The American Beagler Forum

I'm layedoff from work right now and been running dog just about every day for the last 2 months . My Question to you all is how do you keep a dog from running out of steam . I have 3 dogs and a pup i'm hunting . I run the pup solo and a female solo sometime. I run from 2 to 8 hour a day depending on the what has to be done at the house .

In my opinion, training and breeding seems to be two of the biggest factors, with breeding being one of the most important. I have several dogs with different breeding that all get the same amount of conditioning. My gay breed hounds which have better conformation than the rest always seem to be able to go all day... this of course is with all other things being equal, such as age...ect. Of course the feed you give them plays a big part as well (I wont get into that one.. we have all seen numerous post on dog food).

That's a good answer BlueLine. I would add that I take a few pieces of light bread with me and give it smashed into a small ball whenever a dog comes by me about every 2-3 hours of hard running.

Thanks Alabama John. When planning for a long all day hunt, do you all ever split up the dogs into 2 packs so you can have fresh hounds after lunch? I havent done this yet but I am considering giving this a try this upcoming long weekend. Pros, cons? thanks.

We split the pack if we go to a place where we are going to run a lot of rabbits 15 or more, anything less than that we leave them all on the ground. We also may split the pack if we are running a rough spot with an inordinate amout of multi flora, or other thick briars. What normally happens though is that you put your A pack on the ground in the morning when the smelling is better and then you end up with the B team on the ground when smelling conditions are a little tougher during the middle of the day. Just something to think about.

Big Dog