[beaglechaser]

I have two hard charging, prey driven 18.5 week-old beagle pups. Most of the time they mind very well; that's a good thing. When they are on a track, it's a different story. I usually can't get them to quit (good thing)and come in (not so good, especially if tresspassing.) I know they know the commands and I'm tempted to try an E-collar. I have used them before with my older dog and in training my setter. On the other hand, they are still young and I don't want to stifle their prey drive. Tonight I had to hunt them down in a 40-acre corn field, but I could hear them bark so I know they were on track--the wrong time to stimulate. I could work with a check cord and then transition to the E-collar in the yard, but I'm of the "they can't do anything wrong--except deer--the first year" school. Any thoughts?

Larry

 

[oldhounddog]

I'm of the "they can't do anything wrong--except deer--the first year" school.

Larry ,
First , I would like to say that I could not agree more with the above statement.....

My best advice is work the check cord with your dogs on an individual basis during a time of low to no distraction. Also if you have a small fenced area that you could use for training with and without the long line would also be great. I have had the best luck at starting out hounds on basic obedience work especially when very young to condition them to pay attention to me first , using the sit, down, stay and recall command coupled with name recognition and the look at me command using lots of treats mixed with some fun play for motivation. I always us a release word for close work. This is where my training technique has changed over the years especially with young dogs. I use a lot more motivational play and treat/reward mixed in with regular training with treat/reward for the first 6 months.

I then slowly transition to adult dog training using the groundwork already in place. It is at this time that I introduce some light ecollar work for proofing commands especially the recall and only using the Best equip with infinite stim control ( Dogtra ) so I don't overstep stim level needs. I am very careful here because many a good dog has been ruined with the use of older or poor quality ecollars that just ZAP the dog instead of using a working stim level. I like a harness with front/back clip for training , but , will use a prong collar to stop pulling for short term correction work. A flat buckle is best all around unless a dog has pulling problems that could hurt/injure the neck especially with young dogs.

My training work tends to be a bit different than some hound trainers because of changes I've put in place over the years ( 1960's ) using a what works best technique. I now work and train larger hounds and some setter/mix retriever work with my rescue hounds.

oldhounddog