I will now give my reasons for this statement. The first question that you have to ask yourself is why do you hunt, if the if the answer is just for sport to hear the "lavway" music of hounds in full cry and in no way is the bagging of game of any importance, then by all means use hounds. The lavway of my CTs in full chase of game is appreciated and much loved but when I go afield to hunt I am looking forward to the bag at the end of the chase. Right there that sets a benchmark that all my hunting dogs must meet, that being, that they must consistently and quickly bring down or penn game without a long drawn out chase. The chase should be as short as possible because for reasons that are obvious to any houndsman, the longer the chase the greater the chance of the dogs losing their quarry. I am not saying that some hounds cannot bring their quarry to bay on their own, especially the long legged breeds. But over the centuries since the introduction of the gun most scent hounds have been bred to be slower, so as not to push the game to hard and allow the hunter to position himself for a shot. Evidence of this is shown by the various French Basset hounds and the various Daschbrackes from Switzerland, Austria and Germany, that were only developed after the popular adoption of guns in hunting.
So the CT possesses speed, this being the first attribute I deem necessary in a hunting dog. I should note that this is exceedingly important to me as I do not hunt with a gun, so my dogs must be as fast as a bullet and just as deadly.
The sense of smell. This is very important in a scent hound and that is what a CT is, as in its used to pursue game by scent in the dense jungles of South America. Now a dog can have too much or too little "nose" to be used as a hunting scenthound used to catch meat for the pot. My reasoning is this, a sighthound has no sense of smell at all and can only be used on game in wide open spaces and a bloodhound has too powerful a sense of smell and might work a scent trail that is three or more days old and because of its age the quarry might be miles away. If this is the case the hound might never get close enough to the quarry to jump it, into hot chase but remain always trailing at a great distance of many miles and never bringing the game to bay. Thus we now have the second favourable attribute of the CT a hot nose.
Along with this hot nose the CT is a very active hunter for scent afield. The CT is also a short range searcher, casting out for scent in a circle of about 200-300ft around the hunter, before checking back in. This is unlike a hound that will keep going until it finds scent without regard for its owner, who many times is left out of the hunt if he is on foot. This is the third favourable attribute, hunting as a partner with its owner and not solely for itself like a hound.
Next the CT is silent or semi-silent when push-trailing and only opens fully when in close hot pursuit of its quarry, because of this fact and its ability to cast forward on a scent trail, the CT has a uncanny ability to get up on its quarry quickly and stop it. Now what do I mean by stop it?
Well if the game is treed or gone to ground, the CT will let the hunter know by barking, if the quarry is large like a pig they will fight. These dogs run for blood and are not happy following a scent trail like some hounds, so they will try their best to get up on their quarry and kill it. On top of these qualities add the fact that a CT also uses its eyes and ears when hunting, I think makes it a superior dog for a hunter whos first objective is to catch meat for the pot.
In summary a Carib Tykes positive hunting qualities are:-
1. Speed
2. Hot nose
3. Medium casting searcher
4. Silent or semi-silent on a push-trail, fully open once quarry is jumped
5. The ability to quickly move along and cast forward on a trail
6. Barking penn or tree
7. Hard fighters on game
8. Besides their nose, they also use their eyes and ears to hunt
