Hunting with Sighthounds

[sdiguana]

Does anyone use the sighthound family for rabbiting? I have a 12 week old whippet that I'm wanting to train to be a rabbiter, but i'm a bit new to the whole bit.

i know there are a number of beaglers in western wa, but its a bit of a different game with the sight vs scent hounds i figure 

cheers

[beagledog]

Not sure how the sight hound thing works but I think you would need a tracking dog or dogs to get rabbits moving before the sight dog takes over

[bearpaw]

Seems to me a sight hound will not do well unless you are hunting open country. I have heard of guys using sight hounds on coyotes in open country of other states. But we can't hunt coyotes with dogs in WA and you live in western WA! I would look for a beagle. 

[bare.hunter]

maybe you could use that dog to chase jackrabbits in the open country.

[runamuk]

Does anyone use the sighthound family for rabbiting? I have a 12 week old whippet that I'm wanting to train to be a rabbiter, but i'm a bit new to the whole bit.

i know there are a number of beaglers in western wa, but its a bit of a different game with the sight vs scent hounds i figure 

cheers

field coursing is not done here as we dont have a huntable population of jack rabbits I investigated this long before deciding to do any other hunting, there are people who run coyotes with their wolfhounds, but mainly its open field coursing competition on jackrabbits in the desert. Its big in California and Nevada.  I think the issue is sighthounds work way way far away

here is some saluki work in the middle east saluki's were bred to hunt gazelle whippets ran hares and races in england

طرد ارنب بالسلق منتديات القنوص

to best keep up you need to be in a truck or on horseback

and whippets in England

Fieldsports Britain - Whippets in Yorkshire and Cirencester pheasants

usually people lure course now to run sight hounds in this area and even that draws the ire of animal rightsists

[sdiguana]

the thought so far was setting him out on fields to run the cotton tails at dawn. i am hoping to find some local farms that i can get permission to run him on as he starts taking to his training... it would help the farm and i get bunnies. since its private land and considered pest eradication does that open up the nights? or do the same rules apply as public lands for day/night? i do know in england they favor night hunting "lamping" since that is when the bunnies are out. not much of an advantage for the dog, just more quarry.

[runamuk]

the thought so far was setting him out on fields to run the cotton tails at dawn. i am hoping to find some local farms that i can get permission to run him on as he starts taking to his training... it would help the farm and i get bunnies. since its private land and considered pest eradication does that open up the nights? or do the same rules apply as public lands for day/night? i do know in england they favor night hunting "lamping" since that is when the bunnies are out. not much of an advantage for the dog, just more quarry.

I honestly could not find anyone running cottontails with whippets I looked into it really wanted to hunt sighthounds and that seemed the most likely way to go.  If you have a big tract of private ground I'd say give it a shot the dog will certainly have a ball 

[sdiguana]

Well, I've about 9 mo before he will be mentally ready to give it a go. I will keep ya posted on it. Plenty of time to befriend a few farmers & ranchers who have those vast tracts of field. 

[sdiguana]

Ok follow on question...

Since this pup is my first dog as an adult, and i'd like him to be a good(reasonable..?) hunting dog, i assume spending a bit of time with a trainer for hunting dogs is a good idea.

Does anyone have any recomendations on hunting dog trainers? ideally near seattle, but quality matters more.

i realize a sighthound is likely outside thier wheelhouse, so i wouldn't / couldn't go as far with a training program as a retriever or pointer, but none the less, preliminary work would be a good thing.