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[jacobklein2008]

Hi my name is Jacob Klein I am from western iowa and I am somewhat new to hounds. I have 3 beagles right now I am hoping to run on fox and coyote for now and maybe work on coon in the years to come.

[david]

Welcome Jacob. My first hound was actually a beagle in Iowa (union). I learned to trap as a kid InWestern Iowa (Oakland). Never underestimate the power of a beagle to wreck your life. It is a gateway drug.

I have lived a lot of places and never
Seen a state with more abundant fur than Iowa. I knew of a trapper who caught one thousand coon every single year. Only in Iowa.

My beagle would not tree. Maybe some will. You might need a dog from another breed to put with your beagles for tree barking on coon. Many farm dog breeds/ mix breeds , and bird dog breeds will bark treed for you if you don't have a tree hound.

Keep the faith, have fun , and keep us informed on how it's going.

[jacobklein2008]

I also have a jack Russell terrier that acts like he may have some tree in him, even thought about crossing him with one of the beagles to see what kind of hunting dog I get.

[david]

Do you drive? I don't know how old you are. But there are a lot of guys in Iowa making farmers happy by Jack Russelling coons out of their barns. You have to Cary a lot of tools like pry bar saw etc. And some wood to patch things back up, but they get pretty addicted to doing it and catch more coon than most houndsmen or trappers.

Some terriers will tree and others will not. I think most will "locate" up. But not all will bark up. Test him out with a fresh road kill cat or coon or whatever you can pick up. Tie him up and let him watch you run away from him dragging it by a line. Let him watch you put the line over a high limb and pull it up into the tree. Rub it on the tree bark also. Then let him go and see what he does. You might be able to coax him to tree barking by lowering it, and then pull it out of his reach again. You can t Ty this with your beagles as well. I have heard of some individuals that will tree.

If you teach your dogs the command "speak" ahead of time, it will really help them understand what you want from them here at this tree. It's not too hard to train this command. Just get them in a situation where you know they will bark, keep repeating "speak" and reward them for it.

[david]

Jacob, you know Iowa has a bobcat season now too. Beagles have proven themselves on bobcats in south Texas and other places as well.

[jacobklein2008]

The jack Russell will look up if he sees something in the tree like a squirrel or a coon but won't bark yet. And I have cleaned out some brush piles with the jack Russell before and haven't had this particular one in any barns yet but my uncles and dad used to do it when I was a kid. On the bobcat subject how would you get them going on one when you don't have much snow to find tracks? Can I make them a track with a good training scent like grawes? Or will that work to train them that way.

[jacobklein2008]

And I think my older male beagle will tree well because he used to belong to a guy that owned a fox pen and he said the fox would occasionally tree.