Good Handling Dogs

[Borderpond]

We were discussing good handling dogs in a another subject post. several guys were telling about calling their dogs out of the dog box one at a time by name and calling dogs off trees and dogs following them out without leashes. I have never seen that but have heard the stories.It sounds pretty damn cool to me. Do any of you have videos showing this ? I would love to see them. Thanks

[Marshall]

Not a video but a pic of leading the dogs out of a tree without any leashes or screaming and yelling, This is the only way to go buddy. Putting a good handle on a dog is the first and foremost thing a guy should do. Sure makes life a heck of a lot nicer and the hunt alot more enjoyful. Take care.

[imchestnut]

All of my dogs are led from trees without a leash once they are 100 yards away. I put them on a leash the first 100 or so. If they don't I shock them and call them back to me. They will also come out of the box by name (most of the time). Its easy to teach. Open the box. Any dog that comes out without being called, slam the box shut on them. Call out the dog you want and only let that one out. Most of mine got the hang of it quickly. But most the time I just dump the box. Small doors also help.... I can take a video but don't have one handy.

[craigs]

Yes I agree there is nothing better than a dog or dogs with manners!

It is much more plesant to have 4 dogs walking at heal without a leash than it is trying to lead them throughout a timber with leashes on.

there is all kinds of info on the internet about training dogs, then it just takes a little time (10 minutes) each night for about 2 weeks and you will have them healing.

[Borderpond]

I have almost 40 years of hound owning.I live in the northeast.I am sure I have hunted with a couple hundred different hound guys over the years.Never seen anyone have dogs with handles like you guys describe . No doubt in my mind that must be pretty damn cool.
Marshall, your picture really doesnt count. They are just following your trail because its easier walking. Heck, even a plott would probably know enough to do that ! LOL want to impress me, let the dogs break the trail for you !! Just kidding , thanks for the pic.
Hopefully someone will post a video showing some of the stuff you guys describe. I just cant imagine turining dogs out on a hot strike by calling them out of the box by name. Like I said, I have hunted with a ton of different hunters over the years and never seen anyone up this way do it. Pete Richardson from VT was probably the closest to what you describe. I have seen him walk dogs away from a treed bear, but with a leash, then when he was far enough from the tree let the dogs walk out still leashed together but without him holding the other end.

[kordog]

ive always had coondogs that handled excellent my bearhounds i more hunted with them i guess i always looked at it as when im bearhunting i dont care if i get home and have spent three or four days away and it is part of the hunt also the dogs usually run themselves ragged enough chasing a bear. coon hunting can get near houses sometimes ,and a dog has to handle to prevent situations and being around traffic to.the next day i also need to go to work.our bear season use to be really short until they added the extra month of training season.just getting the bearhounds out was the most important part that is probably why most maine bearhounds lacked on discipline . if we could run year round here i think you would see dogs with a lot better handle on them .we dont even have a bobcat training season so if your dog goes on the first bobcat track you put them on come open season the last thing your gonna worry about is will this dog handle at the end.im all for good handleing dogs dont get me wrong im just pointing out why some dont put as much effort into the handling here in maine . or just the way i see it anyways.my hats off to anyone who is willing to have there dogs handle like a seeing eye dog.

[bob baldwin jr]

I would NOT have belived it If I had NOT seen it a few times before . One of my hunting buddies who passed about 1 1/2 years ago had 4 plotts . His wife and his daughter trained water retrievers mostly labs for 8-9 years both my buddy Paul and his daughter worked with the plotts since they were pups .They were extremely trained to obey commands ,some by voice some by using a whistle.

He would put his rig dog up on the box .If he blew up we would stop ,Paul would put him down on the ground to sort out the track .When we were sure it was good Paul would open all the boxes the hounds would stay put till there names were called .One by one he would call out the others let them work the track command them to stop til the last one was down .He would finally tell them to chase the bear .

I can only recall 2 bay-ups in which the bears were dispatched . The other times they would tree . We would usually arrive at the tree about the same time .Paul would allow them to keep treeing for 5-10 minutes .In most cases we were not going to make a kill so Paul would Toot the whistle twice say Stop /Sit and that is what they would immediately do .

The plotts would look at Paul awaiting his next command but by the way they were looking at him you knew they had to be thinking " HEY BOSS THAT BEAR IS STILL IN THE TREE " About every 20-30 seconds they would turn their heads and look back at the bear in the tree. A few times Paul would tell them "TREE THE BEAR " and they would go back to treeing .When we were done he would call their Names saying to follow him and we would all hike back to the truch . I never saw him once put a leash on any of his hounds .

Back at the truck he would tell them to sit call out their name give them a treat and load them in the order he wanted .

Were they the BEST PLOTT HOUNDS AROUND Probably not on Bay-ups they did not want to pull hair and very RARE either one of them would get with-in 10 ft of a bear .I will concede the point that they were probably the BEST TRAINED Plotts to acknowledge voice commands though . What amazed me the most was I am NOT sure if you call it Natural Instinct or Something INGRAINED in their Brain But when any hound is Treeing the fact that you can get them to stop by voice and a minute later command them to go back to treeing .That really Mystifies me .

Sadly the 4 plotts were given to his son in Fryeburg .After 6 months of being out of work he ended up selling 2 to a guy in portland and the other 2 ended up in new Hampshire . His Mother told me he sold each one for $500 a piece Pretty Dam cheap if you ask me especially for a good rig hound .SUCH IS LIFE SOMETIMES

[cobalt]

After you own a dog that handles and minds like imchestnut's you'll never go back. It takes consistency and repetition when their young, but it is well worth the effort. They don't need to know much, just their names, "come here", "sickém", "no" and "good dog" and they need to know them well.

[bob baldwin jr]

cobalt : I think Paul had told my son that there were 11-12 commands they responded to . But he did work 2-3 hours every day since they were pups training them .The Sad part in Maine is our Short TRAINING and HUNTING season for hounds .You get out of your hounds WHAT you put into them . Surely we can ALL do better

[cobalt]

There are definitely a few more that I make my dogs know, like load-up and quiet, but the list is not long. I try to do most of my handling (obedience) at home when the dog is old enough to learn and retain what is being taught. Once I start, I try to stay 100% consistent with the program and never let the dog get away with anything. If I did it all in the woods while hunting it would be much more difficult and tends to shut the dog down as well as other dogs that have to watch.
I work with the dogs 15 minutes a day for a month or 2 and when I hit the hills with them they have the basics down which helps me help them to become more successful as hunting dogs. It's not like I want my dogs to act like a police dog or competition lab. I just want them to comply with a few commands and have them understand I'm the boss and they can trust me with that job.
I never call my dogs off a tree. I do like was previously stated and leash my dogs a certain distance (like 100yds), usually out of site of the tree because there's too many things that can go wrong like getting fifty yards from a tree and the critter decides to bail out. That's too much pressure on the dogs to comply. Or if the dogs hear someone yell and go to them and leave the tree or I have split trees and need to go from one tree to the next. Tree instinct is something I want NO confusion about. Stay treed until I pull your ass off.
Consistency and exposure to success is the best way to train dogs no matter how you do it. Once they get confused due to inconsistency they are well on there way to being ruined.

[Marshall]

If i could figure out how in the world to get video off of my ipod onto my puter i would show you on dry ground how you get dogs off of a tree. I can be 60 yds or so away from my pickup and tell my dogs to load up and they will be on the box when i get there. I have a friend in the valley that has a unbelievable handle on his dogs. They ride up on the box (uncliped) until they strike a cat, he stops they get down and try to get the track goin. If they cant get it goin or it is a bit too cold for his liking he will honk his horn and here they come right back on the box ready to go on to find the next cat and i have seen this when the dogs were almost 200yds away. I can call my dogs off of a jumped track if i dont like where they are headed or they are going into lava flows or bluffs. My dogs know that they hunt for me and not for themselves and it is very nice that way. It does not reduce their desire to get out and hunt, nor make them hesitant by any means. A good handle on a dog is a must!

[bob baldwin jr]

Cobalt : you make some great points . I had failed to add that to the best of my knowledge my buddy Paul Never Yelled ,hit ,or shocked any of his plotts .yet they knew that he was "THE BOSS MAN " I could NOT prove it but since no 2 bears are the same and no 2 treeing circumstances are the same I often wondered how much each hound KNEW they could get away with before crossing the line . Like I said they would OBEY every command then would anticipate the next command

Another point that I had seen a time or 2 and been confused by is voice recognition .I have been under a tree many times where Hounds were Bought or Traded under the tree .More than a few times I would give a command as instructed by the hounds owner and the Hound would NOT obay it . 5-10 seconds latter the owner would give the same command and the hound would do exactly as instructed. Did anyone else have this problem Do the hounds become so dependent on a specific voice that it is all they will listen to Sure would like some PRO trainers to chime in on this topic .

[outlaw13]

I am not a pro trainer by any means but if a hound is raised and taught commands by 1 person for most of its life I figured that the dog accepts its owner as the master and will be loyal in a sense. This could be the reason that a person who is a stranger to the dog could give the same command and the dog could care less. (because the dog shares no loyalties with the stranger giving commands). I could be way off, and I apologize if i made no sense.

[lepcur]

And to take it a step further Outlaw, sometimes when I tell my dogs to do something they know they should listen and if they don't I raise the volume, and lower the tone of my voice and they know they better listen. Thru repitition they learn you as well as you learn them.

[newby]

i think its two things...inflection recognition: in other words, if i train my dog to sit by saying sit and raising the pitch at the end EVERY TIME, and someone else tries to make my dog sit but doesn't say it the same way, it sounds like a new command to the dog. obedience trainers will tell you that with certain dogs you have to be even more careful because they'll begin reading your facial cues, raised eyebrows, etc... secondly and maybe more importantly, have you established yourself as the leader of the pack (or the dog in this case)? because, as we all know, if you tell a dog to do something and they don't know you will back it up, then they will promptly tell you to screw yourself.