Bad Habits!

[Unreal_tk]

We all teach our dogs good habits, but unknownly we may also teach them a bad habit! Ill be the first to admit my dogs have a few. A couple of my dogs will chew at the tree, same dogs will open alot early on a track just because they are excited, I have a pup who I can't get to quit whining if I don't let him out, and another dog who leaves the tree to greet me each time. I probably have several others but just blind to them.

What are some common training mistakes that a person can avoid? This oughta be a good one!

Also some habits may be viewed as good by one person, but a negative by the next.

[dwalton]

Dogs are like people there is all types and personality's. Some whine, so bark off track, some over run a track, on and on. Some of the nature of a dog you can change by training, some you can't. My point is what are we willing to put up with. If a dog has a lot of good traits I can put up with a little thing that I don't like as long as it does not take away from me catching cats. If they take away from me catching cats they don't stay long. You might of noticed that I said " from me catching cats" one of the biggest keys to cat hunting that I think a lot of people miss is that the dogs hunt with me, not I with them. I catch the cats. The dogs are my tools. If I don't catch I cat it is not the dogs fault, it is mine. What could I have done different to have a different out come. Think about it. Do your dogs hunt with you or you with your dogs. A little off the subject but I think worth saying. Dewey

[mike martell]

Thomas.

Did you use Grawes scent or another brand to train the dogs that chew on the tree? Like an idiot I started a pup from scratch and thought about using training scent....I have a dog that chews real bad and I'm thinking it is from where I placed the scent on the tree....Little bugger would locate, tree and then chew the place the scent was applied....Bad deal, I will never use scents again to start a pup. Once he transitioned to game he would locate and tree and then like a beaver whittle down the bark....My fault...

I also think of myself as the manager or coach....I strive to get to a point to make the dogs do more of the work in catching game...Sometimes I think I do more than my share and strive to get to a point that i just sit back and enjoy the dogs.....Just never happens that way in my world, if i don't keep a constant handle on things, it goes to heck real fast. I' m not talking about finding a track in the snow and cutting loose, rigging bare ground and dealing with all the issues that plague this style hunting.

Mike

[Unreal_tk]

Yeah Mike you are correct.

Dewey, Im wanting to know mistakes folks have made in the past that made a dog have a bad habit. I agree there is none perfect, but if you can avoid something bad no reason not to! I also do as you do when a cat gets away. I try to rethink what mistakes I did. Did I drive to much, did I not get in there quick enought, did I find the back end of the track, etc.

[mark]

I have a 9 yr old Jack Russel that spends alot of time with me. He likes to drink beer and will eat Copenhagen on ocasion. Hmmmmm never made the connection till tonite.

[mike martell]

How about those guys who would tie your dogs at each tree then lead them off and went to the newer method of calling dogs off the tree and having them follow you out to the rig using the tri-tronic tone or light shock.

Here is my question, do you think this hurts the dogs on treeing and staying at the tree and not greeting you when you walk in to the tree? I think this works well with some dogs that are very tree minded but the running style that are a little weak on treeing get weaker.

I still have a mixed opinion on this....

Mark, better get a rack of beer and a can of hagen and a truck load of Jack Russel's....Find one as good as that ugly little bas@#$% that drinks and chews and keep him around....

[pegleg]

DIm not the worlds best trainer. Ive tought more flaws then most folks my first hound hunted and i followed him. For better or worse he caught plenty of game . Later on i got onto my dogs for ranging out and got them to hunting to close for most good. I have made other mistakes to i inadvertently taught one to hunt skunk

[curtj]

Mine try to eat all the time, and act like there half deaf. Huh wonder were they get that from?From my perspective, you ca'nt make them be cat dogs. Either they got it or they do'nt 98% of them lack something and that's why most of us have more than a couple dog's to have the ingrediant's takes for one that's got's it all . Them half runnin dog's sure don't have the stay put in the treeing, as the old hounds I had or other people had in the past, but when you get a good one, they sure do every thing else nice.

[mike martell]

One thing to have something bred into the dog,but another to have problems directly related to the handler.....I have seen more related issues (bad habits)from handling than breeding....To properly understand this, I look back on dogs of the past and say, man if I had that dog now with what I know...

Curt, stop by the next time you are in this neck of the woods.

Mike

[Ker_man]

Mike my first hound I raised and trained was a bad tree chewer. I always thought that it was genitc and hated it as a habit since he would bark very little at times.
The training scent never crossed my mind, but an old guy sold me some kind of grease based coon scent that I used to train him to track and tree.
This dog is still my measuring stick for cold trailing very cold nosed open trailer that could occasionally go backwards

At two he was cold trailing bobcats and giving me some fun though he never treed many because he was too wild on the track.
Up to this point he had never run a deer that I know of but one day I put two young dogs on a cold trail that was not moving well and the cold trailer blasted away on a deer.

Then I bought a used Tritronics the old one with the wire in the collar for a antenna that wasn't worth two sheets if A/# wipe( hind sight)...........and pointed him at a deer, even encouraged him a bit and he went........pushed the button...again.......did some preaching Xxxx! and finally picked him up later and used the old fashion breaker. The dog would still cheat when he was eight. I have some very definite ''DON'TS'' in my mind now.

Unreal_tk These are dumb things but I was young (over 25 yrs ago) and any mentoring was long distance. Humble Pie

[mike martell]

Ker_man

I owned one dog in over forty years of hunting that chewed on the tree and it was a plott that despised bears...other than that the other was my fault or at least that is my theory and reason for asking Thomas my question.

Might be worth mentioning and if you use scents place them well above the dogs reach making the dog use his nose to locate is probably better.....I bet if I read the directions it was in there!

This is good stuff if people are honest with what they have done in the past....Might just help the next guy out some....

Today in the last day of November and tomorrow bobcat season is open State wide....Adios BGH site! Good luck to all who are hitting it tomorrow....

[Unreal_tk]

Over the last few days we've had dry sugar snow, really showed me what the pups are capable of. One habit I could seee a younger guy doing is finding a decent track and giving up to easily and it will make into a habit. I had my pups out on a track yesterday, they kept on wanting to come back to the truck, I stood there and re cast them on the track 3 times. After about 30 minutes of this, they finally took to cold trailing on the cat. Alot of guys I think would of said this is to old and gave up, and that's where the habit starts. Any thoughts?

[Warner5]

I believe an impatient hunter can make hot nosed dogs w/o realizing it. By calling dogs back on a slow track, hopeing to find a better one down the road. After awile dogs learn to come back about the same time hunter is about to call them off. How do I know this? Have been that impatient hunter before. All seems well until one goes out with a hunter or a dog that has been trained by a hunter with more patience. Thank you. John.

[dwalton]

Good points guys, I feel that the hunter has a huge affect on a dogs ability to cold trail. You can make them or break them on cold trailing. I have caught many cats that hunters have turned out on and not been able to get going. Walking a dog out past the turn out will usually get me a cat. I always help my dogs to find a track out on a lose when possible or give them time to find it. As stated earlier send them back two or three times to find the track. It all depends on the conditions. Dry powder, rain on snow or dry ground can all affect what a dog can do. Tracks that are old that I think are not going far I will work hard or walk the dogs out to catch them. It is the call of the hunter not the dogs as to what tracks to work depending on conditions, location and the amount of cats in a area if one should spend time to catch that cat. To me the most important part of cat hunting is the cold trailing. Moving a old track fast enough to catch up to the cat. The jump is the easy part with the right dogs and the treeing comes with dogs that are track smart not tree smart. Dewey

[Unreal_tk]

I think alot of it has to do with the garmin era, I am myself guilty of putting dogs on a track and not leaving the truck. Telemetry did have its pluses in the reguard it made fellas walk behind dogs alot more.