Young dog starting to strike

[walkerblacktan]

Hey everyone. I have a 10 month old pup that hasnt been worked with yet. Ive had her in and on the box. About a week ago she started striking trash (deer, elk and a moose). She has only been turned loose twice, once on a bobcat track, and one lion track. She played with the bobcat track a little and trailed it for maybe 150 yrds or so. I have NOT let her even have the chance to run trash. But what exactly do i do about her striking trash from the box since she doesnt know what good stuff is yet? Ive just been telling her to shut up once i find the tracks, or see what shes barking at. Is this OK? i really dont want to punish by whipping or shocking because she has no experience. Thanks

[Lee Wolford]

Chasing critters is in their blood, your job is to teach them whats right and what is wrong. I start my pups on cats and bear or cougar drags, do this enough times that they know its fun and they love to do it. Then its time to break them off deer with a shock collar. You will hear different opinions on this but personally I NEVER turn my young dogs loose on a track until i know they have been broke off deer/elk.

If it were my pup in your situation I would keep him away from any trash until he was really fired up on cats or whatever you plan to run, then head to the woods and when he strikes that deer simply turn him loose and as soon as he starts running the track and is getting good scent light him up on max power and hold the button down until it auto shuts off, i think thats about 6 seconds or so.

Its my personal belief that if a dog gets away with running trash once that its almost impossible to break them of it. Break them right from the start and its a lot better. John wick has a really good method in his book about breaking pups, if you haven't read his books its worth the read.

VERY important that young dogs associate off game scent with "really bad things are about to happen!"

[walkerblacktan]

Thanks for the reply. And i try to run bobcats, lion and bear. And coons too because its fun when nothing else is going on. But anyways, she has not ran any trash. In fact shes only put down on two tracks. One lion, and one bobcat. She just started striking a bunch of off game one day and hasnt stopped. I didnt know if i should start breaking her now, because ive heard its to let me catch a good amount of good game first. And if i do start breaking her now, i probably shouldnt do it while in or on the box right? Because i dont wanna ruin her chances of being a good rig dog on bear or lion by punishing her for striking trash from the box. Thanks

[dhostetler]

You can do long term damage in striking ability if you come down to hard early on in trash striking in my opinion. It seems you may be hauling around this dog quite a bit and not hunting it if you only ran it twice??? I would only haul the dog around when you are planning to hunt it/turn loose. The best way is obviously with older dogs but if the isn't available it's really tough. My young dogs I start with yelling at the them escalating to toning and worse case shocking. Before toning or shocking I stop get out and try try to get there attention diverted etc.

[ridgerunners]

I also agree with dhostetler. Too much running around in the back of a pick up can spoil a young hound. I like to get a lot of trainers under my pups make it harder and harder every time then at least they know what I’m asking them to do. And when I load them up you’re going hunting we’re not going to town to get ice cream. As for striking deer that’s a good sign that means that dog wants to hunt . And every hound Trash brakes a little different, some you can be hard on .Some you
just have to be real gentle and it’s over. But for sure make sure that hound know it’s ok to run the desired game first . Then don’t ever let her get away with chasing trash that’s the hard part .When I was a young man I had to run my hounds down and whip their ass. And eventually they would stop running deer but I always had them on positive game in the short Time following that Whooping! Timothy Morgan

[walkerblacktan]

Thanks for the replies guys. I have another question that might be a dumb one. After the snow hits, if this pup rigs lions, will it help her rig them when there isnt any snow? Im sure the scent stays lower when theres snow right? Im sorry if this question is so dumb it doesnt deserve an answer lol.

[dhostetler]

[Lil Q]

Don't be to hard on your dogs wen there young ,that's my opinion.I ruined my first two pups on being to hard on them with the shocker I had to cull them buscase of my fault , I been learning from my mistakes and now I take it easy on them even if there sĂşper gamy just like the post above said all dogs are different some will take a lot of correction and keep hunting and some will get ruined so I don't take my chances now,read the cat training post and buy some books like walk the wick ,it explains about shock training. Right now in working with two one year old pup and there doing good with scent tracks and trainers I lay for them I still put the sock collars on them so they get use to but I don't turn them on to prevent my shelf on wanting to sock them we they go of hunting,I rode them for three to four miles before they hit the scent trail I lay and all I do is use the truck horn and wisle and trait to keep them close to control them . Be pacient and learn your pups and dogs to make the better calls of how to work with them ,good luck and have fun hunting.