The American Beagler Forum

i have just gotten back into beagle ing in the last year or so. i used to have beagles about twelve years ago. in those days i was unemployed and hunted three or four times per week,,, for food, like subsistence. so my beagles were well trained, they came to the gun, i remember it took a while to get them there but it was worth the effort. nowadays i have a job and a half, i don't have time to run my dogs as they should be run, only get them out three or four times per month, if that much. i got a couple of them mojave dogs and i am happy with the dogs, they started themselves and they love to hunt. they will listen in the yard, they will come when called, but in the field they don't want to stop hunting. now i don't want a dog that stops hunting easily, but these two dogs have me diving after them in the briars and such. the only way to easily get them is to kill the rabbit in front of them, and that isn't possible all the time. they will dodge me when i jump after them, then go and get back on the line and continue pushing the bunny. last time i had them out, it was a half hour after dark before i finally snuck up on the female and caught her during a check. so how do y'all get your beagles to come to you in the field. when i trained the dogs to come to the gun, if i remember correctly, i would be putting them on a hot track, like if i saw the rabbit and either shot at it and missed, or just saw the rabbit and then shot in the air, the dog would come and i would put the dog where i last saw the rabbit, the track was hotter and the dogs would come to me when they heard the gun. also, if i killed a rabbit, i would give the dogs a piece of the liver, heart, etc. on the spot when they came to the gun. that's what i think really got them to come, and it gave them beacoup desire to go after another rabbit. i also used to feed those dogs nutria carcasses that i had trapped for the fur, i would boil the carcass and give it to the dogs. these were literally the best dogs i have ever had and friends of mine still talk about how they were the best dogs they ever hunted with. now my dogs eat premium dog food, and they don't seem to want to listen to me in the field. thanx for any help.

Sounds like they need some training on a long leash in a field or open pasture. Call them to you and if they don't respond, pull them in on the leash. I know a 100 yard rope isnt' the most exciting thing to carry around. but take it and do some obedience training and then alternate to rabbit running. Gradually let the dog get out farther and then call him back . This won't be an overnight fix. It sounds like your dogs have a lot of desire. Give positive rewards when they do what you want and don't punish them when they don't. They will never come in if they figure out that they are going to get a swat when you finally catch them.

Good luck,
Emery

Do you own or know someone that own a e-collar. They work better than anything else. If you get close enough that the dog knows you want it to come, and they dont, shock em! They will come to you, and no I this doesnt seem to take any hunt out. They know why they are being shocked. Good luck!

A lot of beagles aren't necessarily ignoring you intentionally. In many cases, their drive/nose makes them "deaf." I've been able to walk casually 50-100 ft to where my beagles are working on a scent and scare the bejesus out of them because they are so caught up in the scent that they are oblivious to the world around them. If your beagle is like this, shocking him won't do anything but surprise and hurt him. He'll have no clue as to why he was shocked, because all he was doing was following a scent.

Use shock collars carefully.

i have a lab and have a tritronics flyway special that i use for training her. tritronics is a great company, btw,,, they recently replaced my unit when i left it out overnight and the tide came up about two feet and the next day i found it six inches underwater. i dried it out and it worked for a couple of weeks and then quit. they said it was under warranty and replaced the transmitter, also giving me a new collar that was kinda worn. truly a remarkably client friendly company. you pay for what you get and with tri tronics service is part of the package. they have a customer for life here.
but back to the subject, that is what i was afraid of. i use the collar very judiciously on my lab, only when i know that she knows what she is doing is not what i want her to do. i see that tri tronis has what they call the beagler, but i thought that that was for running trash, and that is not my problem. i don't want to inhibit desire, i just want them to come to me at some point, like when it is gettting dark or i am ready to leave.

My dogs taught themselves. I would let them out of the dog pen and lower the tailgate and say loadup, its comical to see them falling all over themselves getting on the truck, they know we going hunting. I hunt small farms mostley for about 3 hours each morning during hunting season. Sometimes we move three or four times each morning, I can be a 100 yards from my truck and holler loadup and by the time i get to it most all of the dogs will be trying to get in the dogbox. I never call them off a hot trail, but I think I could, they try hard to please me. If any dogs dont loadup on command I'll sit down on the tailgate and open a can of vienna sausage's and share with the dogs in the dogbox, that usually convinces any wayward critter that the dog box is where he wants to be.
During the summer it's awefull hot here (S. Ga.) so I take them out during the cool of the evening before dark and run them for a mile or two. I just put them out and drive around some big fields when I see them getting really tired I stop and holler loadup, if any don't hear me I toot the horn, they will usuall hear that and come on in. When I get back to the dogpen I let them out and tell them to "get in the pen", they usually can't wait to get to the water bucket. Again if any of them don't go in the pen I start feeding the dogs in the pen pieces of hotdog or vienna's. That will bring'em in. After they learn what you want most of the time they'll do it without commands.

My dogs taught themselves. I would let them out of the dog pen and lower the tailgate and say loadup, its comical to see them falling all over themselves getting on the truck, they know we going hunting. I hunt small farms mostley for about 3 hours each morning during hunting season. Sometimes we move three or four times each morning, I can be a 100 yards from my truck and holler loadup and by the time i get to it most all of the dogs will be trying to get in the dogbox. I never call them off a hot trail, but I think I could, they try hard to please me. If any dogs dont loadup on command I'll sit down on the tailgate and open a can of vienna sausage's and share with the dogs in the dogbox, that usually convinces any wayward critter that the dog box is where he wants to be.
During the summer it's awefull hot here (S. Ga.) so I take them out during the cool of the evening before dark and run them for a mile or two. I just put them out and drive around some big fields when I see them getting really tired I stop and holler loadup, if any don't hear me I toot the horn, they will usuall hear that and come on in. When I get back to the dogpen I let them out and tell them to "get in the pen", they usually can't wait to get to the water bucket. Again if any of them don't go in the pen I start feeding the dogs in the pen pieces of hotdog or vienna's. That will bring'em in. After they learn what you want most of the time they'll do it without commands.

I'm just finishing teaching my dog to come when I call her, went through the exact problems. She will NEVER come if she's on a track, I can live with that. I have been running her hard lately and I carry a soft foldable water dish and fresh water, Looks like I have a purse with me, made by Outward Hound, and a couple of hotdogs. I started out in the fields calling her and giving her hotdog bites. Then in the bush if I could see she wasn't tracking something I'd call her and pet her and feed her, Kinda like a coffee break for her. Now if she's not chasing a rabbit she comes every time but I still reward her for coming. I've also started saying "walk out" when we're done and leaving the bush. no results yet on that one.

Dosgris,

I had a male that did the exact same thing! He hunted so hard, that trying to get him up was almost impossible! I could get to about 3 feet of him and he would take off on the track again. This got so frustrating. I realized that I needed to do something in order to be able to handle this dog so I got an e-collar set up from tritronics.
I was amazed at how quickly it worked. He knew to come when called, but wouldn't in the field. The collar worked almost instantly. The first time I used it, I called him when I could see him. He acted as if I hadn't called him, so I called him once more and when he didn't come, I used the 1/2 setting and bumped him, then called him again. He came then! I told him down and he downed at my feet. WOW!!!!!
I have been very careful to NOT use it unless necessary and it has become a regular "tool" for training "hard headed" (hard hunting) dogs.

Renee'