Solo, The Amazing Cure

[Alabama John]

There is a negative too.

You can make a dog too independent and it will pull out from a pack that is picking up checks and go off by itself to run solo so it gets all the checks and sets its own speed. I know several that have been sold for this. Sold to someone that has a pack a little slower so this dog can basically run solo at the front without any dog pushing it.

While hunting, during the day, the pack will jump rabbits while running one and dogs will split. Its interesting to see who is running with who and who is running solo. Seldom does a pack keep running the same rabbit for very long.

Having 3-4 different packs running from the original pack is normal. Someone shoots a rabbit and the dogs running it take off to join what ever pack they want to.

Constant changing and that makes it fun and good friends enjoying each others dogs in conversation during and later.

It would be boring to have the same dogs doing the thing day after day.

[DIXIEDOG]

There is a negative too.

You can make a dog too independent and it will pull out from a pack that is picking up checks and go off by itself to run solo so it gets all the checks and sets its own speed. I know several that have been sold for this. Sold to someone that has a pack a little slower so this dog can basically run solo at the front without any dog pushing it.

While hunting, during the day, the pack will jump rabbits while running one and dogs will split. Its interesting to see who is running with who and who is running solo. Seldom does a pack keep running the same rabbit for very long.

Having 3-4 different packs running from the original pack is normal. Someone shoots a rabbit and the dogs running it take off to join what ever pack they want to.

Constant changing and that makes it fun and good friends enjoying each others dogs in conversation during and later.

It would be boring to have the same dogs doing the thing day after day.

Some may like dogs changing rabbits but alot do not either. In Maine there are a lot of areas where you're running thousands of acres with nothing in between....often in the mountains so chasing a pack of dogs that are switching rabbits all day while not getting many of them sucks.

I would agree that a dog can be too independent and I wouldn't consider running a dog only solo but I do think an occasional solo run can help any dog get better.

[JCM]

This may shock some people, but I want to see if a pup will blow up. I run them with faster dogs. I run them with rougher dogs. I run them with faulty dogs. I run them until they are so tired they can't hardly hold their head up and then run them some more. I make them live in the trailer for a week and run hare with dogs that can run a track as fast as they can run physically. And then when they blow up, I cull them.

But watch out for the ones that make it. They will have brains, grit, hunt, and will be able to run a rabbit until I want to go home. Then, down the road when I breed them, their pups won't need special treatment to turn into good rabbit hounds. Unless you have tried this for a few generations, then you really can't understand no solo, no excuses expectations.

Soloing a dog can really help, but I just don't want a dog that needs special help to do what we expect out of all our dogs.

[HorsemanJP]

Iv e been told soloing was the best way to run a dog to get better.But,I think you need something else out there to push a dog for it to get better. I think Mr. jcm has the right attitude.I AGREE TOTALLY Ive seen his dogs run

[bucks better beagles]

Soloing a dog is like watching ice melt. Boring.

[Budd]

JCM, that's kind of the point I was trying to make in my above post, my lead dogs are only 2 and 3 years old, never been soloed a day in their life and ran every time out in a pack of 6-8 hounds, but they rose to the challenge and fought to get to the spots that they hold now. I can't see how soloing could make them better. "If" it did how often would they have to be soloed to keep them from falling back into their pack mentality, wich is were I prefer them to be anyhow, and if I had soloed the crap out of them before adding them to my pack would they still be able to handle the pack the way they are now?

[klrconcrete]

These posts rely on the "safety in numbers" analogy - the more dogs down the better the odds are that they will be able to run. Im glad it works for you guys Im curious as to what each dog is capable of and cant get over that train of thought. Budd, your lead dogs are 2 and 3 years old have never been soloed, fought their way to the top, etc. but if you put them down with no other hound what would they do? If you tryed that tommorrow with one of them and it followed you around or stood on the road like it was lost, what would you think of THAT hound then? I know what mine will and can do as a pack member and an individual.

[DIXIEDOG]

Soloing a dog is like watching ice melt. Boring.

Maybe you haven't watched the right dog being soloed

These posts rely on the "safety in numbers" analogy - the more dogs down the better the odds are that they will be able to run. Im glad it works for you guys Im curious as to what each dog is capable of and cant get over that train of thought. Budd, your lead dogs are 2 and 3 years old have never been soloed, fought their way to the top, etc. but if you put them down with no other hound what would they do? If you tryed that tommorrow with one of them and it followed you around or stood on the road like it was lost, what would you think of THAT hound then? I know what mine will and can do as a pack member and an individual.

Exactly, oftentimes the dog you may have originally thought was a strong member in your pack may just be along for the ride counting on the real dogs to clean the runs up all the time or jump all the rabbits. I wonder if the anti-solo mentality is why I see it posted on here so often that people want to find a good jump dog....could only running in a pack be making some members of the pack overly lazy?

[Budd]

These posts rely on the "safety in numbers" analogy - the more dogs down the better the odds are that they will be able to run. Im glad it works for you guys Im curious as to what each dog is capable of and cant get over that train of thought. Budd, your lead dogs are 2 and 3 years old have never been soloed, fought their way to the top, etc. but if you put them down with no other hound what would they do? If you tryed that tommorrow with one of them and it followed you around or stood on the road like it was lost, what would you think of THAT hound then? I know what mine will and can do as a pack member and an individual.

If he had no hunt but ran the front of my pack the RITE way? I could live with that cause I don't solo . How many field champions have no hunt?

[lebro]

i dont think solo time is a cureall for the dogs. put them in together and let the cream rise to the top. it is alot easier to tell what a dog is capable of when soloing but not better. every dog in a good pack is not a good dog and figuring out the bad ones without soloing is the secret. i have never soloed the 5 i have now but can guarantee you they will jump and circle their own rabbit. i will run 2 or 3 at a time but there will never be a time when there is not another dog to compete with.

[NorWester1]

Believe it or not if you run the same pack of hounds day in day out, it's not terribly hard to figure out who is doing what and where and who isn't unless you aren't paying attention at all.

Hell, don't most of you guys pay judges to do that at trials in just a few hours??

[fasttrackpa]

This may shock some people, but I want to see if a pup will blow up. I run them with faster dogs. I run them with rougher dogs. I run them with faulty dogs. I run them until they are so tired they can't hardly hold their head up and then run them some more. I make them live in the trailer for a week and run hare with dogs that can run a track as fast as they can run physically. And then when they blow up, I cull them.

But watch out for the ones that make it. They will have brains, grit, hunt, and will be able to run a rabbit until I want to go home. Then, down the road when I breed them, their pups won't need special treatment to turn into good rabbit hounds. Unless you have tried this for a few generations, then you really can't understand no solo, no excuses expectations.

Soloing a dog can really help, but I just don't want a dog that needs special help to do what we expect out of all our dogs.

X 100

I will make sure they can jump and run one for themselves when they prove they can get noticed in the pack/

[Newt]

I will never be convinced that running in a pack makes a dog lazy. That is determined at conception, IMO.

[klrconcrete]

Running the same pack of dogs day in and day out doesnt tell me all that much honestly, the dogs conform or "slot up" if you will and what I have seen personally is the same dogs jump, the same dogs lead on the drive, the same dogs pick the checks, etc. My never answered question is the dog that gets 99 % of the checks but 1% of the jumps or vice versa is that really all that capable on its own? What you seem to end up with is having to have an entire pack to run which is what I stated before. If you have a dog that was to be studded out and the person breeding to it wanted to see it run on its own but it really couldnt what would you do in that case?

[barnold1]

Soloing a dog is like watching ice melt. Boring.

Maybe you haven't watched the right dog being soloed

Amen!