ILuvSchnauzers

I own a miniature schnauzer pup, who is 6 months old, and i wish to have him go hunting for small game with me. mostlikely, rabbit. but, i desperately need any and all tips you have for training this to-be rabbit hunter.

Grasshopper13

Does your dog act as if it wants to jump and trail a rabbit? I'm not trying to sound mean but if I wanted a rabbit dog, I'd get a beagle. I'm not sure schnauzers have the hunt bred into them and if they do will they open while tracking one? Beagles are bred for this very purpose and are usually quite easy to train. If your determined to try your dog, i would suggest finding someone with some dogs that already run rabbits ( beagles probably) and ask if you could turn your dog out with them. If he has it in him, he'll likely pick it up on his own.

Good luck!

GH

jrbsr

My grand father could take any dog and make a good rabbit dog with it.

He took a rabit skin with a string tied to it and drag it a round the yard and would

Take the dog on a leash and let it smell the skin.

Then take the dog to where he dragged the skin.

Then the dog would start smelling the scent.

He would keep doing that and the dog would start finding the trail by it self.

Then he would do it with out a leash and the dogs would start running the fake trails.

Then he would take them hunting.

I hope this helps.

Good Luck

jrbsr

SWOSUMike

First off, I hope it works out. Start by teaching your pup to obey you. Even if he will not hunt for you, at least you will have a dog that is enjoyable in the woods. I know many smart dog men who say that a dog either has it in him, or he doesn't, and if he doesn't, it's going to be rough. Not to say that any old dog won't love to chase rabbits, but chasing and having an inherent hunting drive are two different things. I've heard the analogy that those wrangler-wearing, big belt buckle boys might call themselves cowboys, look like, and even talk like cowboys, but unless they work on a ranch and ride a horse, they're not cowboys. With this said, your pup may have it in him, and perhaps the best way to bring it out of him would be to give it lots of field time. Take him out and see if he'll ever open up on a rabbit. Now, even beagles can take a while to really click, you only know if you keep giving them field time and give them an honest chance to figure things out. It is a gamble with any dog, even dogs bred specifically to hunt. Perhaps, if you're dog will not find and run a rabbit for you, it might enjoy tagging along and maybe retreiving a rabbit that you jump. If nothing else, he may find you one and get it moving, but I am not sure how strong the drive to hunt rabbits is in a schnouzer, could be a rabbit huntin' machine. A good beagle is probably one of those dogs that won't come at the end of a hunt becuase it involuntarily NEEDS to keep going becuase of its genetic makeup. Does any of this make sense? Good luck with that pup.

Grasshopper13

That's good advice.

There's also a misconception out there about beagles that I'd like to address. Some think of beagles hunting rabbits in a nice field, where the rabbit just runs lazy circles until the hunter comes along ends the nice little chase witha well placed load of #6 shot.
In reality, beagles are little machines that perform at a level on par with a world class athlete. A good beagle will run rabbit after rabbit in the thickest, nastiest, places and THRIVE on it! A good beagle will ,of it's own accord, crawl on its belly through the most wicked patch of multifloral rose to roust out a bunny, and and he will never stop wagging his tail! At the end of the day, a good beagle will have tattered, shredded, bleeding ears and a bloody stump for a tail and you will still have to keep a frim grip on the leash as you lead him in because he lives to hunt. The only payment he asks in return? A scratch between the ears, and a little fur in his mouth. I have owned beagles for several years now, and I have to say, they are quite possibly the greatest breed alive, IMHO.

If you really think your schnauzer can do this, here's a few tricks to try.

Get a tame rabbit. Show it to your pup. Tease him with it and then turn the rabbit loose in font of him. Give the rabbit a decent lead and then turn pup loose. If he chases after the rabbit and barks while he does it, he's got a good start. make sure you don't let pup kill the rabbit when he runs it down. Then just progress, taking longer and longer lengths between turning the rabbit loose and then the pup. Finally, you should be able to turn the rabbit out, without the pup seeing it first and the pup should find the track and then find the rabbit. Once he can do this, start taking him out looking for wild rabbits.Get in the brush and try to help pup jump rabbits. He should do the rest.

Hope this helps!

GH

SWOSUMike

Grasshopper has said it...a good hunting dog has it in him to the extent that he NEEDS to hunt. It has been called an "involuntary reaction" to stimuli due to genetics. The exact same thing goes for a good squirrel dog. Any dog can bark in the yard at a squirrel, but it is the drive to consistently work a track to a tree, time after time, that matters. My squirrel dog pup is 8 months old, but by about 4 or 5 months old, having only seen maybe one dead squirrel, one live one and a hide, was already naturally looking up in trees. It was an amazing thing that his genetics could give him eyes and even a nose that will check upward like that. He will also bark like nothing you ever saw when you put something up high and he knows it is there. Just today I stuck a tennis ball in a chain link fence at about 8 feet and he lit up the world for me to "shoot it out to 'em." These huntin' dogs are sure fun. I would say you could save a lot of time with hunting dogs by getting one that doesn't need to be trained as much as he just needs to be taken. I am surprised at how my pup is showing things that I could never have taught him. He naturally checks back about every 10 minutes. He is starting to range out well, and he works out tracks on his own already. Good luck again with your pup, and remember that patience is perhaps the best attitude with a pup.

green01

i think that you better start training with other dogs. beagles than know whats going on will do you the most. i started my beagle pup with an older dog and she started making noises at 16 weeks old. it does not take long to see if your dog has what it needs to keep on training.