Puppy that doesn't bark?

[hallmountainman]

That keeping her on the leash idea might work, we're also thinking that running her with the big packs during gun season will excite her more. I think she's past the stage where using a caged rabbit would do anything for her, she already has tons of sight chases around the house...she'll be 5 feet behind the rabbit sometimes and still won't bark. She'll jump and run a rabbit across the field and into a brush pile, go into the brush pile, get it out and keep chasing it, all while the other pups are still hunting around me because they have no clue that she jumped and is running a rabbit.

[Joseph J Murphy]

It's not all that uncommon.I would try deer hosts idea but not let the rabbit out of the cage .having her on a leash and holding her back a little may help.Definitely wouldn't put her down with a big pack of older dogs.

J Murphy

[bfoster]

Have any of y'all had experience with a puppy that doesn't bark? We have one now that's 4 months old, jumping, tracking, sight chasing and all and has yet to bark. She's constantly down running with 2 pups around her age that do bark on track and on sight chases, but she won't. We've raised her from day 1 and she's never been whiny or anything, but she can make noise because she howls when she gets shocked for not handling.

How old is too old to not be barking?

Any advice on how to get her to bark?

Any input is appreciated.

It is not uncommon to see a puppy as young as 4 months not give any mouth. Don’t sweat it. It might honestly be a good thing later down the line. Remember this is a puppy and a young puppy at that. This is not a grown finished dog, so don’t expect the same things as you do in a grown dog or even a 1-2 year old.

Excitement is generally what sets a puppy off and causes them to start tonging away on a track. So what you need to do is figure out what’s going to get this puppy so excited about a rabbit that he/she starts going nuts at the smell of a rabbit track. For most well breed beagles all they need is rabbit tracks. Just leave them out in an area with wild rabbits and before you know it you’ll hear a nice little rabbit race going on. It might take longer than you want, but that’s how it is. If you’re not happy cull them and move on to the next one. Someone else might want and like what you don’t.

As was mentioned before, you might try a rabbit in a cage. What you’re doing there is allowing the puppy to get all excited and then hoping that will initiate vocal response. Just like a rabbit chase, they can’t get to the rabbit and this gets them all riled up. They have to want it. If they don’t have any desire then they won’t be excited and they won’t give vocal response.

In an earlier post, you said the puppy doesn’t whine or make noise in the pen. This leads me to believe the pup may be a calm pup. It takes more for a calm pup to become excited… thus will take this young pup longer to give tongue on a track.

Spend more time with this pup, playing and such. Help them to show emotion over anything. Since you want a rabbit dog, try to incorporate something in your playing that will help later on. Kennel up, fetch, chase you around, chase you on the 4 wheeler, anything that you see gets the pup excited about what you’re doing. Buy rabbit scent and pup that crap on everything you’re playing with. If they’re chasing you or the wheeler, pull a drag cord. When they get to you cause you’re out of breath, rile them up loving on them, and then take off again.

Excitement is the key and your answer.

As a breeder, I have to watch how I combine Nose strength and how easily excitable a line of dogs are. Strong nose and strong desire tends to equal more tonging than is excepted. You might have the complete opposite of that and it might be something to look into in greater detail as you breed future generations.

[hallmountainman]

I might have to try the cage, that's how we used to start our pups until we developed a good rabbit population at our house. I'm just going to keep putting her down with our running pups and hope she starts barking. She is whining more in the kennel since we kenneled her with another pup that does bark and whine, so hopefully it's rubbing off on her. She is out of hotter-nosed dogs and has shorter ears than our other 2 pups her age that are running, so that may be a part of it as well.

[patchgirl]

It is not uncommon to see a puppy as young as 4 months not give any mouth. Don’t sweat it. It might honestly be a good thing later down the line. Remember this is a puppy and a young puppy at that. This is not a grown finished dog, so don’t expect the same things as you do in a grown dog or even a 1-2 year old.

Excitement is generally what sets a puppy off and causes them to start tonging away on a track. So what you need to do is figure out what’s going to get this puppy so excited about a rabbit that he/she starts going nuts at the smell of a rabbit track. For most well breed beagles all they need is rabbit tracks. Just leave them out in an area with wild rabbits and before you know it you’ll hear a nice little rabbit race going on. It might take longer than you want, but that’s how it is. If you’re not happy cull them and move on to the next one. Someone else might want and like what you don’t.

As was mentioned before, you might try a rabbit in a cage. What you’re doing there is allowing the puppy to get all excited and then hoping that will initiate vocal response. Just like a rabbit chase, they can’t get to the rabbit and this gets them all riled up. They have to want it. If they don’t have any desire then they won’t be excited and they won’t give vocal response.

In an earlier post, you said the puppy doesn’t whine or make noise in the pen. This leads me to believe the pup may be a calm pup. It takes more for a calm pup to become excited… thus will take this young pup longer to give tongue on a track.

Spend more time with this pup, playing and such. Help them to show emotion over anything. Since you want a rabbit dog, try to incorporate something in your playing that will help later on. Kennel up, fetch, chase you around, chase you on the 4 wheeler, anything that you see gets the pup excited about what you’re doing. Buy rabbit scent and pup that crap on everything you’re playing with. If they’re chasing you or the wheeler, pull a drag cord. When they get to you cause you’re out of breath, rile them up loving on them, and then take off again.

Excitement is the key and your answer.

As a breeder, I have to watch how I combine Nose strength and how easily excitable a line of dogs are. Strong nose and strong desire tends to equal more tonging than is excepted. You might have the complete opposite of that and it might be something to look into in greater detail as you breed future generations.

Great advice!

[hallmountainman]

Looks like I got impatient about a week too early. She started barking on sight chase this morning! This evening she and the rabbit ran face first into each other, when she caught up with the other puppies she continued to bark on sight chase. Then a little while after that she opened on track and moved it with pretty good foot!

I started videoing the chase shortly after her and the pup ran into each other, I'll post up the video soon.

[Joseph J Murphy]

Cool !