The American Beagler Forum

A guy asked on another forum if he should expect his beagle to retrieve the rabbit and how does he train it to do so. I explained how I trained my male to do so, and that he brings the rabbit to my feet everytime.

After my post, all the posts have been guys saying how you can never expect them to retrieve or how its not in thier blood, etc...

My question is, how many of you have beagles that will bring you the rabbit? Or did I just get lucky with my male retrieving so well?

Matt

I have 1 male that will retrieve and my uncle has a female that will retreive.
and when i say retrieve i mean he will bring it out of the woods to my feet with the softest mouth and none of the meat will be bruised at all.

Its great to have a dog that will retrieve. I cant count how many times we've wounded or thought we missed a rabbit and a couple mins later he's bringing it out the woods in his mouth!!

Also there's that braging aspect of it when your running with freinds and family!!!

I have owned one female that would retrieve. She did it from day one with no training to do so.
A friend that I hunt with has a female that will retrieve. She was 3yrs old when he bought her so we don't know if it was natural or training. We own three others from the same bloodline that will eat the rabbit if they get to it first.
I won't say that you can't train them to retrieve but I think like everything else; It's either in them or it isn't.

Buddy of mine has 2 females that will retrieve (sometimes) I had a female years ago that retrieved all the rabbits

I have a red beagle that is a year old that likes to play fetch with a ball or what ever but I can't seem to get him over the hump as to going to get a rabbit for me!!

In the past i used a dead bunny at home its real easy to get them to retrieve but you also have what i have now i call rabbit hungry or rabbit crazy that will absolutely tear a track up when they get thier mouth on a rabbit they devour it I have a buddy if they want eat a rabbit he want own them he says they aint got no heart but i disagree i have owned them that would retrieve and had heart i dont think its bred in them you may have pups out of dogs that did but it just happened unless they have lab in them but about 7 days you can have a smart beagle retriveing

I had dogs before that retrieved , never trained to, just did it, my dogs now ages 9 to 15 months do not retrieve, any way to train a dog to retrieve?

most beagles will retrieve if you work with them,problem is they all want to be the one to bring the rabbit back & end up playing tug of war. keep working & dont give up on a dog.

I have a female that started retrieving this year and she is 5yrs old, had never made an effort to before and I am tickled to death she has saved me some fence climbing a coulple of times already and brought me one out of a flooded gully about 6 feet deep this week.
sparky

I have a Woodpont Male that will retrieve them... even if he or the pack catches the bunny... he will take it from the
pack and bring it to me. This fall I cast my three males with a couple other hunters, whe had 9 hounds on the ground,
Hunter went in the thicket and came out with the bunny... still kicking... and running from the other two hounds that
were chasing him... he vrought it to me and sat there waiting for me to take it so the other hounds would not get it.

I mentioned this achievement to Tim (Hackworth - Woodpont Beagles) and he said his dam would retrieve as well...
no trainig was involved... thay just did it.

lee broadley wrote:most beagles will retrieve if you work with them,problem is they all want to be the one to bring the rabbit back & end up playing tug of war. keep working & dont give up on a dog.

I agree, one retriever is great. Two is as good as none.

I have a 1 1/2yr old reggie pup that retrieved his first rabbit today it was pretty wild. Guy I was hunting with crippled the rabbit it made it to a brush pile dog went in the old rabbit started squeeling out came Sarge and packed it right to the guys feet still alive. And no lie on the way out of the property he treed a squirrel wasn't barking just posted up like a big high dollar coon hound, He would look at the squirrel then at me. Now how many had that happen.

I've had a bunch that would retrieve. My Dolly female that died a couple weeks ago would retrieve them all if another dog didn't try to take it away from her.

I believe it is genetic my sire will retreive and have seen a few pups out of him do the same and two of them were sold as pups and had never run with my sire before they started doing it.

i've got one