christman

I need some basic info to start me out on training beagles I ve heard many different ways but I still aint sure. Stuff to begin to start a pup with. Any Ideas you have sokem to me.

drfatguy

To explain how to train any hunting dog in a post would difficult. There are books written about the subject. To try to do this in 100 words can't happen. Try your library or the internet and buy a book which develops a systematic training technique.

Dr Fatguy

missed_another

christman we always start our pups around 5 months old and some have started as young as 16 weeks old. seems like the females tend to start easier. for what reason i have no idea but that has been my luck. usually first time out is with one of the older slower females. once the older dog has a scent get the pup over to the track. the end of may and june are the better times to start a young pup. the small rabbits a old enough to run then. don't start to early in the year because you can destory a nesting area. if you start to early in the year the parent rabbits we lead the dog away from the nesting area and these loops will be big loops alot of times out of hearing range. and this is not good with a young dog. with a small pup and a young bunny the loops are not to big. alot of times you can sit in one place and watch the hole loop. beagle are easy to get started but hard to get them to mine you. spend alot of time with them around the house make them want to be with you and this makes field training much easier. i always use hotdogs sliced up for snacks and for good behavior. it will only be a time or two and they will start barking and making weird noises on the scent trail. take them up into a hollow back away from the main roads just to be to safe. the more you take them the better they get. if you are going to be a weeken trainer don't expect to much right away it takes time. get a bell on their collar so you can keep track of them in the bush. i use the small copper bells that are sold in the fishing department. they have a good tone that can be heard very easy. get rid of the clip and put a key ring on the bell makes it easy to hook on the collar. there are many differant way to start and train but these have worked very well for us. we have two females and one male. hope this helps.

wihunter1388

i have 4 beagles and how i train them is kinda cruel in a way for some city folks. For rabbits, i just got 4 tame rabbits and let them go, now we live in the country with a woods behind us so this works perfect. I let the pup smell the bunny before i let it go by shooting one and skinning it, the scent stays on awhile so it should last 6 months but then let the dog walk in the woods and let it jump the rabbit so it sees it and eventually it will work. Also a older dog to teach it what it is suppose to do would work best. Sometimes you get them rabbits that are shot up so take a rope around the rabbits neck and run with it. BUt you have to faster than the dog for at least 20 yards. But play games with it by hidding the bunny in bushes, around the corner, tall grass, etc. once the rabbit is out of sight, the dog tends to put its nose to the ground and smell then chase.

Once you got a good dog that runs rabbits pretty good, put a shocking collar on and when it chases after deer shock, or squirrels, pheasants i usually congratuate the dog, but some methods other than shocking are rolling the dog with a deer leg in a barrel down a hill or put a deers foot in the pen wrapped with barb wire or some cases just beat the dog up which is not the best.

Now your dog is learning rabbits and your shooting them, when your cleaning the rabbits, take out the kidneys, heart, and liver and give to dog, its a treat to them and will know that everytime they go after a bunny, they get that stuff. Or the dog treats at fleet farm the small ones though and give them out in the field. But thats how I do this and I am working on a beagle now that had a growth hormone fire up and is fat and lazy. Its going good but alot of work yet.