I didn’t take Otis or Shelby out yesterday to where I shot the hog because I didn’t want them to even attempt to track it and me have to tell them no. We did go out there this morning though to let them run around and play. They also like to scent check everything in the field each morning to inspect what went on the night before. I look at it as just good practice allowing them to use their nose to gather input…..I figure it’s just like letting them practice using a tool. There’s deer, coons, possums, armadillos, coyotes,…..all kinds of stuff that comes through at night. Apparently now we can add hogs to the list.
Anyways, getting on with what I was gonna say…..it’s been 38 hrs now since I shot the hog and I watched both dogs throw on the brakes and hit on the area where the hog had laid. I don’t know if they could have really tracked it that old but it does give me a better idea of how good both noses are.... Shelby’s nose especially. I knew Otis was supposed to have a good hound nose….and he’s proving it to be true…… but I was afraid Shelby was just gonna be a real hot nosed dog with a lot of drive. I believe she’s gonna be ok though. I see here hitting on old scents enough that I think she's got plenty of nose power to run old tracks.
Someone will inevitably call or come on here before the season is over with a deer that they shot Saturday and it’s now Sunday night or Monday morning and they decide they want to call for a dog. Before the season is over I’d like to try to run Otis on one of these tracks to challenge him and really just to see if he can do it. It's probably gonna have to rain first before we could try something like that. I'd like to start trying some though so I'll better know the limitations of what we can do when folks call.
