Training your pup

Over the last 20 years I couldn't tell you how many time's I've been ask how do I train my dogs to hunt. I thought I would share some of the things I have found to be successful and easy, even if you live in town.
First question I usually get is when do I start training my puppy. Training can start as soon as 5 weeks old. For me the sooner the better, when they start getting around pretty good on their own that's when I started taking them for little walks. Not to far, just around the yard so I could watch each pup and how they will react to things. I make mental notes on which puppy lead the others, which one smelled around the most or was the most observant about things going on around it.
As they get older those pups were usually the ones that learn the fastest and made the best hunters. I've also had late bloomers that didn't really start hunting until they were past a year old, each pup will be different.
The important thing is to start early, puppies are no different then wolf or fox pups. The thing that interest them the most is food and play so use them to train your pups. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not talking about starving your puppies but if they have all they want to eat then the desire to hunt more food will be less so always train before feeding them.
The best thing I found is about a third of a hot dog, put it on a string 4 or 5 feet long then attach it to a fishing pole or stick. There's a reason for doing this, its so the pups don't track you instead of the hot dog so always keep whatever your using away from you.
Drag it around the grass in your yard, not to far at first. Make it easy for them to find it, then when they get good at finding it make it a little harder for them. After awhile you'll see them making great progress in finding their food, just like the wolf and fox pups do. Then make the trail harder, maybe lifting it up and putting it down missing several feet, this teaches them to track. Always make it fun for the pup, if they love it they will want to do it.
You don't have to spend a lot of time doing this, maybe 5 to 10 minutes a day, if you have children its always great fun for them.
After the pup learns to find the hot dog on the ground then you can start putting it up on a tree or hiding it under sometime, when the pup gets so good that it find it every time its time to do something else.
Find a road kill squirrel and cut off its tail, put the tail on the string with the hot dog and continue to train your pup, then when it gets a little older take away the hot dog and only give it a piece of the hot dog as a treat when it finds the squirrel tail as a reward. When the pup is old enough to keep up with you start taking it for walks in the woods. If you have someplace where you can put up a squirrel feeder that's great. Its always fun to set and hold the pup back and feel the excitement build, then turn the pup loose and watch it go after the squirrels. If you keep after your training the pup should be hunting and treeing before its 9 month old. I found that all dogs are different, some will bark up sooner then other. Always remember to make a big deal and fuss over your pup, when it sees its pleasing you it will try even harder. Well I hope this help someone, it always seemed to work for me. Tim

That's a good tip about using a hot dog Tim. I'll give it a try. my adults go after any animal they see, but don't really use their nose much without ever havng any real training. As far as barking on tree, you are saying the majority just picked that up on their own after a few months? I'm wondering what to tell any potential customers from my full cry ad. We don't have any trees so the only squirrels my dogs see go to ground. The dogs just start digging then and don't stand around barking... Jack

I'll tell ya Jack, some Decker bark up on there own but some have to be trained. If you don't have trees then use a light pole, anything to make them look up and see that squirrel tail, they won't care if its a light pole or the side of your house. If you can get them to bark up then its a trait that is natural and chances are their pups will have it also.
I know a lot of those southern boys and they don't have to much use for a dog that won't bark up. That why I wouldn't breed a dog before I got it to bark up. You have a lot better chance of pasting that trait on to the pups if the mother or father is a tree dog. Plus it adds a whole lot of value to a dog if it can locate and bark up at a squirrel or coon.
When I got Mr. Big from Milton I didn't know if he would bark up at squirrels or not. I found out pretty quick that he was a natural, didn't walk 100 yards with him before I heard him barking. I went to see what he had and there he set at the foot of a big oak, I looked up and sure enough he had a squirrel at the very top of that tree. I think Mr. Big was 5 or 6 when I got him, I ask Milton if he every barked up before and he said no, so that was just born in him to do that.
I know some of the guys I sold dogs to wanted to see movie of them hunting and I was glad to show them what I had. Tim

If you want to get your dogs to use there noses more just start doing basic tracking with them. Most important is imprinting for it as a pup. I start them (my own) at 7 weeks already. Also use hotdogs here except they are sliced in very thin pieces. Prefer to use chicken or turkey dogs though. If anyone is interested in how I start imprint tracking just contact me.
Thanks,
Jill

Great tip thanks

Larry,
Wish you the best of luck in your tracking efforts, any questions feel free to contact me anytime. I'm not on here regularly, but do ck my e-mail a couple times daily so it was the best way for you to reach me. Keep me posted!
Jill

Thank you I will keep you informed

I'm more into the Wapiti than I am the small game. What I did with my Ellie was cut out the belly patch on an old bull I shot her first fall. That's the patch that they stink up so bad while in the rut for those that might not know. You cut it out anyways before you do anything else when field dressing a bull.


Anyways, I started out by letting her play with it and then moved onto a game of hide and seek. I'd put her on hold and go and hide that nasty bit of fur and hide and then tell her to "get the bull"!

By the time her next hunting season came around she was spot on that odor from 1000 yards away. Her ears will go stiff and she'll actually point and start doing a little quiver and barely audible whine.

The neat thing about these dogs is that they won't get a run on. I mean she does not just take off.

I've never had her on a track yet, but I do have enough friends that are stick flingers that one of these days she's gonna be tested.

i like to hunt a pup with an old dog.when they can run and tree with the old dog they get singled out and hunted by themselves.i feel it gives them all the exposure to game that they need to get started i understand the hot dog thing.but i like mine started on real scent of the game we will be hunting.i might be wrong but it works for me.thanks ron

Hunting a young dog with an older dog is the best way to get it started. Most of the time people don't have an older dog to hunt their pup with. I found over the years hunting with an older dog sometimes has its downfalls. If you have an older dog with no hunting faults that great, but if it has some undesirable faults the younger dog will pick up on them pretty quick, then you have that to deal with. I would only hunt my younger dogs with older dogs after they were finished to the point where I could trust them to hunt the way I wanted them to.
One time I had a beautiful young Blue Tic hound that was coming along nicely hunting by itself. Then one night I went with a friend that had an older hound, it hit a deer and my dog joined in. After that if he was with another hound he would start running deer every time. But if I hunted him by himself he wouldn't even look at deer. I tried everything to break him of running deer when he was with other hounds but couldn't, so I just gave up and hunted him alone. Most hunters have their own method of training. The hot dog thing was for the beginner that didn't have a clue on how to start a pup. It was the easiest way I could think of to get them working with their dog. Tim

tim im not knocking your methods if it works for you great.ive never done it that way.thanks ron

I didn't even think that you were knocking me...LOL...I was just sharing some of my experiences I've had with dogs over the years. Everyone should use the methods that work best for them. Tim

I think anything you can do to get your dogs using their nose is helpful. My wife plays a game with them in the house. We have squeeky squirrels. They are just a stuffed toy squirrel with a squeeker in them. The dogs love them. She hides them, then tells the dogs to "Get the Squirrel" When they are pups, she hides them easy, but as they get older, she hides them down in the couch cussions, and under things, in different rooms. You can watch them use their noses to find them. We work them outside, on live game with older dogs that are well trained, but this fun game is something we all enjoy, and it helps them tune in on a certain smell. I think Tim's hotdog method would certainly help teach them to use their nose.

Ellis

We had some of those squeeky squirrels!!!!! Like you mentioned we hid them in the couch.... well, while we were gone, one of the squirrels got down between the cusions.... when we got home there were what appeared to be parts of the squirrel all over the living room along with pieces of the couch.... that was one expensive training session.... had to get a new couch.....

Clyde

I always believed that you should start a pup as early as you can. I've known some old time hunters like my grandfather that wouldn't take a hound out until it was a year old. He always started them with older coon or fox hounds that were straight on their game, no trash, he always told me they wouldn't pick up any bad habit that way. He had some good fox and coon hounds.
For myself I believe dogs are just like children, the earlier you start teaching them something the faster they will catch on. You really can't do much with a 5 to 7 week old pup, but you can drag a piece of hot dog or bacon "I suggest turkey only!" around the yard, like I said it gives you a chance to watch the pups.
I remember one day I didn't watch them very good and they got into my wife's flower bed, in short order they made it look like someone took a weed wacker to the flowers. Me and the pups where in trouble over that.
It took those flowers a long time to bounce back to the way they were before. Funny how women don't forget little things like that isn't it. Tim