The American Beagler Forum

I was wondering how most dogs react or treat a holed rabbit. Are they supposed to come back to you, change their bark, start looking for another rabbit, etc, etc. My dogs are 2yrs old now...I really can't tell if they holed the rabbit or lost it. Seems like they are starting to come back to me..but sometimes they wont quit looking and I know it ran in a hole.

My dogs come back to me and I can tell the difference between a simple lost rabbit or a holed rabbit, because my dogs will come to me befroe they start hunting hard again

most of the time, my dogs will come back to me on a holed rabbit, but a couple of them will have mud on their nose and my shock collar will be caked full. If it's a long check or lose, they just keep searching untill i call them in and make them regroup.

When the rabbit is holed mine will take turns investigating the hole some will get in the hole and dig a little , if you call them they will come to you immediately if it is actually a hole. If it is a loss no amount of calling will bring them to you within the next few minutes, they know that the track is there somewhere and they will continue searcing for it. If I want to prove that it was a hole, I simply walk them back to where they stopped and they will go back to the hole, call them, and go on. At any rate they will not stay at a hole for more than a minute or two whether you call them or not. I have had the occassional one that would stay in a hole for ten minutes or so if you didn't go get them, and I have had some get stuck in holes over the years, But the vast majority of them will quit the hole in a minute or so and move on.

I can sometimes tell a holed rabbit when there is a sudden and abrupt loss on a hard running rabbit. Some claim everytime their dogs come back to them they have holed another rabbit. They must have better dogs than mine, because Im possitive sometimes my dogs just loose the rabbit. Im not quick to call holed rabbit, but if you hunt in inclament weather in Michigan you know that some days rabbits will go straight to hole.

I guess to answer the question more directly, dogs all react differently and dogs don't always do the same thing everytime. Thats what keeps it interesting.

Mybeagles

After a while with your hounds you can generally tell if it is a hole or not, but if there is any doubt I walk them back to where they stopped, there had better be a hole there or some hounds are going to be looking for a new home if they leave the area by coming to me or just moving on instead of working to recover. Rabbits are too hard to come by around here for us to just lose one and walk off looking for another,it is not going to happen.

I don't give my dogs a hole unless they are trying to get it out of the hole. A lot of guys around here say their dogs holed the rabbit when they acually lost the track in the dry dirt around a hole where if they had any sense they would go past the hole and pick it up again if their nose isn't good enough to smell scent in dry dirt. My dogs mill around the hole, stick noses in, act gamey, check all around the hole in case they messed up before they leave it. By then I usually am close enough to call a holed rabbit. If not, they have dropped the track. I never give my dogs the benefit of the doubt. They have to prove it to me.
Thanks,
Bob

My dogs will come back to me before they go look for another rabbit.