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Post by grassmasher on Jan 8, 2013 11:16:50 GMT -5
How do you start a rabbit dog. I have 2 beagles that are about 1yr old and they have been out a couple of times with deer dogs but not started yet. My son is only 10 and he gets bored with the deer hunting and ask me if we could make ours rabbit dogs. I think he would enjoy it a lot more. Any help will be appreciated.
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Post by dsanford on Jan 11, 2013 14:20:21 GMT -5
If you can find an older dog that is a no trash dog that would be the easiest. However you and your boy will enjoy it more if he feels like he got the dogs to run a rabbit. Find a light trigger live trap(havaharts are popular). Use apples or some other strong smelling bait and try to catch a live rabbit, then let the dogs smell it in the cage and get to barking and biting at the cage. Then have your boy hold the dogs back and let the rabbit loose. Give it a good head start since your dogs are a year old they may catch it. Turn them loose. They may run it by sight the first couple times but if they start using their nose encourage them to find it and hunt for it. Don't do this too much though just enough to get them looking for a rabbit when they are turned out. If done to much you can create a bad habit that is hard to break. Also take them out seperate at night and ride around and find rabbits at night. When you stop the rabbit will probably run off but thats ok. Take the dog to the last point you saw the rabbit and tell him to hunt it. Let him work it as long as he is sniffing the ground and trying. You have to show the dog what scent you want him to look for as much as possible. Dogs do not know what to hunt based on their blood. You have to show them what you are interested in and get them to understand its a game. If they ever start running a rabbit on their own let them run it till they lose it. Don't stop them in mid race. And let them run a few before trying to shoot one in front of them. I like my dogs to understand the game before introducing the sounds of guns. You can also lay tracks with a dead rabbit and leave it at the end of the track for the dogs as a reward.( you don't like to work for free, and neither do dogs). Rewarding them is very important at the beginning. The reward can be in the form of the rabbit or just a bunch of high praise and petting. Let the dog see you get excited about what they have done. Dogs are pack oriented creatures by nature. You are the leader of the pack. If they know what pleases you then they will continue to do it. Just remember two key facts: Dogs are creatures of habit, to much repitition can create a problem before it fixes a problem. And 95% of dog training is knowing when to train and when to stop. This means if the dog does great then stop. Don't overdue it. Always try to stop on a good note. Hope this helps.
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