[ Post a Response | Ask Cheryl Carlson ]
Posted by Tim Lynam
on 10/17/2008, 7:46 pm, in reply to "Rats, Cause and Effect, and Scent? (A question for Cheryl)"
Tim Lynam
Hi Chris!
I have had similar observations.
Back in the days of high Raccoon fur prices, I used to hunt with people from around the USA. I also guided hunting competitions which entailed taking a group of 3 hunters out to locations of my choosing and having them "dump out" their dogs. You tend to have some interesting conversations while you wait for the dogs to strike on the scent and tree. These people were into fur hunting for the money. Selling proven pups were a by product of the business. That made them pretty serious! (By the way, the woods are a different place in the dark of night!)
Over time I got to know and was trusted by a few "Big Time" Championship Blue Tic Hound people. I guess putting them on enough 'coon to win the competition helped... The first criteria all of them used for culling was obvious physical defects. 4 of them, who all had World Champion status dogs, tested their litters at 4 to 6 weeks of age. In a nutshell, they live trapped a wild 'coon, put it in a net and dragged it on the ground 50 or so feet, hung it up on a tree branch about 8 feet off the ground and left it alone for 1 hour. A pup was brought out and dropped 5 feet from the end of the track. The pup was expected to find the track, run it to the hanging 'coon and at least look up at it. Some I witnessed even started to bawl, striking tree'd. If the pup didn't immediately find the scent and run the track etc. it was culled. No, I'm not kidding! These people took wind, the scent of the person dragging the 'coon, laying separate tracks for each pup and many other factors into consideration for this test. They were pretty scientific about it. In the end, they did seem to have the best hunters, hands down. Intrinsic evidence at best, plain interesting at the least.
I, too, am interested in Cheryl's input on this Chris. We're sure to get that "Learn something new everyday" thing out of the way for at least a week!
Tim
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