beagle pup

[mlegacybow]

I have a beagle pup that is about 6 months old. I found a road kill rabbit today and show it to him. He had no interest in the rabbit unless I pulled it from him. If it didn't move he didn't want it. Tried draging the rabbit around the yard to see if he would track it but no interest. I had him to a training pen at 4-5 months. The guy at the pen said that he was sight chasing and that he ran a couple at night and opened but just twice after that he just wanted to play. Any suggestions? I have had him out with the older dogs but he will follow them into the brush but when he can't see them he comes to the nearest hunter and lays down until he sees one of the other dogs. Any help would be appreciated.

Steven

[tommyg]

Hes still very young. If you can run him with a good slow pup starter it may help. I wouldn't pressure him with a pack of good rabbit hounds until he can handle it.

[greenesbeagles]

Sounds like he has a full belly,do not feed him before hunting him.If I am planning on hunting my hounds say tommorro I will feed them tonight and skip feeding them in the morning.They will hunt a whole lot better if they are hungry.Just my two cents. Keith.

[jonnyringo]

Seems a bit odd to me. I remember years ago when I first started hunting with beagles I did the very same thing. Hit a rabbit - took it home - throw it in the kennel with two four month old dogs - they ripped it to pieces. Those dogs were out of Hannibals Boogie Buddy and had more desire than any dogs I have ever seen. If I let them loose they would hunt until they dropped dead. They got loose once for three days and when I found them they were running a rabbit and had little hair left on their faces or tails. I remember once when they attacked a big ole ground hog. Talk about pack mantality. Those dogs looked like a pack of coondogs on a coon.

[TOUCHSTONEBGLS]

Have known great hunting dogs that simply had no interest in them once they were dead. Find a rabbit and scare him off so that the pup does not see it and then set the dog down in the area and see where his nose takes him.

[Duke]

I start introducing pups at 8 weeks to frozen rabbit hides. I kinda look at it like imprinting their minds. Then at 4-5 months I take them to a pen, I go in with them. I watch them so I know exactly what they are doing. I would rather pay by the visit than let someone else start my hound.

With that said immediately after starting on San Juans I get them on wild rabbits preferably in a running pen, so they still have not seen a deer, fox ect..... Then after they are running good I go to the wilds. Some of my hounds will walk over a shot rabbit and start hunting another, others will retrieve others would tear it up. It is strange, because if my best hound catches and kills a rabbit he just sits down next to it until I get there.

A little long to get to where I wanted to go with this, but freeze that rabbit and drag it around on a rope let him chase it and grab hold. What I am saying is you need to give the hound the time to find out what a rabbit is and what he is suppose to do.

My worse hound started at 3 1/2 months, so did my best. On the other hand I have had them take as long as 8 months. And I have a little female that was slow to go, but is really surprising me. With all that said If I gave the hound plenty of opportunity, and at a year he was not doing anything then I would see that he made someone a house pet.

Give the hound some more time, just my opinion.

[mlegacybow]

ttt