The American Beagler Forum

what do you think makes a dog have tons of hunt? is it genetic ? is it the dogs they were run with when they were young and was learned from them? is it training? what in your opinion gives the dog the drive to dive head first into briar patches and try to kill itself looking for a rabbit to run?

thanks in advance

sam

Well Sam : Here is a qeustion for you If a dog can not learn to come to their master when they are being called but can a run the hair off a rabbit like no other you ever saw what good are they For you see if the dog is not smart enough to now the basic comandes no matter how good all the other traites may be they are useless. A dog with brains is the best trait you can look for
Brains that is it if you keep smart dogs they can learn the rest Yes you can breed better hunt more nose more foot all that stuff you can find in your buddys dogs But brains that is something that few people breed for.
You will here guys talk about a dog being consistency every time you go out but a smart dog gets better because they learn Also people will talk about fastest dogs with controle smart dogs learn to run the speed of the rabbit and senting along with the dogs that they are running with with (once again smart dog) a smart dog nows if they can not smell the rabbit they now where to start looking for where the rabbit might have went i could go on all day long. SO LET ALL THE FIELD CHAMPIONING PEOPLE BREED FASTER DOGS OR MORE NOSE OR BETTER HUNT AND YOU BREED SMARTER DOGS THAT WAY YOU WILL HAVE A BETTER TIME WITH YOUR DOGS CAUSE THEY ARE SMART ENOUGH TO LESSON A LEARN.

To me its one simple word, "Desire" you cant feed it to them, give them a drink of it, or even give them a shot of it, they either have it or they dont. How to breed it into a dog that makes it hunt the way i like them to, i have one word for that too, ...."Clueless".

dhoundman, I also believe Brains are a good trait to have, but if the hound dont have "DESIRE" to go with the brains its useless. I would rather have a dumb dog with desire than a smart dog with brains and no desire. JMO

dhoundman wrote:Well Sam : Here is a qeustion for you If a dog can not learn to come to their master when they are being called but can a run the hair of a rabbit like no other you ever saw what good is he For you see if the dog is not smart enough to now the basic comandes no matter how good all the other traites may be they are useless. A dog with brains is the best trait yo can look for

didnt say a dog that cant handle...that can easily be taken care of with some electric.. but i cant make a dog hunt. i agree with desire but where does that desire come from? is it genetic or learned/

HATE! It's either there or it's not! Doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason.

I always refer back to people that have been there & done that with success. They told me to find a dog or dogs that HATE a rabbit & it will be your best hunting dog! I've only had 1. He truly hunted to catch & eat the rabbit, not just run it.

I believe the Brains ,desire,and heart are from the bloodline, you cant make adog
hunt that has no hunt in him,
I start my hounds by going into the woods and sitting on a stump they have the hunt generally to eventually start a hare I dont believe in kick ing the brush to start a dog
They have to do it on their own
As far as handling I spend a lot of time with pups teaching them to come but when they start
running they seem to forget about that I give them their head until well started then put a handle on them It is not hard to do with Tri Tronics used right

There's an old Pioneer Saying----------- "It's a sorry dog that wants game but will not hunt for it".

sammiller03 wrote:what do you think makes a dog have tons of hunt? is it genetic ? is it the dogs they were run with when they were young and was learned from them? is it training? what in your opinion gives the dog the drive to dive head first into briar patches and try to kill itself looking for a rabbit to run?

thanks in advance

sam

First and foremost it's genetics,imo!!! A dog can be taught most things to an extent ,some more so than others but if the genetics is not there I doubt they will ever fall in the top level in in the area of hunt. jmo

I agree it is Desire, but Desire itself can lend itself to many pages of debate, such as desire to do what, to chase or to kill, Is it genetic? How much of it can you trained into them and how much can you train out of them? I have my own opinions on desire, most of us work with too small of samples ( amount of hounds) to prove most things but years of experience increases the amount of samples that have been dealt with, that is why you will see me giving experience considerable weight, especially to the folks who have kept a good amount of hounds instead of only two or three at a time at most. Something about Brains, I have my own opinion on that as well, is it the most over-rated aspect of a hound that we know of, Will Blood in general direct hounds far more than their brain ever will, in respect to running ! Do with very few exceptions most hounds possess all of the brains they need to do a good job at running rabbits. Should we be too concerned about the intelligence of hounds , and very interested in their blood! Is it high time we put the Brains fallacy to rest and concentrate on the blood! Will what some refer to as Intelligence in a hound lead to faulty running far more than it will contribute to a good run! I didn't say hounds didn't use their brains , But Overall is Blood the driving force, that doesn't mean it is good Blood , Bad blood would drive just as hard. Does about any hound out there possesses enough brains to do the job, and when one mentions brains , should we just say yeah, they all have enough so what is the point ! Now, for the folks that all say it is all brains, some ammo. : What if what one is calling good blood and good breeding is simply a display of brains, and those that show poor attributes are simply lacking in brains, can you prove that good blood is not simply intelligence in action and that Good Blood is a fallacy. Just wanted to give some something to think about and discuss, doesn't seem to be much going on, Anyone brave enough to give an opinion on either side of this? I never gave mine!

likeemfast wrote:To me its one simple word, "Desire" you cant feed it to them, give them a drink of it, or even give them a shot of it, they either have it or they dont. How to breed it into a dog that makes it hunt the way i like them to, i have one word for that too, ...."Clueless".

dhoundman, I also believe Brains are a good trait to have, but if the hound dont have "DESIRE" to go with the brains its useless. I would rather have a dumb dog with desire than a smart dog with brains and no desire. JMO

You must like Reggie dogs then they have desire and brains

I think genetics plays a big part, but not the only. I think it's multiple. Early introduction to gamey areas, brush, briars, etc. builds a lot of confidence. But what is it that triggers some pups to open on their very first sight chase and others to not even show any interest? Yet down the road a few months, everything flips. The slow starter really comes on and the fast starter slows down. I agree desire is a big part. They have to want it. Like scent, the guy who unlocks this secret, can take it all to the bank.

brad Stewart, Likeem', does mention Reggie every now and then !

brad stewart wrote:

likeemfast wrote:To me its one simple word, "Desire" you cant feed it to them, give them a drink of it, or even give them a shot of it, they either have it or they dont. How to breed it into a dog that makes it hunt the way i like them to, i have one word for that too, ...."Clueless".

dhoundman, I also believe Brains are a good trait to have, but if the hound dont have "DESIRE" to go with the brains its useless. I would rather have a dumb dog with desire than a smart dog with brains and no desire. JMO

You must like Reggie dogs then they have desire and brains

Brad, you should read all my posts, not just certain ones, you may just learn something. Ive already mentioned on here i own a Reggie dog. She is a decent all around gundog. Ive mentioned it on here before and im stating it again. I have not taken anything away from Reggie the hound either, ive never seen him go but he must be above average or at least was at one time. The only thing ive said is he is not a GREAT REPRODUCER. With 2500 hounds on the ground there's bound to be some good ones. There's just hounds that have accomplished much more in the REPRODUCING department with 300 less breedings. That's why i say he's not a great reproducer.

I will say this tho, you Reggie guys flatter me by following my posts and quoting me all the time, ya must be learning something.

gwyoung wrote:brad Stewart, Likeem', does mention Reggie every now and then !

GW knows i have a Reggie female, beacuse he can read and comprehend what hes read.

Lol your funny do you ever hunt other than the computer

IMO, It's in there blood. If you know any gamecock breeders ask'em if you can teach gameness to a bird or if it's bred into'em. lol! If you want my opinion it's how they're bred and what's in their blood. Best breeders of anything I've seen are good gamecock breeders. So IMO, Factor that makes a dog hunt hard is genetic/blood/breeding. You can teach a hound to do a lot of things but you can't teach it how to hunt hard! Find a line/s of hounds that does and stick with it and keep breeding them. Don't settle or you'll never be satisfied! Learn to cull harder and keep what suites you. Which has probably been said on here a million times already. lol!