Packing Up Question

[rmassella]

My 11 month old female runs a nice rabbit. I began working her on rabbits at 7 ½ months old. She has a good nose, runs a nice line, and works a check well. I've shot some rabbits off of her this year; she's probably a 6 or so on speed. For the last 2-3 weeks I have been trying to get her to pack with other dogs. She hasn't packed yet and she shows no desire to pack with other dogs. At times she will go off with the other dogs, follows them around, but then goes off on her own to look for a rabbit. When she opens up on a rabbit the other dogs will come over to pack with her, but she will break off and let the other dogs run the rabbit. When the other dogs open on a rabbit, she shows no desire to pack and keeps doing her own thing. One of the guys from the beagle club that I belong to is going to lend me one of his older females. He wants me to kennel the dogs together and take them out each time I run and pack them together. He says that once they start running together we can add another dog and then once the three dogs are running well together, we can add another dog and so on until she is working well with a pack. My question is, do you think my female will learn to pack or did I solo her to much?

[Osborne's Beagles]

I think with time she will start to pack with the other dogs. You just need to keep packing her. Once she starts packing good... I would then go back to solo-ing her some as well. Solo-ing a hound is the most beneficial training for a young hound (just my opinion). Just be sure to solo and pack her about the same (like 60/40).

In the future, I would suggest packing pups with older dogs to help start them. Once they are doing well with the older dogs (jumping, circling, etc). I would start to solo the pup. This ensures that they will pack once you start solo-ing.

[Will05]

I have 2 female littermates im working with. They are 9.5 months old and they only ran with each other untill they were 6 -7 months old. When i finally dropped them with other dogs they wouldnt even think about packing up. I was beginning to get frustrated then finally a month or two later i went with a buddy from the beagle club. He brought 4-5 dogs and asked how many do i want him to put down i said all of them because if nothing else i want to listen to dogs run. As they were running rabbits i would take my dogs and pull them up to the pack they would go for a few minutes and then stop so i would collect my pups and put them back with the pack. I did this all day then finally they started working with them and it all seemed to click. I took them out 2 weeks later with another guy and he brought one dog and mine immediately worked with his dog without me having to do anything. Most people say its best to put them down with one dog at a time and in most cases i believe this is true but with my pups putting them down with several other dogs one time and it just clicked from that point. So i wouldnt worry about it to much just keep getting them with other dogs as much as possible and im sure they will come around.

[Casey Harner]

Try bracing.