The American Beagler Forum

I have a 10 week old pup and would like to have it trained, I ran accross an ad some time ago about a man from ohio who trains for 80 for a month, I however cannot locate his ad now. I would like him to be trained and dont know how young he can start.

Most guys wont send their pups to a starting pen till they are at least 5 or 6 months old. All dogs start differently. Some start as early as 3 months but generally they don't start till around 6 months. Some may not start till they are a year old it just depends on breeding . availability of rabbits and a whold lot of variables. The ad you may be talking about is Homer Swift located in Hillsboro,Oh. (937)365-1962 between 7 and 9:30pm weekdays and all day weekends. The ad say he uses wild rabbits to start your pups off right hope this helps.

start training now with it,get it use to you and start by getting it used to fetching then go buy a cheap rabbit and let it hop around and make a small trail of scent,then put your dog ON the trail and see if he follows it,do that for a while then,do the same again BUT,at the end of the trial have the rabbit at the end and have something like a crate over it so when the dog follows it to the end the dog will see what he's smelling , it also helps to sorta "hide"the caged rabbit (something in front of it )so the dog doesnt see the rabbit at first and just run toward it, let him SMELL TO IT.there is a very good site that has a good training corse that any one can do at BEAGLESUNLIMITED.COM thats how i do it

The gentleman, you might be talhing about is Art Scott Sr., he can be
contacted at 330-339-5496 Stonecreek OH. You can tell him thornie
gave you this contact.

Does anyone know how much the fellow in Hillsboro charges? I have two pups I need started and I happen to live in Hillsboro.

Thanks,
Dane

puppy starting and all age beagle conditioning... I have 80 acres enclosed to train and condition your dogs. I have 5 pens in total. one two acre pen , two eighteen acre pens, one seven acre pen, and one pen that is 35 acres for a dog to really stretch out.. I have 40 years experience... I do this full time and start over 200 pups per year.. LET ME START YOURS !!!!!! MY RATES ARE PUPPY STARTING $ 80.00 PER MONTH..... DOG CONDITIONING IS $ 3.00 PER DAY IF YOU ONLY WANT YOUR DOG TO COME OVER FOR A SHORT TUNE UP OR $ 80.00 FOR THE MONTH !!!!!!! I SUPPLY THE DOG FOOD.. IF A PUP HAS IT IN THEM TO START I WILL GET THEM STARTED..THE BEST TIME TO CALL IS AFTER DARK... NO SUNDAY CALLS !!!! CLIFF TROXELL --AUBURN INDIANA 260-925-3676 THAT'S JUST A LITTLE NORTH OF FORT WAYNE INDIANA....... PLEASE HAVE ALL YOU DOGS UP TO DATE ON SHOTS.. LET YOUR BUDDY KNOW YOUR COMING OVER AND ILL TRAIN AND CONDITION HIS ALSO......

A little "newbie's"advice, if I may. I just started running dogs about a year ago and went through the whole "training/starting" pen thing. Go to a starting pen, not a training pen. And there is a difference. Some people boast that they have the acreage and time to train your dog from the ground up and they will perform. Ironically, they always have some stipulation like: "...if they are bred to hunt," or "...if they have desire," or some other catch 22 phrase. Then they will keep them for a month whether the dog needs it or not and charge you full price even if your dog started the first week. It doesn't sound too bad until you consider that you have not been in constant contact with your dog and you have no idea what they are really being trained to respond to in the field. Worse case scenario is that they run free as much as they want without human intervention. Makes for a great handling dog when you get them into the field.

Something else to consider is that the dog rarely contacts off game and they can chase a rabbit until they get bored or frustrated and then they just jump another line (because the high concentration of rabbits in the pens give them many options.) So, they never really learn to work out a line when it becomes difficult, and they try to run whatever has the hottest scent. Deer anyone??

Basically, what I am getting at is that you want your dog in a pen for the shortest time possible. Once they open and circle their own rabbit, YOU should be the one supervising and keeping the dog out of possible danger. Perhaps I am not educated enough on the subject to get a give an accurate eplanation. Still, here is what I experienced:

Butch Pritchett took two of my dogs and said he would start them. Two weeks later he called me and told me to get my dogs. Odd?? Nope, they were ready for the real thing. Those two dogs ran consistently every time out. But, I had to invest the time to fine tune them just as Butch explained. And, Butch was upfront about what to expect before he even took my dogs.

I had one other dog that I took elsewhere. I won't throw a name out there due to my lack of experience. However, this person kept the dog for a month. When I got him back he was skinny near to death, would not respond well to commmands he already knew, didn't want to pack, seemed lazy about working a line, and I had to shock him off trash twice. Yet he ran in pens four times larger than the one Butch uses. Only after I got him back did other beaglers tell me I shouldn't have sent him there because they had problems also.

My oppinion, which is based on knowledge from experienced beaglers, is that the least amount of time in a starting pen the better. Because a starting pen is just that: A pen to start in. Once the dog starts, get it out into the wild and work it there. If you don't have the time for that, you may want to look at another pasttime.

Also, Butch gets results because he loves the dogs. He taught a blind house beagle how to run instead of letting it be put to sleep. That dog is the one that he starts pups with. So, maybe it is more about the person training your dog than the time they spend there. But spend some time investigating and don't go by what you read in an ad....ask around and take the advice from the "old fellars."

Try Red briar kennels........ He is in Ashland , Ohio.......... No training pen, he does every thing in the field and I am very happy with what he is doing for me. He also visit this forum.

i am in nw pa and have a 5 acre starting pen.i don't let pups live in the pen and all training is suppervised.if the pup is living in the pen he will run down rabbits and kill them and at 5 dollars each this can be costly.also if he is killing rabbits he is eating them and coming back to you with tape worm.i don't train a lot of pups.maybe because i charge 30dollars a week for this.

I think Johnny B. hit the nail on the head as far as asking good questions. There is more to ask a trainer than the price of his services. I think alot of us (me included), have learned that lesson the hard way.

One thing I would like to say though about the "disclaimer" or "catch 22 phrase." Is that speaking from a trainers' point of view, I have to back up what I say. If I say that I can train ANY dog to chase rabbits, you can bet someone is going to challenge me on that. They will bring me a dog with no hunt or no desire, and expect a miracle. I'm not a miracle worker. Hunt and desire is not learned,..it has to be bred into the dog. I often tell folks that we are not REALLY training their dog, but more correctly we are simply trying to bring out the qualities that they have hopefully already bred into their hound and provide an atmosphere allowing the hound to perform to the best of it's ability and breeding under optimum circumstances. To promise more than that I feel, is being unrealistic. I would have to be a little weary of someone that promised me the moon. I simply try to be upfront with people, and sometimes that means telling them something they don't necessarily want to hear. But to do business otherwise in my opinion leads to dissappointment, a breach of trust on my part, and a ruined reputation,....everyone loses. Just some food for thought.

I know this is an old post but is there anyone in or near Arkansas that starts dogs like this?

Thanks.

Ark, I guess you'll just have to move up to Ohio..ha ha ha But seriously, I can't beleive that there isn't anyone closer to you that could help you. Good luck I hope you find someone. Ohio weather is finally starting to break...so I'm hoping to get started with our program here in a couple of weeks or so.

- Steve

I sure wish you were closer.

I found a couple of guys that would start dogs but I want someone to go a little farther than that.

I am located in Southern Ohio, but I do not like to start them unless they are at least 5 or 6 months old. I charge $60 and a bag of feed.

pm me i can start your pup i have rabbits running wild and i dont use a pen they will sight chase and then use their nose if they are duds i will let you know i dont like fooling with them till 4.5 to 5 mos 75 to start the pup ,fasteddy central ohio