The American Beagler Forum

Hi All,

Had my female breed early this spring(whelped 3/6) and three of the six pups made it. Of these I decided to keep one and the owner of the stud(my uncle) kept the other two.

I've been trying to get this pup out two or three times a week solo and once with the mother. We also tried taking all the pups out together but it was too much playing.

Well, last week this pup opened up for the first time and ran it for about 60yards and lost it(this is pretty good for a 14wk old pup, right?). At the loss he hunted for a while and then returned to me. I ignored him walking towards where he lost it, and he returned to the point where he lost it. He hunted around this area quite a bit but could not straighten things back out, but would get very excited in certain areas and would growl, bark, and dig.

My question is should I stay with the ratio of solo to running with other dogs(3:1) now that he has started? The reason I ask is the mother was trained completely solo and now refuses to honor other dogs and I want to be sure I don't repeat this. The female is of medium-slow speed so I am not concerned about running the pup with her and once the litter-mates get started I'll have dogs of like abilities to run with. To me the true test for any dog is being able to work a rabbit solo, but I would sure like for this one to run with other dogs.


Brian ott

"I would sure like for this one to run with other dogs". "this is pretty good for a 14wk old pup, right?".

Slow down, this is a puppy. Don't be in a hurry to throw him in over his head, that's the surest way to start bad habits. Enjoy your puppies for what they are ...Patch

Patch is right, take your time. I have had a pup start at 4 months and you have to be careful not to over do it. Focus more on obedience training for right now. At 4 months I wouldn't run him with older dogs at all unless they were real clean and reeaaaaal slow. He will not be fast enough to keep up and may pick up a lot of bad habits. After he is about 6 months old the ratio that you stated should be okay. Just my two cents.

Big Dog

I HAVE A PUP BUT I WON'T HAVE HIM RUNNING AT 14 WEEKS. MINE IS JUST OLD ENOUGH TO LET THE GRANDKIDS PLAY WITH . THEY PLAY IN THE YARD & GIVE THE PUP TIME TO FORM SOME SOCIAL ABILITY & LEARN HIS NAME. ( BUBBA ) I WILL TAKE HIM OUT AT 5 OR 6 MONTHS & GET A CLEAN DOG THAT HAS A TAKE OFF LIKE A HERD OF TURTLES. THAT WAY HE CAN KEEP UP & LEARN SOMETHING & THEN SOLO HIM.
WORKS FOR ME