11 week old, how to start rabbit training.

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aaz

11 week old, how to start rabbit training.

Post by aaz »

Hi,
Have had a male for a week, 11 week old and never trained a dog for hunting before. Where do I start? I tought him how to sit, and started a little dummy retrieving already. I want to get him going on rabbits and just need to know where to start.

Also another question I have had is when hunting with beagles, is there a "stop" command once you see the rabbit to avoid shooting your dog? Is it typical to attempt to train that behavior? Something I am concerned about as well.

riptide

training pup

Post by riptide »

I started just taking mine out on a walk to the creek or the feild,mine would play at first,but they would start to hunt and sniff around.take them out as much as possiable.Then i got me a tame rabbit and would sit it out in the feiald.then let the pup hunt till it jumps it. That seem to work for me.Also letting them run with older dogs works good to :lol:

BriarHopper6
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Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2003 6:53 pm
Location: Rustburg, Va

Training a 11 week old puppy

Post by BriarHopper6 »

This is good that you have done some obidience work with him. The main things for me is to come when called or come when i blow a whistle. At the age of your puppy this is easy to do. Puppies learn faster with treats. I use cut-up hotdogs. I associate the whistle with the treat and before you know it if he gets too far out or is heading in the wrong direction he'll return when you blow the whistle. The stop command is the "down" command. When you have him trained he will drop down so you can put the lead on him if need to. As far as stopping him when he's running a rabbit the majority of the time the only time they will be close together will be on the jump (rabbit getting up and running) this is not the time to shoot as you may shoot your dog or make him gunshy. Always let the dog run the rabbit and he will circle the rabbit back to you. I agree with the fellow before me.....just take your puppy out to places where rabbits may be and let him sniff around and he'll find one. Happy Training :D

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kjohns
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Post by kjohns »

Don't worry about stopping the dog to shoot the rabbit. Even the fastest dogs are usually at least 30 yards behind the rabbitt. Just make sure you know where the dog is at all times and if there is any question as to him being in the line of fire don't shoot, wait for the next circle. But 90% of the time when the rabbit is circled back to you, you'll have a safe shot with the dog singing away.

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