What is cosiderered a good nose?

[Hondo]

What is considered a good nose? What are the scenting ranges for the various hunting breeds in general?

Do all pointing breeds strive for 100 yard noses? Is that what a hunter/breeder would strive for in their dogs? How about retrievers? I own a labrador retriever and I am not sure what is considered a good nose for a lab?

-Hondo

[Hotpepper]

A good nose is just that, "A GOOD NOSE", it is conditional and cerecumstanial. Not seen one with a 100 yd nose but seen a lot of reqally good noses used in tough circumstances

Pepper

[orbirdhunter]

That is a interesting question. I think that any well bred bird dog comes equiped with a good nose....I think the difference is how to they learn to use their nose.

[ACooper]

That is a interesting question. I think that any well bred bird dog comes equiped with a good nose....I think the difference is how to they learn to use their nose.

+1

[Trekmoor]

I'm not sure of my ground on this one but I often wonder since humans have varying degrees of eyesight and many need spectacles couldn't the same kind of thing be true of dogs noses ? I don't think all dogs noses are born equal.

Bill T.

[ranmcc]

I was wild bird hunting with a friend of mine who got a female setter 12 years ago from me. We were hunting the right side of a harvested soybean field when she took a left turn and ran 200 yrds across the field and pointed along the left edge. Now that dog has the best nose I have ever seen. She has shown her prowess many times before. Never lets a bird get by her. 13 years old this year. Don't know what we are going to do without her.

[Greg Jennings]

A good nose is a relative thing. If they make sent when other dogs do not, they have a better nose. If they have a better nose than a good number of dogs, they have a good nose.

[mcbosco]

A 'good nose' is part physical and part behavioral, which is relative. A Bloodhound has the best nose physically, but for a hunter it is worthless. Because all dogs possess good noses, how it is used, the behavioral-side, is most important.

[Oscar]

I'm not sure of my ground on this one but I often wonder since humans have varying degrees of eyesight and many need spectacles couldn't the same kind of thing be true of dogs noses ? I don't think all dogs noses are born equal.

Bill T.

I think same

[ezzy333]

I to think there is a difference but I am also sure that each dog reacts differently to scent, ssooooooooooooooo the real question is does a dog have a poor nose or just doesn't react like the dog we say has a good nose.

I doubt there is much difference in nose if they are healthy since they are all given the same equipment to smell with.

Ezzy

[northern cajun]

I to think there is a difference but I am also sure that each dog reacts differently to scent, ssooooooooooooooo the real question is does a dog have a poor nose or just doesn't react like the dog we say has a good nose.

I doubt there is much difference in nose if they are healthy since they are all given the same equipment to smell with.

Ezzy

OK Ezzy I rarely disagree with you but they are not ALL given the same equipment to start with. I will give you they all have noses and those noses work. However, that analogy is like saying ok they all have a lungs, a heart, legs etc they should be able to run the same speed stamina etc.

I think I tend to agree with you more on how it is used as well but I do believe that dogs have a gradient of scenting ability from poor to outstanding. I have seen too many tracks etc run by dogs to not see differences in (you choose) a good nose or the apply that sense or both.

Just think of it like a bell curve you got the meat of it but the ends of the distribution are the laggards and the stars of the nose world.

Just my 2 cents

[Wagonmaster]

This is a great subject and I don't think we have even begun to understand it.

I have seen a 100 yd. nose, dog went on point in perfect morning prairie conditions and birds raised that far away. Not running birds either.

But I don't think range alone explains it. We used to hunt quail with that same dog, and he was a very good quail dog. But one year a friend had his dog get hurt so he picked up a 12 year old, nondescript, castaway shorthair named Pete. Pete was in a class of his own on quail. At the time, I was hunting with a fella who was a pro and had quite a few good dogs, including dogs that have been talked up here on the boards. But Pete could out-quail-hunt all of them. The hundred yard nose dog found alot of quail for us, I don't think Pete could find anything at a hundred yards, but nothing matched Pete on quail.

Some dogs seem to have a naturally good nose for tracking. I love a good tracker. Have seen dogs track wounded running roosters for a quarter mile, can't see the bird, just nose to the ground running the track. Then at the end bird goes in the air, dog goes in the air, dog comes down with the bird and brings it back.

I have seen NAVHDA dogs track where ducks swam across a pond, no vegetation, and turn for turn follow the track on the water, even in a slight breeze.

The great noses I have seen have all had special talents. Like one singer is a tenor and another is a baritone, one sings rock and another opera. Noses are like that, not all the same. Singers with great voices don't ever sound bad no matter what kind of music they are singing, but their voice and talent is more suited to one kind than another. Same with noses, if a dog has a great nose it can do alot of things with it, but most great noses will have a few special talents, and when you see the dog pluck that kind of talent out of its genetic bag, it just sort of makes your hair stand on end.

[nikegundog]

Chief Justice Potter in his porn decision said: it is hard to define,"but I know it when I see it". I think the same thing applies here. Running flushers you'll notice that if you have a good dog at two years of age, you'll have a great dog at 6 years. They're nose didn't get better they just found out how to use it, some never figure it out.

[SetterNut]

There is no doubt in my mined that some dogs have better "noses" than other dogs.

There have been many times that you will see one dog miss a bird and another come by and find it. Conditions in the field have something to do with it, as does the dogs experience. But some dog will find birds on days wihen others will not.

Don't know that I have ever seen a dog point a bird at 100 yards. But I have at 30 - 40 yards.