Training a 12 week old pup

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patchgirl
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Training a 12 week old pup

Post by patchgirl »

My husband and I just got our first beagle pup about a month ago. We've been working on some scent tracking in our yard, and today we took her out into the woods for the first time. We didn't kick up any rabbits, but had fun nevertheless. My husband shot his gun at a target and she wasnt too startled, so we thought that was a good start for her first day. Is it too early to put her in a starting pen with a rabbit? Any suggestions on what we should be working on?
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littlewoody
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Re: Training a 12 week old pup

Post by littlewoody »

Wait until 6 months don't shoot that gun around the pup wait til it's on a rabbit . You can make the hound gun shy like that .
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patchgirl
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Re: Training a 12 week old pup

Post by patchgirl »

Thanks! We'll take all of the advice we can get! Here's another question; should we be training her solo or should we take another dog with us? Friends of ours have an older female that was always an excellent hunter but is starting to slow down a bit.
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k5blazer
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Re: Training a 12 week old pup

Post by k5blazer »

If you plan on running her all the time solo than run her solo but if you are going to run her with other dog later on run her with other dogs some. It won't hurt to start her with that older dog but when she gets started run her by herself it wil build confadience
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patchgirl
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Re: Training a 12 week old pup

Post by patchgirl »

We plan on slowly building up a small pack so you're probably right, I should take our friends dog out with her a few times. Thanks!
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MPankratz
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Re: Training a 12 week old pup

Post by MPankratz »

Shooting around a dog won't necessarily make it gun shy. It's kind of a grossly overstated problem. If a dog was gun shy, I would certainly want to know that before I trained it for 6 months!

Introduce your pup to a rabbit. Live trap one and let the pup see it through the cage. Get the dog real excited by it and then let it go so the pup can chase it. That should really get him going and turned on to bunnies. Then I'd get a dead rabbit, and with pup watching from its kennel, I'd drag that rabbit on a rope across the yard, around a corner or two and hide it somewhere not too hard to find. Let the dog go and see how he does.

That's kind of the standard how to get a pup started. Once he's working the trail real well you should try to get him into the woods. I've never used a starting pen, personally. Just never had one near by. Getting into the woods in an area guaranteed to produce a rabbit is what I've always done. If the dog doesn't get a chase, no harm done, and you can keep trying, but the sooner he's chasing bunnies the better.

IMHO, it's a mistake to wait until 6 months. At twelve weeks you're about perfect to start with what I described above. At 6 months your dog should do okay trailing rabbits and will probably already be circling them back to you.

Suggestion- since winter is rapidly approaching try to make use of any light snow we get. It makes finding rabbits super easy, and you can check to make sure that your dog is on rabbit tracks, not deer or anything else.

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patchgirl
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Re: Training a 12 week old pup

Post by patchgirl »

Thanks for the great advice!
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beagleman23
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Re: Training a 12 week old pup

Post by beagleman23 »

good advice dont shoot around her may ruin her before she has a chance. gotta wait till they are running good. mpankratz dogs arent born gunshy they are made that way

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Re: Training a 12 week old pup

Post by johns03272008 »

In my opinion let the puppy be a puppy for awhile and let it play and grow up a bit, i wouldnt shoot around a puppy at that age but thats just me, good luck with your pup and hope it turns into a good one!!
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bunnybuster88
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Re: Training a 12 week old pup

Post by bunnybuster88 »

when you start a puppy that early it will bring out the worst in the owner and sometimes the puppy. you start getting impatient, no handle, not doing what you think he needs to do, and so on. to much pressure from the owner on a puppy can sometimes be a bad thing. to many times you hear people talking about their young pup barking behind other dogs, no hunt ( me tooers), will not do nothing without another dog, rattle headed. these are only some of the faults you may pick up when starting a pup to young. my advice would be, let him carry sticks, let him run circles fast as he can, LET HIM BE A PUPPY. then around five to six months old, try to start him on his own (instinct will take over) and not near the headache for the owner. the more that he does by himself, the better he will be. rule of thumb i use goes like this... for every time they hunt with another dog, solo twice. nothing no worse than a dog that does not hunt without other dogs....

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Re: Training a 12 week old pup

Post by sammiller03 »

as far as gun shy.. i use stainless food and water pans and bang them together all the time around puppies. the louder the better. never tip toe around puppies . if i slam a door and it startles them i slam it five more times till they are comfortable with it, then once they are running good i introduce gun fire . the key is to do it on controlled terms . dont take them out and let someone jum shoot with a 12 ga over their head. i usually start with a .410 and let the rabbit run past and get it in the oppisite directiuon of the dogs.

as far as starting. keeep taking it to the woods their is alot to learn other than running a rabbit (how to cross water /fences/ smells/ect). and yes i have seen them started at 12 weeks and never look back. you can never put in to much time but you can hurt them by not taking them to the woods .


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Rcoff
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Re: Training a 12 week old pup

Post by Rcoff »

There are lots of pups that never has carried sticks, ran in circles or what not. I have had plenty of pups that had no play what so ever, all hunt. If the pup wants to play, you can't make it hunt. If it wants to hunt, you can't make it play. My Casey female was running wild rabbit track at 12 weeks. Try the pup with rabbits as mentioned above, if he doesn't respond, wait a while, try again. There's a lot to teach a pup besides running rabbits that comes in handy once they start.
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rabbitatfarm
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Re: Training a 12 week old pup

Post by rabbitatfarm »

One of my pups started barking track at 13 weeks. I started taking them afield at 8 weeks. We learned how to get over, under or around obstructions, about thickets, tall grass, new smells, etc. I would just take the pup out and let it learn. Everything is new, no matter what age. As Ronnie Smith, a bird dog trainer in Oklahoma, is fond of saying: "It takes as long as it takes>" Let him be a puppy and don't push too hard or for too long. make the outings fun. One day, he'll just start.

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Bowguy
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Re: Training a 12 week old pup

Post by Bowguy »

bunnybuster88 wrote:
Wed Mar 26, 2014 10:56 pm
when you start a puppy that early it will bring out the worst in the owner and sometimes the puppy. you start getting impatient, no handle, not doing what you think he needs to do, and so on. to much pressure from the owner on a puppy can sometimes be a bad thing. to many times you hear people talking about their young pup barking behind other dogs, no hunt ( me tooers), will not do nothing without another dog, rattle headed. these are only some of the faults you may pick up when starting a pup to young. my advice would be, let him carry sticks, let him run circles fast as he can, LET HIM BE A PUPPY. then around five to six months old, try to start him on his own (instinct will take over) and not near the headache for the owner. the more that he does by himself, the better he will be. rule of thumb i use goes like this... for every time they hunt with another dog, solo twice. nothing no worse than a dog that does not hunt without other dogs....
This is the best post and one I’d recommend., the only difference is I’d do solo more like 4 to 1 braces and it’s got to be the right dog. No pressure and clean. No hooking, skirting and def no racing!!
Had a buddy throw his pup at 8 weeks in my pen. He actually started and started tracking rabbits. By a year he was so blown up he shoulda gave him away as a pet. He was useless imo.
Here’s another issue in my mind, it’s about vaccines and windows of opportunity. When a Mother’s antibody wears out we know not. We can vaccinate but if something lapses the dog is open to infection.
At 12 weeks is certainly too young to guarantee anything.
I know this post is older but I just saw it. Maybe it’ll help another guy.
Most places where rabbits are there are coyotes and other wild dogs. They aren’t vaccinated and parvovirus or another disease could be in em. I’d not be running a pup through that til a bit older but that’s up to you all.
I’d let them be a pup a bit before I took a chance. If the pup isn’t crazy shy which not many beagles are, gun shy is man made. Don’t test em acclimate em by starting w the pans as stated

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