Hunting with Mutts

[Nick Pardy]

Hello everyone, I'm new here. I've got a dog who is about a year and a half old. He's 30 pounds, about a foot and a half tall and loves being in the woods. I'd love to try to train him to hunt but I'm not quite sure where to start. He's not gun shy, and he also loves being close to me when in the woods and comes when whistled to. I'm just wondering if anyone has had any luck hunting with mutts and how they went bout training them. I feel as if I put some effort into it I could atleast get him to retrieve game for me. Thanks everyone, I appreciate it.

[Peter Emberley]

Try it see what happens.

[Nick Pardy]

Thanks, I will. I'm just not sure exactly where to start haha

[Ken Dinn]

First you can certainly work on the retrieving do some www searches and look up Force fetch or the trained retrieve. As for the hunting part it depends on the dogs drive for game. It would be hard for me to give any suggestions with out seeing the dog and its reaction to game. But like I said you can train him to retrieve.

[Nick Pardy]

Alright, thank you very much. I've flushed two rabbits with him by my side and he was pretty much oblivious to them. But I'm not sure of the reason behind it. He seems interested in some scents he finds in the woods, however. Are you aware of how I could start training him to go through the woods in a zig-zag so he could flush game? Also, do you still do training? Have you ever taken a mutt on one of your courses?

[Ken Dinn]

Yes I still do training. To get him into a pattern to flush game the first step would be to get him interested in game....... this would give him a reason to search. As for him not noticing the rabbits it just might take more contacts with them. If you can spot a rabbit walk him in as close as you can until he actually flushes it and gives a little chase. The more of this the better.