The American Beagler Forum

is it time to take a pup out a starting pen.. I have about 3/4 quarter of and acre fencened in with smokie rabbits in it,, The pen is very thick.. But i was curious when to take them out.. There barking on track a pretty good.. There not running by no means but the tracking and barking here and there.. should i keep putting them in there until they run a circle in the pen. Or do they have the point good enough already..

Great ???, I also would like to know this as I have a young hound that is doing the same and dont know if I should save the $$$ and time with a starting pen

as long as they aren't geting to much sight chasing or catching rabbits leave them in the pen.

I also have a small pen of about an acre with a lot of cover and it is NOTHING MORE than a starting pen to introduce them to scent. It is too small to fine tune the pups because the rabbit will cross his own track time and time again. This is especially a problem if you have more than one rabbit in it.
As soon as my pups are opening on scent and making forward progress on the line, I take them out and go to the wild with an older slower dog. I don't wait until they can circle.
I have also found that the more timeI let my pups spend in a pen, the harder it is to get them to "change over" to wild rabbits in the wild. Just seems to take longer! I am not sure why? I am sure the domestic rabbits smell different, but I have had the same thing happen when I used wild rabbits. Maybe the pen becomes familiar to the pups and they get confused when you take them to a strange area??

I agree with southernbeagles. I have an acre pen and it is just too small to allow a pup to run a good circle. It is great for starting them on scent but once they begin barking on track I take them to the wild. It seems in my pen that rabbits will backtrack themselves and do alot of crisscrossing which I believe can actually cause a pup to pick up bad habits. I have learned this the hard way I might add. LOL! So I would say if they are barking on scent start putting them on wild rabbits with either a slower old dog or by themselves. They will figure it out.

Okay guys i thanky you all for all the advice.. I just came in and they all barked really good when jumping a rabbit besides one.. The other 3 are done in there. There running a line decent for being in a little space like u said.. and i do have alot of rabbits in there.. Another question, my little gyp that i picke out of there is tracking like crazy but doesnt bark until she sees the rabbit.. But i hae watched her jump a rabbit and site chase it.. After loosing it she will track to it again with out barking, i guess this will come with time. Have u guys trained pups that ended up silent mouth?

I don't Know how old your gyp is, but I have a pup that just turned four months about a week ago and he would run a track but he wouldn't bark either. He did however begin to start barking on track here recently though. I haven't ever had one turn out silent. I figure with enough time in the woods she should come around.

she fixin to turn 7 months old.. the pups have never spent all day in the pen, ive always had the out in the field but really just started introducing them to rabbits about a month ago.. so im hoping your right.. i coon hunt alot and some of my buddies have some silent mouth hounds that doesnt bark on track just when they tree.. I was just surious about that, ive never heard of a silent mouth beagle...