Communicating with Your Hounds!

[Dads dogboy]

OK Folks,

We have found the Line/Strain of Hounds that we want to Hunt!

We have started the Pup, and it has taken off from all the Great things that we have learned here on BGH.

We have learned a little about how our Hounds communicate with us.

Now let’s learn about how other Hunters Communicate with their Hounds. Please tell about the commands that you give the Hounds, how you give it, do you SPEAK to your Hounds when they are running, trailing, or treeing. Do you use voice, Truck horn, blowing horn, Tone….how, when, why do you communicate with your Hounds?

I look forward to you alls answers, later I will post what, how and why we do what we do. Again there is NO RIGHT or WRONG answer, just what you find that works and helps you to Tree or Stretch the Short Tail!

[doghunter]

Reminds me of the movie where the red fern grows with the coon hounds. The boy would whoop and holler when he turned his red bones loose.

Great topic

[Buddyw]

I never thought about how much I talk to them, but I guess I do expect them to mind and understand more than a house dog. I don't teach sit or stay or anything like that but load up and check here since we can't always find the track.

I use the Truck horn quite a bit. and the tone on the Remote.

If the dogs are Roading and taking a wrong turn at an intersection, I'll pop the horn twice and they will stop and normally take the other option.

If I want them to load on the box, I'll bump the horn so they will look back at me, and then Just tell them to "Load up" depending on if I'm going to Box them, or maybe if I see that a truck is coming, or another hunter has dogs down and I don't want mine on the ground anymore.

Then if they are on the box, and I want to Road them or have them check something, I can just stop the truck and say , "check here" or Down I guess I also do this on the ground if I want them to check a spot that I think the cat might have gone or if they made a loose on the road. One thing I don't allow is for them to get off the box just because I stop the truck.

I will ask "WHAT IS THAT???" if I'm not sure about the track, and depending on how they act. Most of the time they will tuck the tail and load on the truck,

I try to do the same on good tracks as well as bad tracks so the dogs don't figure out if I'm setting them up. Same with "Check Here" I will go check here on coyote, Deer, Cats

I don't think I talk much when they are starting a track, I pretty much try to listen to them.

And I will call them out with the Truck horn, It saves your voice when you loose them, so I like my dogs knowing what my Horn sounds like!

The crappy part is when your sitting there listening to a race and the Kid is in the truck and accidentally pushes the horn... It normally makes me pucker up... most of the time if the dogs are working a track they continue on it and don't pay much attention to the horn if they are trailing.

Interesting topic. I can't take much credit for any of this, Since I've pretty much just learned it from other hunters.

[Mike Leonard]

I grew up working hounds to a horn and my first hound mentor was an old hunter who spent his entire life in the woods with his hounds and you never saw him wihtout his horn. We night hunted a lot back then and it was fun to hear old Leo listen at them hounds runing a cat and occasionaly he would pick up that horn and blow a certain note on it and his old lead dog Ike would cut loose an answer, and old leo would grunt and say: thought so dang cat has come back on his track , but Ike has him figured out and listen up they will all light up here in a second and he was right. I started using the horn some and it worked ok but i alwasy found the dang things clumsy and in the way.

So some years ago when i was still field trialing bird dogs i decided I would just start working my hound pups to a series of whistles like I did the bird pooches, and this has been a better fit for me. Using a combination of light stimulation and different whistles with a combination of hand signals I direct my hounds.

Now then I hunt pretty much free cast and horseback so i am hunting right along with the dogs and they are usally very close to me until they get a track going. i don't think this would work very well on hounds you cut loose into a track or a race becasue you don't get enough range. It will however surprize you how far a hound can hear an Acme Thunderer whistle if you can get them to stop and throw their ears up, so if they are way out i will tone them or even tap them on a light setting and then get on the whistle and if you don't have bad wind or a lot of canyons they can hear it much better than a human can.

I work with my dogs every day in a social setting and i truely believe dogs have a type of telepathy that they can tell what you are thinking or feeling and if you can get their attention and then tune into that they will do things that will amaze you. I think humans have a lot more of this sense than we really know but we are so use to communicating with our voice only we have lost a lot of that ability. With our early stimulation and socialization program we use on our own pups they really tune into the human a lot better than dogs that have just been penned up or tied up and the only time they get that contact is in the field.

One must always remember that dogs regardless of type are still pack animals and they want a pack leader and when you become that leader communication is stepped up to a much higher level.

[South Texan]

It's funny, the little things we do to communicate with our hounds.

When I get ready to go hunting, I'll go out to the kennels and let them all out. I'll let'em run around and play for 5 minutes or so, then I'll go to the truck and drop the tail gate and tell'em "Come on, lets go" and they'll all load up.

Like Buddy, as I'm road hunting and come to a cross road where I turn, I might bump the horn of the truck and tell'em "come on, this way". If they are all close enough to hear me I'll just tell'em without bumping the horn.

If they get stuck on a hard track and just can't move it away from there, I might walk out to them and hiss'em a little and tell'em to "look for'em, look deep".

After they get one stretched and finish chewing on him I'll tell'em "Ok that's good, lets go" and they'll follow me to the truck.

If they're trailing toward a road that I'm sitting on and I happen to see the cat cross, I'll run down to where he crossed and give a rebel yell and start clapping my hands and hollering "Here he goes" and they'll come a runn'in. They KNOW I've seen the cat. When ya have sorry dogs, ya gotta help'em all you can, so I help'em take a little slak out of the trail.

When I go by a tank or water trough I might tell'em "go get a drink".

If they smell a cold cat on the road and trying to figure out which way he went, if they have all looked to the right and nobody has opened and a dog comes back into the road ahead of me, I might point with my hand to the left and tell that dog in the road to "look for'em". I just started the pointing with my hand a few years ago. Teaching them to learn this, I would walk the way I was pointing telling them to "look for'em" as I was doing it. It seems they have picked up pretty well on the pointing, don't have to walk that direction very often anymore. I thought if they could use hand signals with border collies, we should be able to do it with our hounds.

If a young dog might smell something wrong (off game), as I buzz or shock him lightly I might also tell him in a normal tone of voice to "get outta there". All my dogs know what "get outta there" means. This way if something every happens that isn't right and all the dogs don't have shocking collars on, when I holler this they know they better leave it alone.

Now...I'm like Mike. I'm usually pretty close to the dogs most of the time unless they're working a trail. But I'm blessed to live in this country here. Lots of game and roads are plentiful. I would bet on an average, that I don't have to walk over 150 to 200 yards to a bay or tree. That many roads on most of the places I hunt. So...I'm usually pretty close to the dogs therefore we're communicating often.

I have 10 dogs in the pack right now. Two of them are pups I started this year. It's pretty amazing how fast the pups pick-up on this communication between me and the older dogs, just from following the older dogs and much repetition.

Sometimes of an evening, when the wind gets still and the shadows are growing long and the temperature starts cooling down my dogs will also communicate with me. They let me know when "they" think it's time to go hunting. Now they don't do this all the time, but when they do the game is usually moving. Just that animal instinct when they know things are right.

Enough communication. I'll get off here. Happy trails. Robbie

[Unreal_tk]

To start a hunt I do as Robbie does, let them out and load em up. Box is the command I use for the dogbox, while the top of the box is load up. Each dog knows to wait at the door of the box to be collared up one by one, each comes by its name while doing this. If I am roading and they take a wrong turn I do as Robbie said and verbally tell em to come this way. If I think there is a track off the road somewhere, I tell em to hunt em up. When I am on the way to the tree I am always quiet, once I am at the base of the tree I pet each of the dogs and tell em good dogs, and to skid em. If I leave the cat in the tree, I just say that'll do and let's go(tone if needed but rarely). If the dogs are ran out on a track or I think they can't catch it I will use the tone with yelling each dogs name and "here". My dogs also know lie down, sit, up(they jump up on my chest for me to pet them). I probably have a few other things but that's all I can think of right now. I am unlike mike and robbie because of our country being steep and tree ridden, we don't have the best road systems. I try to stay as close as possible in the truck or sled, but if I know its headed to roadless country I start my walk with the dogs.

[Redwood Coonhounds]

I do a lot of walk hunting, road hunting and boxing. I hunt a variety of species though, not just one. The dogs tend to understand what we're looking for by the area, time of day and manner in which we're hunting.

That said I'm probably the only person that pretty much holds full on conversations with the dogs. About half of it they ignore, and about half of it registers to them as something they know. I like to some what narrate just about anything they are doing too. LOL

Of course load UP, meaning get in the box. Then "UP top" for get on top of the box. The two vetrans typically load them selves onto the strike pad on the hood as soon as they are done going to the bathroom. If not I'll tell them "go get UP there" They know "wait" or "back up" when I open the box/put collars on, and what "go to the batroom" means. They get down as soon as I unsnap them, and I tell them either go to the bathroom, or "look for it" meaning go hunting.

I do a lot of hand signals too. When we walk hunt, if I want them to go across the water, or get into the briars I'll point and tell them to go look for it, or "get in there" They'll take off in the direction I signal.


When I get a strike off the rig, we tell them "hush" so we can listen for other dogs out running (or the occasional fleeing deer) I also don't like a lot of nonsense barking, and won't let them bark the entire time we're looking for a track, which actually isn't too often, we usually just drop the tailgate.

When I turn dogs in on a start if I have another dog out already, I'll hold them and say "listen" so that they pay attention to the sound of where the other dog is at (not just barking, but the brush breaking) then tell them to "look for it" or "get in there"

I call them out by name and hooping and "come on" or mostly "lets go" all of them know what "lets go" means. I use that to move them on from checking something out in the road, or fooling with something questionable, or if they get out too far or head the wrong direction. It pretty much means to check in/regroup, and come with me. I will honk sometimes, but that give me a headache!

ALL of them know what "Get off that $h!t" means. They get those words scolded in a mean tone to them when they return from/try to mess with off game. I usually tone them too if they "show intrest" in something questionable but don't really put effort into it. They also get toned for whining in the box, following a "shut up".

If a dog comes to greet me a little ways from the tree, they know that "get on that tree" means. At the tree they know what "settle down" means (Stop climing, jumping, chewing) Then there's "GET DOWN" for those tree climbers. They also again know "Lets go" or "Dead" or "Done" and that means to leave the tree/leave the game. Usually we holler "HEY" or "HUSH" to quiet them down before we say lets go and they follow us out. Some of them need name reinforcement, then another lets go (just in case they weren't included the first time)

[Ker_man]

One thing I like to do is a hand signal to bring the dog to me. When calling a dog I bend forward and wave my hand across in front of me in a beckoning motion while calling or whistling. I really like this in a situation where the dog can't hear you or a dog that sees you and is a bit spooky about approaching. This position and hand motion will be familiar to the dog and I find they come well. Also helps if a dog is going deaf.

[007pennpal]

I use most of the stuff everyone else does here, but I hate sounding like an idiot out so I carry a hound horn and talk to em. Where ya at? Come back. Etc. Nothing fancy. I give them treats when they come out to the horn when they are pups. Only odd thing I do is I kinda make a arrrnt growl sound to let them know when I'm unhappy. It seems like they get that sound for nock it off or no. I find that tone is more important than words at times when using voice.

[Melanie Hampton]

I do a lot of talking with the dogs.. They all seem to pick up on it pretty quick..

My 2 oldest dogs know to come into a truck horn, but when I bought a different truck 5 years ago, it did not come with a working horn. So my younger dogs don't know what the horn means..

I whistle to call them in.. "Hey" means to stop what they are doing and see what I'm doing. I use it a lot roading when we running into a split in the road "Hey, this way" and they go to the direction I want.. Or when we are done.. "Hey" they stop "Load up" and they come back to load..

They all know the load, get on the box etc.. "Get up in the road" and they know to get up in front of me and start hunting. "Get in there" will send them into something they really didn't want to do

"GIRLS" is usually my warning for messing with something their not supposed to (it's the 2 girls usually getting warned) or a big loud "Aht!" stops them from whatever.. I don't know what it means- they just stop with that sound LOL..

They are all toned trained with the collar but I usually only run them on the young dogs.

They all wait until their name is called to come out of the dogbox- know what get in their means and if I do something like drop the f word in my commands, they know that means NOW- 3 seconds ago..

I do a lot of fussing with them at home- they probably know a lot more.. They know a few weird little sayings of mine "Park it", "Zip it" or when they are going to get disciplined for something "I'm going to knock you out"- "Stop it" is another big one used..

I don't generally say much to them once they start acting interested in something.. I sit back, shut up and leave them alone.. I will only say something to them if I've decided to find something else and to leave that track..

All in all they listen really well.. I think they listen and mind better then most people's house dogs

[Trueblue]

I've watched a number of houndsmen while they were communicating with their hounds and most of it was not fit for women or children.

[Dads dogboy]

Gosh Folks, there is some GOOD Stuff coming out here.....PLEASE keep it coming!

Trueblue, I know your Post was mostly in jest!

However a HOUNDSMEN or HOUNDSWOMAN will be talking to and communicating with their Hounds much like they will with their Kids...sometimes more DIRECT than others but not so off color as you would imagine!

Now there are lots of Hunters who use HOUNDS who may be rougher and cruder in the language department....they get MAD and FRUSTRATED then let their temper get away from them. We have been around these types...the air turns a DARK bleu rather quickly!

Your Hounds should be treated as you would your Children never discipline them when you are Angry!

[tomtom]

Billy Swan is a long time hunting friend of my father and grandfather. I knew Mr. Billy quite well as a young person. By the time I was old enough to have dogs of my own he had already quit feeding them. He was always coming out to the ranch to listen to the dogs and tell me about hunting with my grandfather. I believe he began going blind at about 16 years old. By the time I came along he could see shapes but not much else. Mr. Billy was always a wealth of information about cows, horses, mules, and my personal favorite - hounds.
I wish Billy Swan could participate on this website. I remember Mr. Billy would feel all over a dog to "see" him. He would "communicate" with his hounds when one of them stuck thier head out of the box and it wasn't the one he called by name. I am sure he knew more about what was happening with his hounds than most people with all five of thier senses in working order.

[coastrangecathunting]

i keep walkie talkies on all my dogs collars. when running a cat and lets say they are heading into some roadless areas i will tell frosty to get ahead on the left and tell vegas to get ahead on the right. i will then tell the rest of them to slow down and let the other 2 turn it back.
if the tree is more than 50 yrds off the road i will ask stormy if it is a male or a female . if it is a female she will give me a long and 2 short barks, if it is a male 12 shorts and 2 longs followed by 3 wimpers. that means get off your ass and get in here .
there is a bunch more but i cant give out all my secrets.

jc

[Buddyw]

I've watched a number of houndsmen while they were communicating with their hounds and most of it was not fit for women or children.

Very true! I had to give up the shock button for that reason.. I"m also learning that it Kinda sucks when you have a 3 year old ready to mimic every thing..