Whats the youngest age u have ever seen a pup start running

[wildcatfan0309]

Just wondering
Thinking about trying to start a pup at 3 months old when i normally waitbtill 7 or 8 months

[tom summers]

Had one she was 4 ½ mo. And circling i was gunning over her and brother at 6 mo.
Jigs x female from indian hills Fred.
That was my earliest had several others at 6 mo.

[barnold1]

Had one that from the time I brought her home constantly had her nose down, searching. At 10 weeks, she started spotting them sitting in peoples yards when I walked her around the block with a retractable lead and would site chase and give tongue. Then, at 12 1/2 weeks, in the middle of August, I was walking her when she opened on a track across a sidewalk, took up through the neighbor's yard, jumped the sitting rabbit behind a tree and kept on rolling with it. I was pumped; hurried home and got my youngest daughter so we could take her to a conservation area that evening, where she opened and tracked another. She had started herself and it was on!

Me and Little G taking her out for that first night's run:

[haderondah]

Have one that started at 3 months and never looked back, have a pup now that did not give a crap about nothing until she was 8 months old and all of the sudden it was like a light switch turned on. I was starting to lose my mind with her. Oddly these two dogs are out of a very similar blood lines with a lot of common ancestry, go figure? Most have seemed to be 5-6 months though.

[NorWester1]

Have had some call on track as early as 7 weeks. Here's a clip of 9 week olders running their first wild snowshoe hare....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFqiMseLQAA


...some of them again @ 12 weeks old...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-tWIhTR5zI

[wildcatfan0309]

Norwester
Thanks for the videos thats just unbeleivable!!!

[Hare Chaser]

One thing to note about Norwester's video. Notice what you do and don't see. You do see a "little pack" of beagle "puppies" opening on a wild hare. You don't see an adult dog anywhere running with them. This I believe is important. These puppies are not being pushed or distracted by an older dog that they could never keep up with. You also don't see human intervention constantly putting them back on the track when there is a loss. The pups in this video are merely doing what comes natural for them to do and it was all programmed one nano second after fertilization occurred. Genetics pre-determined their natural abilities. Impressive indeed!!

[rabbitatfarm]

What is it about gravel drives that draw rabbits? We have gravel and there are always rabbits there.

Larry

[allniter]

LARRY=========== I don't know a bout gravel roads --but where they SALT in the winter --the rabbits are after SALT

[beaglestotrack]

Had a dog barking track at 9 weeks old..

[transman63]

AJS misty 8 weeks old bark on track.

[NorWester1]

Wildcatfan309 wrote,

Norwester
Thanks for the videos thats just unbeleivable!!!

Glad you enjoyed that. I think it's funny as hell watching those little sh*ts hit it like that


Harechaser wrote,

One thing to note about Norwester's video. Notice what you do and don't see. You do see a "little pack" of beagle "puppies" opening on a wild hare. You don't see an adult dog anywhere running with them. This I believe is important. These puppies are not being pushed or distracted by an older dog that they could never keep up with. You also don't see human intervention constantly putting them back on the track when there is a loss. The pups in this video are merely doing what comes natural for them to do and it was all programmed one nano second after fertilization occurred. Genetics pre-determined their natural abilities. Impressive indeed!!

Agreed, this is pretty much our approach. Generally speaking we won't run pups with an adult until they are older and mature enough, in my opinion, to hang with the big pack. We also won't solo them. Ever.
It should also be noted that even at this young age the pups have been given plenty of opportunity to start . At the beginning of the first video you'll hear me mention to my son to catch the pups up as they were running a feral domestic rabbit. We had a few of our rabbits get loose and of course they had babies in the woods around the house here and are about as wild as they will get....great for starting young pups and will give them a decent run.
Even though the pups in the video were only 9 weeks of age they had been opening on track and running ferals for almost 2 weeks prior so the opportunity to try a wild hare came just at the right time
As per your comment on genetics it should be noted that the pups sire was started at 7 weeks old as well and their dam was started at 12 weeks old on snow in winter on wild snowshoe hare.
As a side note.....none of this means they are/were all keepers. We have two out of that litter that made the final cut.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Earliest I've had pups to OPEN and TRAIL a rabbit was 14 weeks old.They were out of FT.CH. Filmore's Northern Sly x Shady Grove's Ninja's Echo.
First time out of their pen and I'd taken them for a walk in the woods behind the house and had sat down on a log to smoke a cigar.The pups got off out of my sight and next thing I heard were some small yips and I looked up and here comes a cottontail and and a moment behind it came the two pups working the line and opening.They carried it for a couple hundred yards before losing it.
I currently have a pup out of FT.CH. Threejays Jack's Fly Man x Shady Grove's Tn. High Test.At 10 weeks of age had her out for a walk on the property and saw a rabbit dive into the cover off my driveway.Walked her up that way and she immediately put her nose down and got frantic trying to work the scent.She worked the track out about 100 feet and jumped the rabbit.Didn't open,but you still got to love it!

[plottwalker]

top notch clips as usual norwester. really like it

[sammiller03]

norwester,

great video. my question is how did those pups turn out? just curious.