A general forum for the discussion of hunting with beagles, guns, clothing and other equipment and just talking dawgs! (Tall tales on hunting allowed, but remember, first liar doesn't stand a chance)
huntemup wrote:
More one question - Someone was talking about how a 2 acre pen would bring out faults. Can someone explain?
They will learn to gamble....if they lose the rabbit they can just run around the pen a couple times and find him. I run in 100 acre pens in the summer with varying cover, in the summer it's not uncommon to have a hare use the entire pen during long chases. 2 acres with a big dog that runs clean and you will lose a rabbit everytime they run...not nearly big enough. For pups it would be good but after they start a couple times get them out of there and get them used to searching hard for a rabbit, a puppy run too much in a small enclosure isn't a good thing either in my opinion.
I have a 1 acre starting pen and I will promise you that any style hound will become faulty in a 2 acre pen. No matter how thick it is it's just not big enough. It would be plenty big enough to start pups but as someone mentioned, as soon as they cant scent a rabbit for a short distance take them out never to return. With a started or finished hound you will end up with a sight chase artist that will give up on checks, scent trail silently, and basically run around with its head up looking for another rabbit to site chase. I have made the mistake of leaving pups in for too long and know the results. A few would figure out the sight chase deal before they learned to trail a rabbit.JMO Go ahead and build it for starting pups. I think that it is a great way to get them off on the right foot.
