The American Beagler Forum

I went out today with a slight dusting of snow and about 18 degrees. The dogs could jump rabbits but couldn't run them more than a 100 yds. After it warmed up some this afternoon, they run great. We had two killed and had to call the dogs off after about 35 to 40 min run to go pick my girls from school. All in all a decent day after snow started melting. Thanks for reading.

Jamey

Its always nice to learn they can perform better than you thought!

ive found on bad days one dog does better than a pack

I find mine do better the more they run on what ever conditions are tough for the sesason. It takes a time or two for them to get dialed into the cold and snow but they adjust if you can keep running them on it.

that is the problem with ky we dont have the same weather more than 2 days in a row very often.

In the snow you better have a pack that can gear down. Some guys may not admit to it but most of us have that dog that puts a little heat on the pack. When conditions are not good fill that dogs bowl up with food and leave him in the kennel. An experienced "snow" dog will look for that track in the snow, run to it, bury his nose to get the scent and move to the next.

i have been fortunate to be running a line that was bred for snow. and they excell when snow is on the ground. but when i come down to your neck of the woods in summer when the bryers and hot weather is on my dogs dont fair so well unless i get down there for a 2 weeks pryer to the trial and run my hounds to get use to the conditions . they do better . iam sure if you had snow for a week or two they would do better every time out. my dogs when provided time to get use to the environment do better. but still have a hard time taking home the win. i did come down to ohio one hunt it was snowing and blowing and won . witch is what my dogs are use to. i live in mi. so snow is what i have to run in . if i lived in the south id probily change my line to what runs better for the conditions.

snowdogs

This is a 7 month old pup running on snow for the first time. When they are bred for tough conditions it just comes easier to them.....DH