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Pitrescuemama
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19-01-2018, 06:25 AM

Scent training

So my girl is a 4 month old 1/2 Pit Bull 1/2 Red Tick coon hound. Not only does she look like her mother the Red Tick but she also seems to have the traits also. She's very active, has a high prey drive, will wander following her nose, and she's very focused I mean you tell her to pay attention and she'll look you straight in the eyes til you tell her OK.
I have taught her basic obedience like sit, lay, stay, wait, attention, leave it, give, down, off, come, and share. Of course we are still working on some wait, stay, leave it, down, and come cause she doesn't always come when called. She does do fairly well with all though. She also knows shake, high five, sit pretty, speak, and were working on roll over but she still hasn't figured out what I'm trying to get her to do lol.
Now I guess cause she loves using her nose she is a scent hound and they are usually used to hunt I feel like it would be great fun for her and also strengthen her training to participate in shed antler hunting. I don't hunt and could never kill anything and I've worked hard with leave it when we see rabbits and squirrels while on our walks she does pretty good resisting the urge to lungs and bark at them. Although if she's in the house she'll lay on the bed stare at the squirrels threw the window for hours. She will shake like she's itching to get one of them I let her look out that window no more then 10 mins at a time cause I don't want her developing an obsession with it. She gets to run out in the timber with a couple of older dogs while my friend cuts wood she loves it. I have family who owns acres of timbers I can train her to search for them just don't know how its done. I mean I've never done this before and don't have any experience training a dog to hunt for anything lol.
Do any of you have any advice?
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SirRiley
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31-01-2018, 04:37 AM
I don't have any experience with hunting unfortunately, but have you considered shed hunting? That uses the dogs nose and you either get some cool antlers to display or the dog can get something to chew on, whichever you want.
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Gnasher
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31-01-2018, 10:14 AM
It is the dog's instinct to have a prey drive, especially bearing in mind his coon hound genes! I don't think it a good idea at all to not allow him to gaze at squirrels through the window after 10 minutes - he is only following his instincts. Far more to the point as you don't want to kill prey is to train him not to - it is possible to do this, but extremely difficult and hard work - so good luck on that one! I don't mean to be hostile, but what made you get a coon mix knowing that you could not cope with a dog killing things ... seems a bit strange to me!
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Gnasher
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31-01-2018, 10:15 AM
the shed hunting sounds great fun btw - probably a good idea to let him use his natural prey drive on hunting and killing antlers to preserve your finer feelings!! My boy Ben has an antler which he hides in different parts of the house and gets very miffed when I find it!
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Besoeker
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31-01-2018, 11:05 AM
Ours chases squirrels and birds but until he learns to climb trees or fly they are safe...........
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CaroleC
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31-01-2018, 11:20 AM
If her recall is not 100%, (ie.normal for a scenthound), what about teaching her to track on a harness and long line. By teaching her to follow a laid trail for food or toy rewards, you will be diverting her attention away from living game/vermin, whilst still allowing her to use her inherant abilities.
Lots of help how to start tracking training on the net.
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Gnasher
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31-01-2018, 12:12 PM
Besoeker your post reminds me of an event which happened a few years ago. Ben and Tai were in the woods and between them caught an unfortunate squirrel ... hunting as a pack the poor squirrel did not have a chance ... he was torn in half, one pulled the head end one pulled the tail end and ate their pieces before we could stop them. I actually was not bothered by this, but unfortunately a party of school children hove into view with their teacher who very quickly cottoned on to what was happening and shooed them away . Some of them must have seen it though, and were traumatised by Squirrel Nutkin being eaten.

A good lesson in nature for them, but I did feel bad.
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Besoeker
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31-01-2018, 06:44 PM
Originally Posted by Gnasher View Post
Besoeker your post reminds me of an event which happened a few years ago. Ben and Tai were in the woods and between them caught an unfortunate squirrel ... hunting as a pack the poor squirrel did not have a chance ... he was torn in half, one pulled the head end one pulled the tail end and ate their pieces before we could stop them. I actually was not bothered by this, but unfortunately a party of school children hove into view with their teacher who very quickly cottoned on to what was happening and shooed them away . Some of them must have seen it though, and were traumatised by Squirrel Nutkin being eaten.

A good lesson in nature for them, but I did feel bad.
Yes, I would feel bad too. In our case, the squirrel scarpers up a tree to safety
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Gnasher
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31-01-2018, 07:22 PM
I take the view that if it upsets one that much, then don't have a dog. They need to follow their instincts - my daughter's Chihuahua is a feisty little fella and will pounce on anything, they were bred to kill scorpions in so he is just following his instincts, just like cats.

It was a full on though in front of those kids
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SirRiley
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31-01-2018, 11:19 PM
Now that I have read the thread when I am not half asleep I realize you mentioned shed hunting

So, for shed hunting look up rack wax. Use that to train the scent of she'd antlers by putting it on dummy antlers.
There are articles you can find too if you look up she'd hunt training that explain how to train it.
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