jump vs hunt

[houndboy13]

whats jump dog mean to you guys??..shouldnt every dog in the pack be out there trying to jump rabbits and wouldnt there hunt be determined by how hard they bust up brush looking for a rabbit?? see guys say certain dogs are jump dogs and some arent..wouldnt the ones who arent jump dogs mean they dont have hunt ??

[lebro]

some people put too much in to it to be a jump dog you have to jump a lot of rabbits a hard hunting dog is good but a jump dog has it all. in other words it jumps alot of rabbits.

[Mo. Beagler 5000]

Some dogs are plain and simply just better at it than other dogs. They know where to look and get their quicker...

Its not a coincidence that in most packs one dog will jump a centain percentage more rabbits than other dogs from my experience.


On this board and by talkin to old timers a true jump dog is one of the most rarest things in the world. Its a dog that can find a rabbit in isle 6 of walmart and get it runnin I believe about half of it honestly. But there are dogs out there that are just flat out amazing at this task. and i dont mean at cold trailing. I mean bonofide jump out of the truck and head right for the rabbit whether its ten feet or a mile.

[gwyoung]

All dogs should hunt. But If we refuse to go hunting with anything but a true jump dog then most of us wont go and at some point all of us will have to stay home, true jump dogs are that rare. Dogs that will jump a rabbit are far more common, in fact I will not take a dog that will not jump a rabbit, it is not necessary. I know folks who think a well balanced pack is a couple of great track dogs even if they will not hunt, a couple of dogs that will jump the rabbits even if they can't run them ,and a tattletale on trash. This is not a well balanced pack! A well balanced pack is four dogs or so, that will not run trash, Will all hunt and jump rabbits ,and can all circle a rabbit on their own, without being so overcompetive as to constantly cause breakdowns.I want to add something that most folks with a little experience know, great jump dogs are generally not great track dogs and vice-versa. One more thing, that I want to say concerning a well balanced pack. It seems to me that the breeder of today differs from the breeders of the past in that the breeders of the past understood that the beagle was a pack hound and they bred for pack cooperation and that all dogs should contribute to the effort more than they detracted from it. Breeders of today seem to forget about pack cooperation and concentrate on breeding that one " world beater", these will be few and far between and nobody will stay in good hounds for long under this type of program.

[dog]

i have a male that hunts straight out of the truck , hunts hard , runs a great track just dont jump alot of rabbits ,he hunts at a slower pace , more methodical . dont get me wrong , he does jump some , just not alot , my other male is a little colder nosed , hunts like a bird dog ,covers alot of ground , cuts back and fourth ,head up until he catches scent , he jumps a ton of rabbits . probably 80% of them , i think it has more to do with brains than anything , not saying my other dog is dumb , just my younger one has learned how to find a rabbit quick , just because a dog hunts dont mean hes a jump dog but you will never have a jump dog that dont have hunt ! a jump dog has to have hunt along with brains enough to hunt smart and not waste time !

[KYRABBITHUNTER]

The difference is a true jump dog is the rarest of dogs while almost every dog has hunt (if a beagle doesn't have good hunt it should be Kulled....period). IMO there's different levels of Jump. Some dogs just don't have it all, some are pretty good, and a select few are jump experts. I consider a good Jump dog to be one that can find the last living rabbit in a 100 acre thicket on a 90 degree day at 3:00 in the afternoon. A dog that can find a rabbit that's been sitting in the same spot for 3-days. For a dog to do that they have to be smart, love the thick stuff, have plenty of nose, have a ton of hunt, and have a ton of experience.....and did I mention smart.

Any average dog can run when rabbits are moving, but a true jump dog can run a rabbit any time anywhere.

[dog]

KYrabbithunter , let me add to that , not only can it find the last rabbit in 100 acres it wont waste all day doing it either , it will find it quick !

[rabbitearl]

Had a jump dog trial one time,were hunters though they had a jump dog.Had 5 rabbits planted in a 3 ac pen.You had 10 min to find them rabbits.Now these rabbits want move and are hard to find even in the open.Now a dog thats has a good eye and what I mean good eye alot of dogs just used there nose.Ajump dog used both.Out of 18 dog that day that were jump dog only three were able to finds some rabbit.But that day and the last dog of the trial found all 5 rabbits less than 8 min.There s your jump dog.Never had another trial like that again cause everybody that day seen what a jump dog was.

I ve rabbit hunting for 38 years and would say nobody love it like I did.I had one in the early 90s.I was bless to have one.Had a old man 5 years ago was coming to the pen to run his dogs.I told him that they want many rabbits in the pen have you ve got a jump dog.He said yes sir.All 6 of them dogs are jump dogs.I said to myself.Poor guy don t even know what a jump dog is.Some say a jump dog hunts hard.She didnot hunt hard at all.But the next thing you know she be looking at one.I hunting with a man in the early 70s.This guy had a mix up bird dog that could find one too.Its just unreal how these dogs can find a rabbit.That the reason I love to see a bed jump rabbit than to hear a dog running one.

I know its easy to jump one were there lots of rabbits.You don t need a true jump dog.But if I had my sandy dog back.I want to go were there s not any rabbits and watch her make one.I ve stop hunting last year.Don t have any dogs now.I got tire of looking and raised pups and looking for another one.That the down side of having a true jump dog.Rabbit hunting is never the same without one.

[houndboy13]

thanks for the replys..so a true jump dog will know where a rabbit should be and will find him no matter what..sounds like it would be a hard hunting dog that has brains and knows how to use it to find rabbits, instead of just searching till it stumbles into and jumps a rabbit.. i would think a well balanced pack would be a whole pack that jumps and can run a rabbit, maybe im expecting too much..

[KYRABBITHUNTER]

KYrabbithunter , let me add to that , not only can it find the last rabbit in 100 acres it wont waste all day doing it either , it will find it quick !

^^Agreed, I've got one that has everything else, but is a little slack in the get there quick department.

The best two jump dogs I've ever had the pleasure to hunt with were both farm dogs that spent most of the time loose. One, a female, would hit the ground and immediately make a beeline to the down wind side of the thickets. She skip over a ton of thick stuff with her nose in the air, but when she decided to go in you'd better be prepared for the race to start. I've seen 4 & 5 dogs hunt every square inch of spots she'd pass and never come up with a rabbit. Her knack for winding a rabbit made her an excellent jump dog, but it held her back once the race started....she'd have been perfect for these pack style hunters who have specialists in the pack.

The other dog was a grade lemon male who ran loose all the time on a farm. When it was time to hunt he'd load up and when the tail gate drop he dominated all facets of hunt. I never saw this dog run where he didn't dominate every dog there, and I've never seen a dog that was more complete. This dog would jump a rabbit and keep it's ears pinned back until it found the gun. Then, he'd go right back and jump another like he'd found where it was while running the last one.

[houndboy13]

now you guys got me wanting to see a true jump dog in action.

gwyoung: when you say they all should contibute to the pack, do you mean they all have their own strengths and when one faulters the next one picks it up and so forth? and should be a well oiled machine so to speak and not a pack out to better the next dog in turn causing problems

[gwyoung]

houndboy13, All dogs will have different degrees of strength of their various abilities. For example if you run a dog for a little while you can tell what it is best at. For example,he may be better at picking up checks, than he is at gearing down on bad scent. This does not mean he is good at checks and bad at gearing down when scenting conditions are bad. It means his strong point is picking checks eventhough he may be good on bad scent. This strength compliments the pack when he picks the check and the chase resumes with a minimun of downtime. This does not mean that the others in the pack could not get the check just that his strength came through for the good of them all. He should be able to do many things well. He will also do some negative things, all dogs will , but the negative that he brings should be outweighed by the good that he brings. I insist that all of my dogs hunt, that they all can circle a rabbit, that they are all quiet in the check area, and none run trash. They do not have to be super at any of these things . On the other hand you have the specialist a dog who may be super at one thing and not satisfactory in the others, he is not a pack hound and this one contribution will not make up for his lack in all other areas of the chase, He may be the best jump dog on the planet, but if he disrupts the smooth running of the pack . I will not own him.

[Casey Harner]

I think some confuse a strike dog being a jump dog. I also have seen some tough hunting rabbit dawgs that didn't seem to jump many rabbits, a few here and there but thats it. I think a dog that is smart and has a big nose will find you the rabbits. I also believe the more time on the ground with experience, the jump dogs come out....

[PREACHERS KENNEL]

thanks for the replys..so a true jump dog will know where a rabbit should be and will find him no matter what..sounds like it would be a hard hunting dog that has brains and knows how to use it to find rabbits, instead of just searching till it stumbles into and jumps a rabbit.. i would think a well balanced pack would be a whole pack that jumps and can run a rabbit, maybe im expecting too much..

the best jump dogs i have seen were windscenters ,,,they didnt even mess around going thru evevry thicket there was aand busting it apart...thats a hard hunting dog and you gotta love that . but these 2 dogs i speak of got off the tailgate peed and stayed ina trot nose from normal to high and both could find a rabbit like pronto ,,amazing . now if a scenting day is bad then its harder on them also ./ i had 2 in my life seen about 4 i think ..very rare .. i dont own one now . but they all hunt hard and do jump rabbits without wasteing much time ..but sure be nice to see that next jump dog .

[TOBY]

Just a few weeks ago I hunting a 200 acre farm and only got 2 rabbits. My best dog jumped them both. One rabbit jump really stood out to me. It was at the end of the hunt and havnt jumped a rabbit in a hour or two the dogs we getting bored. Well my branko male was kinda trotting down the middle of a thick hedgerow with his head up just winding the air.. He passed by a bush and locked up, stopped on a dime. He took a step back and stuck ONLY HIS HEAD in that bush to have a look. He then crouched down like a tiger and lunged in the bush to try to catch the rabbit on it's bed. The rabbit came rolling out the other end.
I said to myself wow!! I wish I had that on camera.