUND" that never ever cold tracks ....must be a snowhound in Florida

you know, they get a bit of snow for a week out of the year and their dog does well so he must be a snowhound extrordinaire

TomMN · Post by **TomMN** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 2:52 am

I've never seen a dog worth 10 cents that didn't run tracks by sight in the snow. Even puppies that have never run a rabbit soon learn to associate those holes in the snow with scent of some kind. Heck, even I can run rabbits on good snow. It's when the snow is old, hard and tracked up that you find out if you are feeding rabbit dogs or not.

NorWester · Post by **NorWester** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 8:27 am

TomMN wrote, "Heck, even I can run rabbits on good snow." .........................

What kind of foot ya got Tom? Maybe you'd make a good trial dog