cobalt wrote: Rig dogs may be born, but I'll take a trained one who's rigged a 1000 tracks over a genetically superior one that's never been allowed to work any. Experience always trumps genetics. .
That philosophy may work good for a guy that is an excellent trainer but for a dumb ass like me,the only chance I got at having a dog that is good enough to piss of my friends is to luck out and come across one of those rare naturals that excels in spite of my ignorance.
training a rig dog isn't hard, as you can tell from this post there is hundred of different ways of doing it, the biggest thing is patiention, (spelled wrong) and time, it takes time to train a good rig dog, even one of those born ones, the biggest thing is breaking them off rigging and running trash, after that its just practice, and watching, it helps alot if you know your dog. another way is to throw up a couple of bear dogs on rig, and drive down the road, if they bark dont turn them loose till you cut a track then the dog that barked first loose, we do this every spring, regardless of how broke the dogs are, the problem with this is the bear usually has to be pretty fresh, if you are where you can run baits, (which i think does wonders for puppies, not sure on older dogs), set it up with a tracking collar with a string attached to a log and check it till dark, if the magnet gets pulled you know a bear was just in there, and drive by it with dogs on top, and see which one rigs, the problem with this is that as posted above it can get the dogs rigging the bait or dead animals, and after that it just takes time, you aren't going to be rigging day old tracks, or even tracks that crossed before dark for a long time, and like i posted in this post, trash breaking is key with a rig dog, but that is just like anything else with dogs.
Bristolblues- You have a sound understanding of what you have and what you want. You know what your doing. My advice was humbly addressed to the the guy who started this thread and what I recommend that he might consider because he hasn't experienced the making of a rig dog. Trueblue- If that's the case, I'm taking your "dumb ass" to Vegas. You're one lucky rig dog jackpot!!
My 2 cents worth is to shock them right in the box and yell at them. I have shocked lots of dogs in the box. They learn a lot faster i think. Good luck!
I think it all goes back to being able to read your dogs, then it's up to you to see how you want to correct them. If I've got a young dog stairing down a whitetail and barking, that isn't going to last long especially if the other dogs aren't saying a word. Now if it is winding and the other dogs are striking, I will give him some leeway and let him show me what's up.
I can guarantee you that a dog won't be barking non-stop in my truck. I usually give the dogs until the highway the first few times out cause they are rammy, and then it's zip your lip time unless they are striking something. I can't stand box barking on nothing. It is the thing that drives me absolutely crazy.
I was under the impression this post was about how to train up a rig dog, not how to cure babbling idiots. My dogs are trained at home to SHUT UP, but that's another topic.
Mine are also trained to shut up at the house, but that doesn't mean the same dogs will automatically be quiet as a mouse when you load them in the truck. The dogs get so keyed up as soon as they know they're going hunting. If I open the door of the house at O dark thirty, they know it's hunting time. The only way I can keep them quiet at that time is the hose or having a collar on them. And even then, they are quick to snap off a few barks.
It's pretty amazing how dogs get tuned in to our actions. Mine won't say boo, until I back in the hunting truck, rattle a leash, or they hear a bell off the tracking collar. It's the same how my lab will lay around all day until he sees me throw on a pair of shoes, then he knows we're going someplace.
I think Nolte was just tring to answer bristolblues Question on if he should shock his dog when rigging trash? So we really didnt leave the topic we are still talking about how to train rig dogs. And I agree with what nolte thinks about shocking a dog when rigging trash. Not tring to start anything just tring to figure out where we left the topic?
10-4. I hear ya and I think what Nolte's saying is on target and sound advice. I just don't do trash breaking(when my temper is in check) on the box as a rule, but babblers will get de-babbled quick, fast and in a hurry.
i agree with what most of what they are saying, and its very hard to have a controlled enviroment, unless there is no wind at all, cause they could be smelling the bear through the trash trails, usually when i rig a bear the bear isn't right there nor is the track, it could be up the road or even behind you if the wind is right, even when i do drags, the only way you could tell for sure that they was rigging the trash trails, is for example if you was traveling south down a road with a southeast wind, then when you drove over the trash trail, you would know there was no why they could be rigging the drag cause you haven't crossed over it, but the best way is just trial and error, your going to run trash off from rigs if you don't have other finished dogs and are just starting out, that is going to happen no matter what, you need to know your dog and how he acts with trash, and cobalt i know you was just giving your advice on it, i was just wondering on the questions, but there really no way you could answer it, there is so many thing that would go differently to answer, i wonder if the guy who posted this topic is even reading them anymore?
If he's not reading this, I'm sure there are others that are thoroughly confused to make up for him. We all get on here to spin our wheels anyway. Rigging is a interesting and mysterious phenominon, I think. There are many types of rig dogs because of how they are and how we train them. You have to experience a few of them to know there are subtle and obvious differences. Hot and cold, hair trigger and guaranteed track starters and many others. My lead strike dog at this moment outstrikes other dogs on game that is often pretty far away. Other dogs I've had strike old tracks that crossed the road that he couldn't. It's like running dogs vs track dogs, they do things differently and can come up with the same result. It's like Nolte said, you've got to know your dogs and this can only come with experience after experience. That is what makes it fun and challenging and that's why they call it hunting. All that matters is that you're treating your dogs right and having fun, which to me is running my dogs on hot or cold tracks and catching an acceptable percentage of those tracks.
