BigGameHoundsmen.com

I got a new dog today, he's a treeing walker, almost two years old. This dog is an outstanding hound, he belonged to a friend of mine and I have seen the dog strike and start a cat track, verified by an older broke cat dog, and catch coon by himself, I have very high hopes for him. He has only ever been freecasted and when turned loose he just goes off and hunts and doesn't stop until he finds something, my three other dogs have all been roaded when hunted and do very well, how would you go about teaching this dog to road with the others? I am wary about shocking him back to a road as he is probably going to be my best strike and start dog out of the pack and I'm not keen on shocking him off a track. He is pretty silent when cold trailing so if he was off the road I don't know if he'd be working out a track or just off hustling for one. One thing I've considered is roading along alot of county roads around here that are surrounded by empty cotton fields where there's no game, I thought it might teach him to stay in front since there's nothing to track anywhere nearby. Also the dog was not hunted regularly by the previous owner and will be hunted at least four days a week by me, do you think that would get him settled down and roading better? When you turn him loose right now he's a maniac and goes a hundred miles an hour.

I would try roading him in the dark with other dogs. Seems dogs will stay in your headlights at night. That's how I trained mine for when I do road which is rare.

A shock collar is the way to keep him in control when roading. After a few times of this he will catch on to what he is suppose to do and not do. This it will not hurt a dog from free casting what so ever when done correctly. A dog needs to be controlled when you say he goes until he finds a track, this behavior needs to be corrected also a dog needs to have boundries on what ever they are doing and correcting these problems will make your hunting alot easier and funner and more successful.. Andy

Andy, if you hunt four days a week,and have plenty of hard running, this might help sap some of your hounds pent up energy. You might try yoking him to one of your road dogs and putting them down a road where the possibility of them striking a track is not very likley, and after he's been held in the road several miles you might turn him loose and work on him with the shock collar. I'm sure not any expert trainer, at all, but we always take time to teach all of our hounds and cur cowdogs to come to us when we call there names. We use a long rope, a tight strong collar, a variable intensity electronic training collar, and a lot of patience. I always start one of these training sessions by giving myself a good talking to, such as "I like this dog, and I just want to teach him to be a more useful and enjoyable friend, and I sure don't want to hurt him". I've failed to practice patience, and tried to rush through this process several times, got mad and ruined some nice prospects. The real benefit of this is, the dog feels like when he is shocked, for any reason, he better lookyou up in a hurry. In other words if had a young dog holding up a herd of cattle, and I needed to stop him and he would'nt listen, and I shocked him, I believe he would feel like he was being punished for not coming to me rather than for baying the cows. If your hound knows that he has to come when you call him, just call him back into the road when he leaves to just go hunting. If he's smelling game let him go. I sure didnt mean to get so long winded, sorry, Hope this might help.I'll hush now John

one thing to think about, if you start hittin the button on the road the dog might start thinkin that he's not to leave the truck, the next thing you know and see is that he is runnin circles around the truck, or gettin under a tire

James, I agree with your comments. Most dogs I have taught to come, when there name is called, can be put back in the road with a voice command or a tone signal, maybe, a low intensity shock, if needed. I believe if I can make him come on command, I can help a dog overcome most of his bad actions. I haven't had much luck teaching a dog to DO things, with a shock collar, but I have been pretty successful teaching them NOT to do things like,running trash, or not coming when called. I use the tone button a lot to call our cow dogs off of cattle. I am a real fan of these collars as a training aid, but they can surely cause problems, when misused or overused. I once was told by a real good hunter and trainer that one of the keys to training a dog, is knowing when to "let up on the dog, any fool knows when to bear down". I'll hush now. John

Florida, you are sure right I should have clarified shock collar as I asume they all have tone buttons and they sure dont. Like you said a tone or light buzz is all it usually takes.

Andy : Very good advice here from Florida and Twist. We call this yard work in the bird dog world. Bring him up here and I'll show you how to use the check cord and a low intensity collar. In the right hands electricity is a very valuable tool in the wrong hands it is disaster. He just needs to know com' here from sic 'em. Then we'll go to the big pen. If he handles in the yard, he'll handle in the field as well. Don I sent you a pm.

He's a new dog to you and your pack, keep that in mind before you go training on him to hard, establish a little trust first. Now dont starve the dog, but cut his food back a bit. He should be some hungry but when given the choice between food dish or truck he should choose truck. Then- hunt him down, wear him out, make his muscles hurt a little. Keep some treats handy. Once he slow's a bit and starts to come around reward him. He may not need much training, just some time to come around. Sounds like a good prospect to me. Good luck. Hope this helps. John.

Thanks for all the help everyone. I went out and roaded a while tonight on the cotton field roads and necked that dog up to another of mine that roads well. It seemed to work pretty well, the older dog kept him in check and got him to finally pick his head up and just travel a little bit and cover some ground, I could tell he was more relaxed after I roaded about four miles or so. I went to a little twenty acre spot I have close by and freecasted them all, the new dog struck but didn't tree anything, I eventually caught him about a mile away from where I dumped out. I don't know what it was, probably a coon but who knows, he tends to be a little trashy sometimes when he's fresh. I know it wasn't a cat as I have ten or so year old dog who is straight cats and he stayed by me the entire time. Don sounds good, I'll come up this weekend and do some training and we can hunt at Glass's I think the deer hunters are gone, I'll call Charlie tomorrow and make sure, sent you a pm.

with the dogs i have i taught them to road by turning them lose and wenever they leave the road and dont stike i honk the horn if they dont turn around shock them they catch on quick and if they still arent roading right put them on the striking rack and make them watch the other dogs it kills them this is what work for me hope it help you.