BigGameHoundsmen.com

I was curious if anyone has any ideas how to keep game crazy or just crazy dogs from climbing trees? I have been having a bit of trouble here of late with a particular dog summitting trees and I mean going to the top. If the dog would just fall out and brake its neck it would be over and problem solved. One night that almost happened when the hound ran up a tree after a coon and ran it off the end of a bent over tree some 20ft up, just like a buffalo jump. But the Indians are not suppose to jump with the buffalo but this one did and survived. But I am concerned next time it won't be so lucky... or rather I won't be so lucky with a big vet bill. If any of you have experience with this I wouldn't mind a few pointers. Just the other night this same hound treed a coon and climb the tree after it and I had to go up after the dog at my own parrel and lower the hound out with a fifty foot cord we just happened to have. This is getting to be a bit of a problem. If nothing else the dog pushes game out of the tree or into place we can't find them. By the way this situation has nothing to do with my screen name that is implied for other critters not my hounds.

Two out of three of my dogs climb trees and climb well. I have been very fortunate that none have been hurt. I have never been able to find out a way to break them.

I had the mother of all tree climbers, who just like you described pushed many a coon out of a tree. He took some nasty falls. Mother luck was on his side. He ended up getting killed by a bear on the ground. I had been starting to get reluctant to coon hunt him because he was such a nice beardog, and I was worried he'd fall out of a tree, drown, or get run over.

Hounds seem to be able to find the most ways to get themselves killed. Especially the good ones.

Good luck!

it sucks,i deal with the same thing on a nightly basis. ive tried some things but a true climber does it way before you ever make it to the tree. ive read where guys with tree jackers tie something heavy to the collar so it knocks em in the head when they jump, but a lot of the trees where i hunt are well suited to be climbed even without a running start. LOL. good luck.

get a leash on them and yank them down hard --over and over ,,till they stop -
seems to help with young dogs/pups --

If the dog would just fall out and brake its neck it would be over and problem solved.

yeah . i think that will happen sooner or later- my luck . he would fall on a dog that doesnt climb and kill them both -

, walk him into trees with a shock collar-

shock him as he starts to climb-


repeat repeat repeat----- its a little risky , if it was my dog , i would try it -



we dont tree often in trees that dogs can climb easy so its not a real common problem here - i can think of several young dogs that didnt do it anymore as they got older - whether it was training or just luck , cant be sure .

-

Thanks for the comments. That may be a good stratagy. I always turn dogs loose with shock collars, which is intended to persuade against trashing. I am relunctant to shock a dog trying to do its job. But I do see some ideas in what you mentioned. The theroy behind shock training is for the dog to have a consequence that it won't accociate with the trainer (if done right). So maybe from a distance if I see the dog in a tree, before I approach I shock it (and this could be a little haphazard, because it could cause the dog to jump out and get hurt) then approach the tree at random timings. So the dog won't associate the sock with me approaching. Then get the dog out of the tree and encourage it to tree from the ground. Then while I am there at the tree with it, shock it each time it attempts to go up a tree being careful not to yell at it or physically interfere. But overwhelming it with praise when it stays on the ground and trees properly. I think the important factor here is for the dog to learn for itself it does not pay to climb. Because if it beleives I am the rode block that keeps it from the critter, he very next time we hunt it is going to get to the tree as fast as it can and run up it to catch the critter before I get there.

Maybe a safer way which will take more work is to impliment the above ideas but walk the tree climber into the other treeing hounds and turn it loose when I can be around to influence it before it ever gets up in the tree.

So a note worth metioning is I train my dogs on lions and bobcats. I only run coon for something to do in the off season. I am surprised at how many trees a dog can go up. I have even seen tree climbers go up a conifer like scafolding on a bulding. Often these tree climber are some of the best dogs because that game craziness that drives them to climbing is also what makes them so motivated to hunt. But here is the bigger picture... sure we are concerned about the dogs safety but if the dog tries to climb everytree it puts something in it will flush the critters right out and they will be empty when we arive. Or some cat or bear will pull it up with it and all will be over.

I appricate everyones intrest in my problem, it sounds like some of you have had some issuse of your own too. I have got some ideas I want to try out and we should have some results soon. I will let you know what works or if I fail misserably.

i shock my dogs out of the tree. seems to work really well

"The theroy behind shock training is for the dog to have a consequence that it won't accociate with the trainer (if done right)."
I have read the above "theory" many times and I don't agree with it. The collar is on the dog to extend my reach. To convince him what I want and especially don't want him to do. If he is too dumb, hardheaded, untrainable, to the point where you can't get the point across what you want and don't want: time to cut your losses. If he is too stupid to figure out that I am really getting him and not that coyote, it is probably time to cut losses as well.

B-N-Trees, I think you are thinking way too hard about this and being a little too touchy-feely. Just bust that dogs butt every time you can catch him climbing or can set him up climbing. Like has been mentioned, yank them out with a leash, shock them out, or my favorite to climb up the tree and shake the crap out of him and drop him out.

"I am relunctant to shock a dog trying to do its job." My dogs job is to tree, not climb trees and jump out the game. So unless you want them in the trees and the consequences that come from it, bust them for doing it.

Pat

you might not agrre with it, and thats fine. i do it that way and it works awesome. usually only have to do it at one tree, no vet bills, no trouble with the dogs, just results

lionhunterdaves wrote:i shock my dogs out of the tree. seems to work really well

Did I really just read this or am I just dreaming?

Wow. Speechless on this one. I gotta be dreaming.

"Did I just read that or am I dreaming.". Your not dreaming your a freaking smart ass who probably doesn't know his head from his a$$

I guess I must not know my head from my ass... Never had a brilliant idea like shocking a dog that's treeing on a lion!! Like the Guiness commercial says, "BRILLIANT!!

Shocking a dog that's treeing a lion or bear... pure genius stuff there. How did I not think of that?

I must have read the wrong manual. I just got the Hounding 101 manual and it didn't cover that advanced training. Well, quitting time!!

Gotta get home and beat my daughters. Both of them got mid-term Straight A's, they are gonna pay for that with a good beating!!

I don't own a shocker but have "mostly" gotten my tree climber to stop. I say mostly because last night he did it again after not doing it for months... Anyhow this time all I had to say was "Get down!" and he did, then came to my feet and got all licky because he knew he had done wrong. I just pulled him out the first few times I caught him up a tree so he knows its wrong but must have getten caught up in the moment and forgot.

Last night I was half asleep when I heard Jake leave his dog house(its right outside my window). Then I hear a fox squeeling like its being murdered, Jake must have caught it but let go after getting bitten, he is not much of a kill dog... A few mins later he was barking treed over at the creek, still inside the orchard. I found him up the tree with the fox face barking and trying to grab it without getting bitten.

Anyhow just keep telling them climbing is bad but treeing is good and maybe you will keep it to a minimum. On the plus side I have seen dogs do some crazy things like jump off 15-20 foot cliffs while chassing critters and keep on going. Them dogs are tuff! I also had a dog jump off a 10 foot cliff and crack a bone in his leg near the lower joint, he healed up ok but could not totaly bend his paw after, didn't slow him down though.

Bad Dawg I mean Hound Dawg , LOL!

Must be the current trend Obama and all that Nobel Peace stuff.

Ok Let's take the weekend off, and then on Monday we will have a conference call and see if you are going to be the head or the arse this week. I am good with either because all the super hounders have had the new flash of brilliance and they seem to have the goods on us. So $hit what can I say man we have been found out. So no more of this lion and bear and bobcat BS while we are surfing the hip hop joints or down getting a new Tat.

Hey I am just a little pissed and you should be to. All that damn time we were spent out there on a sort of snipe hunt chasing old Sam or Gunner around as they chased field mice and gophers and such we could have been pulling you know what out of you know where and then we would have arrived early.? We would not have had to petition old Zeus to get into the dance we could have arrived on are own merit, oh I mean fingers.

Oh well , not to fret at least we have a generation of professionals to guide us and for that we should be greatfull, dead, oh I mean greatfull, or gratefull what ever! Man just another DeadHead. Ha! And you wondered why my hounds wear bandanas?

Sorry must have been the old No
#7, or maybe No. #8 LOL!

Gee I wonder what it is like to live wondering if you are ever going to measure up to some sorry sob you have had the pleasure of running down? Hmm? Intersting thought.

Why would you go to the trouble? Oh I forgot it is no trouble for you....Wink!

O.k. ya'll I think I got this dog tree climbing thing figured out...

LEASH AND YANK YANK+ SHOCK + SHAKE AND DROP = CUT LOSSES

This will probably work!!

"Houndawg" no one ever said a damn thing about shocking a dog for treeing a lion or bear, I do believe the post was about getting a dog to stop climbing up in the tree. I recomend you read what I wrote and not try and change stuff around.