Barney Is Getting There
The pup is 8 months old now and starting to put things together. I had him out this morning to the pine plantations after an inch or two of fresh snow during the night. There is one ten acre stand isolated from the rest by a few hundred yards of hardwoods on all sides. I figured that any hares that are jumped would stay in there and not head cross-country to any of the other stands. We were only 50 yards down one of the rows when I saw a set of fresh tracks that busted out from under one of the trees. Barney put his nose in them and was off to the races straight down the line of tracks. He run it out a ways and had turned when he lost it somehow. The next one he ran 1 & 1/2 circles around me before he lost it. I only saw a flash of the hare once when it jumped across between rows. The third and last one he ran out and turned it back only a couple rows over from me. The hare was further ahead of him than I expected. Because I moved over a couple rows and it busted me. It was sitting between a couple of trees looking and listening back at the dog. Barney ran it past there and lost it out about a hundred yards. The pup did pretty good. But he never gave voice once. The only way I could follow the chase was by his bell, and seeing flashes of him through the trees now & then. Maybe this means he'll have a tight mouth and not babble on cold track? Who knows. I'm sure happy with his progress to this point though.

Sounds like a great start!

My dog Sadie is also about 8 months old, she too is closed mouth, can't seem to get the hang of opening up when she is on a trail of something.... Any pointers?

Just keep getting them on rabbits.

keepem running they may not beable to out run beagle but i have seen them outsmart them severle times