Starting on Rabbits

There are many ways to go about training a Beagle.  Depending on the dog, some methods work better than others.  The first step to training a rabbit dog is to teach them to come when called.  I normally accomplish this by teaching them to come to there name.  After this is achieved and all shots are given, at 5 or 6 months old its time to get him or her started.

You need to decide how you want to get them started on rabbits.  Here are the four basic ways that I know of.

v     Send him/her to a starting/running pen.   This normally cost about $50 or $100 a month.

v     Take him/her to your well known running grounds with a experienced slower dog with a clean and close running style.  This type of hound is normally called a puppy trainer.  If you need on these dogs are normally for sale cheap.  Most I have seen are around $200.

v     Just you and the pup go out to a spot with lots of rabbits and just like the pup search around and look for rabbits.

v     Use a tame rabbit and leave a scent line for the pup to follow.  Don't let the pup sight chase the rabbit.  Make them use their nose to follow the line.  You can hide the rabbit at the end of the scent line in a crate or something.

I use a combination of the above methods, but solo and running with a slower dog I use the  most.  If I am starting a young pup (under 6months) I use the solo method.  If it is a older pup (over 6 months) I try to start them with a slower dog.  If they don't start running with the slower dog after a few times to the field I go to solo work.  Once both have started I run them 3 times solo and 1 time in a pack and I continue this until they can solo with ease and confidence.  Some people don't do it, but I solo dogs all there lives or as long as they are at my house.  For old dogs the solo work is not often, but they are ran solo off and on.

Trash Breaking

Any game that you don't want your dogs to run is trash.  I use shock collars to break my dogs from unwanted game.  However you should not try to break them until they know what they should be running and they should be running it well.  I have not found it to hard to break dogs off of trash.  So far I have had only one dog I could not break.

The way I break them from trash is to take them to area that has the game I want them to run and game I don't want them to run.   My trash is deer and when I get to the field at sunset I can see a few standing around.  I walk the dogs right to where they are.  Once the dog shows interest and starts move the line barking or not I shock them hard.  Then I make them walk the deer line, after they stop trying to run the deer.  After that I go and let them jump a rabbit and run them for a few hours.  After 2 or 3 shocks I normally don't have any trouble with them starting trash.  I run with packs where nobody starts trash, so if nobody starts it we don't have a problem.

Gun Breaking