tree walker hounds i need some tips on training them i just picked up two pups??

[HairTrigger]

any tips would be good i wanna get them going

[Machias]

How old are they?

[HairTrigger]

7 or 8 weeks now

[WAcoyotehunter]

get the basic commands taken care of first, they're still way too young to hunt this winter.  you could start them with some small scent drags to get them "tracking"...drag a piece of lunchmeat a few feet and let them track to it, them get progressively further based on their ability. 

It takes a BUNCH of time in the woods to have a finished hound- be patient and enjoy watching thier progress.

My 4 month old pups followed today for the first time and actually stayed on a lion (and the other hounds) tracks for ~1.5 miles...I was pretty happy with that!!

[inchtowntracking]

Best advice would be just let them be pups for awhile but work on commands like was said earlier. What always gets our pups going is the house cat they chase around and play with. Our house cats have raised a couple dogs now and haven't tore in to them to hard yet.

[bucklucky]

Go buy yourself a bad to the bone, clean, good treeing hound dog that does it all and it will be alot easier to train them pups.

[bow-n-head]

 

[bow-n-head]

It's really bread into them to hunt you just have to control them. I had a couple of walkers, mine were very independent. I got a redbone that I really like. Chasing cats with hounds is a lot of fun. There's something about a cat in a tree and a pack of dogs at the base of the tree barking so loud you can't hear yourself think.

[bearpaw]

Go buy yourself a bad to the bone, clean, good treeing hound dog that does it all and it will be alot easier to train them pups.

Best advice that can be given to a newcomer to hound hunting, the experienced dog will teach pups and owner. 

[HairTrigger]

Thanks guys I'm looking for a coon to shoot or trap one but if cats work my neighbor really gonna love my dogs lol

[bucklucky]

Go buy yourself a bad to the bone, clean, good treeing hound dog that does it all and it will be alot easier to train them pups.

Best advice that can be given to a newcomer to hound hunting, the experienced dog will teach pups and owner. 

Its about the best advice I can give  If only I would have had that bad to the bone lead dog I wouldnt have been banging my head against a wall for so many years 

[Machias]

Thanks guys I'm looking for a coon to shoot or trap one but if cats work my neighbor really gonna love my dogs lol

Best advice I can give you is buy Tom Solberg's book "Dog Talk".  Awesome book for starting coonhound puppies.

2nd thing, I don't mean to be a kill joy but be very careful on an open forum discussing things like using coons for training, get you a big fine, same with house cats, actually even more trouble with cats.  Just don't want to see a fellow houndsmen get in a jam. 

[inchtowntracking]

Just clarify I don't trap the cats and use them to train dogs. My cats roam free and so do the puppies and when they get together the puppy plays with the cat. The cat will just set there and let the small puppy chew on it (so it can't be to bad). When the cat has enough he runs away and the puppy chases and trails. I don't not condone trapping of anything and using them to train a dog.

[HairTrigger]

Lol I didn't mean I was gonna trap the cats lol just a coon if I can lol the cats are always over eating the dogs food if they leave a few pieces layin around I wouldn't trap a domestic cat lol

[Machias]

Lol I didn't mean I was gonna trap the cats lol just a coon if I can lol the cats are always over eating the dogs food if they leave a few pieces layin around I wouldn't trap a domestic cat lol

Speaking from PAINFUL and EXPENSIVE experience several years ago, using coons is illegal as well. Gross Misdeameanor.   

[Arteman]

Go buy yourself a bad to the bone, clean, good treeing hound dog that does it all and it will be alot easier to train them pups.

Best advice that can be given to a newcomer to hound hunting, the experienced dog will teach pups and owner. 

Hands down the best way to get your pups going down the straight and narrow is by buying a finished dog to train your pups, and like BP said even to teach you.  Now depending what your after could be a lil spendy, coon dogs not so much, but bear dogs is getting up there, and finished cat dogs even more so.  Buy a 3 to 5 year old finished dog, one you can hunt a couple years and possible sale again.  I bought a finished cat dog for 4,500 hunted her a year and sold her for 4,000 and was only out 500.  Good investment if your into making dogs, and selling dogs.  And never buy without a trial.  Now it should be obvious but some of the best training starts at home before you even step foot in the woods, I say that because you would be surprised how many people don't work with hounds at home considering them not a house pet.  Their name comes first, try *censored*ting a box out in the woods with a bunch of pups that don't come to their name, not fun.  Teach them to let go or leave something that's in your hand, a rope or hide or something, dragging a coon or cat out is not fun with 4 dogs trying to rip it out of your hands.  One of the most important is never EVER let them fight over food, stop it early.  I know people had dogs killed by other dogs in a fight over game when they caught it on the ground and your not there to moderate.  If they fight over food, they will fight over game.  And don't use a E collar to teach comands, especially at a young age that's a good way to make a timid dog.  Let their first experience with electricity by with running trash,  first time they take after a deer, yote, or whatever.  All dogs learn at their own pase, some quicker than others but if you work with them enough they all learn.  Another thing I would work on at home is loading in, on, and off the box, get them familiar with being up there and having fun with it at home.  You take most pups out and put them on the box hunting that never been up there they will lay down scared *censored*less, also had a pup that would go to the back of the box and wouldn't come out that I had to crawl up in the hole and reach for her, stupid on my behalf.  Anyways hope this info helps out.

[HairTrigger]

Thanks all the info is helpful arteman thanks an I will be looking for that book online cause the borders in yakima shut down

[Machias]

Great advice from Arteman!!!

[bucklucky]

 

[Arteman]

An old timer taught me and makes since and ive seen it myself that if you work with these pups at home with the simple stuff and they learn it before you get them out and then when you do get them out in the woods they are moving forward and learning with the big dogs the things they should about hunting, and they progress much faster.  Instead of when you get out there and dump the box and your having dogs run off and your yelling, then they are confused because your yelling and won't come because their scared.  If you have control then you wont need to collar them up at home, and can do it when you get to the woods and wont have a box full of chewed up collars from pups, it makes for a much more pleasant start.  Also is very nice for when you need to call them out and you don't have to go for a walk after a pup thats decided to play deaf.  We never clipped up the big dogs but did the pups, you get a strike and the big dogs get off and fool around with a piss post get out and pet those pups up, get them amped and wanting off the box, this will help them with striking also, talk to them excited like and unclip them and walk them to the piss post and pet them up, if they strike and the big dogs don't then you know its trash but don't scold or shock them on the box ever for striking at a young age even if its no good, we just kept driving and id hang a head out the window and amp them up a bit and get them really talking, you can stop this later on the ground.  I had a natural born rig dog, as a pup she loved coyotes and would blow the box up, I was so proud of her, she wanted to be front always and would climb over the cab and ride the hood even, finally came to a point when enough was enough and waited for the right moment, one day a yote ran in front of the truck I rode through it and she came uncorked, I honored her strike and stopped, didn't encourage her at all and she bailed, waited tell she got off and right when she opened up I let her have it, she did not like what that yote did to her and came zipping back and was all it took for her.  As soon as your pups can hold a collar let them run, you can even crisscross a shock collar and tracking collar so it will fit and not fall off, your pups will never learn anything in the box, I'd rather walk after a pup that didn't make a race than wonder if It would have sitting in the box.  A good motto to have is its not about catching game its about training dogs, with good dogs the game will come, most good houndsmen dont even shot everything they tree, just pet their dogs up and walk out, they did their job.  Id get those two pups going as soon as possible, some people won't even start a dog tell after a year old, I've personally seen a 6 month old pup already rigging and trash broke and all about business from rig to tree only lacking in the locating department but that comes with experience.  Another thing, ive hunted with dogs that can catch anything, but you could tell whatever they was finished out on first makes what kind of dog it is, they was a little better or more driven on that game but still could catch them all.  Start your dog out on your choice of game as a pup then change it up later.  Be prepared to hunt a lot, making dogs is high maintenance, lots of travelling Idaho, Oregon, Cali.  Unless your thing is coons, but then again this state sucks for that also with wood closures and not being able to run dogs during BG seasons.  Maybe get in good with some timber land managers and hunt depredation bear permits. Hopefully the pilot program will come back, idk.  Anyways good luck with those two, I know if you make a bond with them now they will hunt that much harder to please you, its sad some houndsmen treat them like a tool, id treat them no different than I do my lab im trying to train to find me sheds.  Wow, I just wrote a book.