Beagles, rabbits and S/W Ontario

[Tom]

i have an e-collar for her so i can always make her stop rather quickly:lol: she is only a year old and VERY stubborn so i know ill need to use it while hunting.

what is the best way to get them started on rabbits besides running with other dogs?

I have trained many different beagles as hunting dogs and family pets. I have never liked to train a new dog with a group of dogs. The reason is, they seem to rely on the other dogs alot more, never fully develop their own skills. Also, I never liked my dogs to run, run, & run for long periods of time. For deer, I liked them to run for 20-30 minutes then come back to me, this gets the deer moving but not running out of the country. Most of the time, on the way back, they would pick up another animal that back tracked across the original trail (thinking they were safe) and another short run would insue.

Running two or more dogs together can cause a competition between them where they want to out do the other and never want to quit and come back to the handler.

To start a dog without a pack or group of dogs takes a little more work, but I think you get a better dog in the end. Try and get the dog a very close encounter (where the dog sees the animal) and start chasing the animal with the dog. then try and look for the scent with the dog, if you can see the tracks, point them out to the dog, this does really work.

Doing this with kids is great for all involved.

[ninepointer]

I have trained many different beagles as hunting dogs and family pets. I have never liked to train a new dog with a group of dogs.
To start a dog without a pack or group of dogs takes a little more work, but I think you get a better dog in the end.

The only beagle I have ever trained is the one I own. Before I started training I studied a lot on the subject and Tom's principle is the one that I used. Once my dog found its nose on its own, hunting alone or running with other beagles was a breeze.

We presently have one beagle in our group that coming up on its 3rd season. It was never subjected to individual training. So far this dog is a "tag along" dog. It's useful as an extra "flusher", but it does not run rabbits round.

Yet we have a younger dog (coming up on its 2nd season) whose owner put in the necessary individual training time. This dog has quickly become an excellant hunter and is the obvious "apprentice" that will someday replace my older dog.