opinions for beginner

[snowdog]

I have a beagle pup that is 4 months old. When i live trap rabbits for him he goes absolutly ballistic, barking and chewing at the box. When i release the rabbit he sight chases with tons of desire and barking all the way. When he looses sight, he trails for a while with my help and lets out a nice bawl every time he drives his nose in the track. The problem is, i cant seem to get him to find, run,jump,track his own rabbit. its been about 20 deg. here with dry snow. I have tried really hard the last two saterdays with no luck .Is he to young? would you still hold out hope? do I need more patiance, or am I just doomed ? thanks for any advise.

[oef10]

Keep doing what you're doing, he will figure it out and it when he does you wont be able to wipe the smile off your face!! Hes young, give him time.

[Woodhavenrabbitdogs]

keep working him hes young it will come

[Househounds]

Sounds to me like your bragging

Hes doing great!

[snowdog]

well it certainly is good to hear this. i wasnt sure where he should be, but seemed to me if he goes that crazy over one, why doesnt he go find one??

[TOBY]

At 4 months old I wouldnt expect much. Keep doing what your doing. He will get going soon enough. It will all seems to just click one day!

[Donnie Durbin]

Patience with a pup is a must. Sounds like he is doing fine. Take him out as much as possible.

[adirondackjoe]

when it gets a little warmer and the snow gets a little soft you'll see him go.

[bucks better beagles]

Househound: you got it right.

[rabbitearl]

Slow down,at 4 month the pup is doing good and I ve seen alot of pups at 4 an 5 month old, blow up before there a year old.Take your time.give the pup time to be a pup.Try turming the pup out at night so he will have to used his nose, but slow not over do it.

[Bunnyblaster]

These guys all gave me the same advice when I first started into beagling a few years ago and they are right on the money. It has already been said but the one thing you must have especially with pups and especially if you're new to beagling is patience!!! At 4 months old sounds like he is doing just fine. Keep letting/helping him jump rabbits and he'll start to put it all together to more you expose him to it.

Good luck!!

[MaineDogs]

The fact that hes doing that good in MAINE, at that age..... sounds like you have a solid bread dog for the conditions. let the pup be a pup and keep feeding him tracks. Dont over do the cage rabbit thing as he will begin to use his eyes more and nose less and will end up starting even slower. keep taking him to the spots with lots of rabbit run ways, since there supper easy to find right now with all the snow. Point him into the trails and keep onah' waiting. hell jump a few on his own with time, stand still as he wonders off and let him go work a trail for himself, don’t keep kicking brush for him because its to distracting for him and hell focus on you more than the little bit of scent around him.

[pcable]

Sounds like good advice from everyone. I agree with rabbitearl in that I have also seen alot of very nice pups get pushed too hard, too early and blow up at a young age. Slow down and let him be a pup. The things he learns as he grows are very important to his development. Patience is very important when raising and training a pup. In alot of ways they are just like a child. They have shorter attention spans so dont work them too long at a time or they will get burned out.
One of the best pieces of advice I could give anyone new to training dogs is to read the book Gun Dog by Richard A. Wolters. I know that it is about training bird dogs, but there are some very useful tricks and methods in there for any type of dogs. It helped me understand alot about the develpment of a pup. Give it a try. If nothing else it is a great read for anyone interested in training dogs of any kind. I used this method to train grouse dogs for a few years and it really works!

[didion419]

I'm new to this What exactly do you guys mean by a dog blowin up

[Bunnyblaster]

They can't handle the pressure, regardless of where it comes from, and just totally go to heck in a hand basket. Some will tell you if they can't handle the pressure now then they aren't worth owning and others will tell you to be patient and work them in at their own pace...........this last one means within reason of course. If you put an inexperienced dog down with good and faster dogs then a lot of times the younger dog will cheat just to try to keep up. They learn bad habits this way and those bad habits can be impossible to correct. Things like barking around too much, back tracking, skirting to get the front, running along with other dogs and barking but not really running the line of scent, etc. A lot of this will only come to you with time in the field and experience as you run your dogs more and more. And the reason I say dogs instead of dog is because if you are like the rest of us just one won't be enough. You'll love it so much that you will find yourself getting another hound or 2 before you know it.

Good luck and ask all the questions you want. These guys on here have tons of knowledge to share with you......both good and sometimes not so good. I will say boards like this give us younger generations a great advantage over people in years past without things like the internet. You will learn a lot about what to look for and expect just by reading the threads that get posted.