The American Beagler Forum

Anyone had success starting a 2 year old beagle? I have not ever tried it, but a family in the church called to see if I wanted their beagle. It is surprising very well bred. Was bought as a pup and and has only been a pet. Do think this hound is worth messing with?

Thanks in advance for your input.
-Pete

guess you wont ever know until you try. if hes that well bred i think its worth a shot and if it doesnt work out you could always give him away as a pet...keith

I started one at about 18 months old that had never been out of the kennel. I just took him out with the dogs when they were running and after about 5 trips I saw him running with them and on the 6th trip he was opening and running the front with control on some younger dogs. He went on to make a nice dog, never did have a lot of hunt though.

Big Dog

If it is in the blood, the dog will turn out good. I guranteed I can train a 5-6 years old dog to hunt rabbits if it is from good hunting stock. It is easier to start an older dog than starting a four months old pup. Usually if a dog that is two years old does from a hunters hand does not start, it will never start.

Beagleboy

The best coondog I ever owned was gave to me when he was all most 2 years old by A older person who due to his health after buying the dog as 9 week old puppy never got to hunt him. He asked me to give the dog A 30 day trial and if I didn`t wont him at the end of 30 days give him back and he would find another home for him. Well needless to say at the end of 30 days he was doing A fine job and had A home.

I've had the opposite luck with starting older hounds. In my experience, they're easy enough to start, but usually have issues with packing, desire and bottom. I feel that hounds left in the kennel that long seem to start to retard themselves and go backwards from where they were at 6 months to 8 months when they're really ready to start and run. I've tried a few like this and seen several more, and they've all had huge holes in them with regards to the above qualities. These hounds were all out of top bloodlines and most had littermates placing in trials by that time. Just my personal observations, and I hope you all have better luck with older, unstarted hounds than I have.

A friend of mine that lives close to Indy took an older hound and turned him into a great pup trainer and gun dog. Sometimes he runs into trees and even my friend, but that might have a little to do with the fact that the dog is blind.

This hound was a house dog, over a year old, questionable breeding, and blind when he started training it. He says it's one of the hardest hunting dogs he has ever owned.

I would give the dog a shot. You might end up with a real runner!

I agree with mn beagleboy. If it's in the blood it will run - if nothing has been done to train it out or hinder it. I started a 4-year-old female who had never made a trip to the field. She was Jack's Iron Mike, JoJo Blue bred. She started almost immediately and had no trouble packing or honoring, other than her footspeed was a bit below our other dogs. I think the packing trouble comes in when they are actually kept from mingling with other dogs early on. We let ours loose together in the yard to play a lot, and have never had packing troubles. Not yet, anyway. Never say never, lol.

I would start an older dog exactly the way you would a puppy. Giving them a sight chase to boost the process does wonders.