Get Yer Scent Hounds Right Here!

My beagle will never get her cgc because she is totally unreliable with her recall. Everything else she would pass except that and the part about stay while I leave the room. If a good scent blows by during testing, she is out of there!

Well, I'm in love with my Basset Hounds, but that's the only part of your post I can reply to...LOL!  Obedience is not something they are much interested in!  More like "I'll do what I want, when I want, if I want."  But I never tried, either!

I wouldn't worry about being at the bottom of the class.  You have obviously worked hard with your dog, and to be commended for it!

Ahhh recall. In the completely artificial (and squirrell-free) setting of the training center, Marlowe's recall should be fine. Out in a big small-animal-filled field? Yeah, not so much! I'm also concerned about the him being left with someone art because Marlowe, well, he doesn't like me to leave. He barks, predictably. []
 
But he walks on loosh leash, is calm around other dogs and will let anyone touch him without moving a muscle, so I'm sure he'll do fine on his test. But he only sits 75% of the time that you ask him to.
 
There are actual people out there who run competitive obedience with their coonhounds! Not many, but apparently it can be done. I think I'd fall over dead if I ever actually got to see someone doing that!

I absolutely adore coonhounds.  What sort of hound is yours?  He looks like a Black and Tan, but he doesn't have to big long ears.  You don't see that many hounds around here, but there have been a couple at the humane society.  Recall?  What is this recall you speak of?  lol.  I don't think I've ever seen a hound last more than a minute offleash.  I've heard of hounds doing obedience, but I've never seen one.  Then again, I never though Jack Russels could do obedience until I saw one in a comp.

There used to be a person on here who had a Basset that did agility.  It can be done...not gonna say they excel...LOL!

ORIGINAL: fuzzdomestic

I absolutely adore coonhounds.  What sort of hound is yours?  He looks like a Black and Tan, but he doesn't have to big long ears. 

 
Marlowe's a rescued ure black & tan (I even managed to figure out what breeder he came from originally from the tattoos in his ears). His ears are plenty long, believe me! I'm constantly having to clean the bottoms of them off because they get in his water and food and just generally drag around in the dirt when he's playing. Conrad's a mix, bloodhound and some other stuff.
 
I have to say that Marlowe frequently impresses me with his recall. I don't let him off leash anywhere but the dog park, which is mostly fenced in. I recall him when I see him sniffing around the areas where there aren't fence and 95% of the time he comes running right back. It's that other 5% that is so irksom. The dog park is in a huge public park, so if he leaves, there are miles of forest to run around in and the fact that he comes back at all in a few minutes (I think the longest he's left and not come back is about 10 minutes) is still pretty cool.  Of course, on those few instances, Conrad sees Marlowe leave and has to go with him so now I've got two dogs to coax back. I like to think that Conrad is going to try to get Marlowe to come back, but I'm sure it's much more of a, "Hey, is that a scent trail you've found? Might I join you?" type of situation.

My favorite part about the scent hounds are their BIG floppy ears and lots of extra skin folds.[] I have only had sighthounds, but I am a big fan of all hounds!

I did obedience with my Basset (she's since passed on). The trick was convincing her that doing repetitive exercises was fun. (she loved the clicker) Once we got that down, everything else was a snap. She learned 'leave it' early on, so that helped in teaching her to ignore scents.  She was a ham though, and loved to get people to laugh, so while she'd do great in practice, in trials, with all those new people to impress, ..well..it was interesting
 
She did earn her C.D and was trained through Open. However, she developed arthritis, so I didn't want to continue to jump her. She still enjoyed doing the exercises at home..fetching the remote was her favorite[]

I love the hounds of all types.  Right now I have the best of both:  The pharaoh has the traits of being both sight and scent as well as a hearing hound.  I'll take a hound over any other dog breed though.  They're GREAT!!!

Hounds are definately my choice as well - Dodger is a Foxhound, we got his CGN when he was 17 months old, he has taken the highest OB and agility courses in our area and doesn't fit the typical hound stereotypes.   Well he does love to hunt and he is very high energy but like Marlowe, has great recall - he also has a very intense drive to retrieve (he loves his dumbell)[]... 
 
I think owning and training a hound makes you a better trainer/handler because keeping them motivated and focused is so challenging. 
 
 

We fostered a Walker Hound. For us the trick was an hour of off leash running every morning and every evening. Then he was able and willing to learn.

Gotta say, Marlowe rocked the house at CGC class last night! The weird thing is that he whined in the car on the way there and home and he was clearly feeling a little stressed during the last third of class. I have no idea what that was about, but it didn't seem to affect his performance and it didn't get to the point where we had to stop.  But we're doing stuff he's naturally good at: ignoring other people and dogs. He simply doesn't really care that much.
 
I've found with him, though, that he's just really intense. He has a hard time relaxing unless we're at home and he's on one of his favorite spots. During class, our instructor frequently has us give the dogs breaks, but Marlowe really doesn't get it. The other dogs take a load off and lay down and snooze for a few minutes, but Marlowe just stands in front of me staring at me, like, "What's next mommy?" I wonder if that's his past as a working dog coming out.

I have to agree with Marty. I have three Basset hounds and I love them but they also have no interest in obdience. I am also from Georgia.

Hounds definitely have their moods, and the scent hounds seem to be very easily distracted by the passing whiff of vermin.   I have never had a scent hound that I totally felt comfortable with off leash-always in the back of the mind that they will hunt above all else, and they are as fast as lightning too.  I have noticed that sight hounds don't seem to bolt as easily, but they intently observe-very intently, and usually that is a cue to us owner types that the game might be afoot real soon.  We used to refer to our failures in obedience competition as passive non-compliance, because for no apparent reason to us human types, the dog would simply decide that today was not the day for winning an obedience title-they had other things to do and see and smell.  One things that hounds teach is patience and a sense of humor, you can't take yourself or them too seriously