Raising hounds pack style... some ?s

[MT-plainsman]

I am curious as to how you folks who raise hounds together as one pack in a single pen, make it work? I have not kept more than two dogs together in a single pen before. I have two young hounds now and will be adding an older hound soon. I already see a possible problem at feeding time. As you can imagine, the two compete quite seriously over the kibble, even when split up into two seperate dishes and spread apart. They both try and scarf down what they got before themselves and then haul @$$ over to try and steal the other hounds' too. Maybe it's just a puppy thing right now, but I wonder if they might keep this up into adult stages as well. What will happen when I introduce the older experienced dog to the two? Will she push them off and and eat both of thier food, or will she be real laid back in her age and allow the young dogs to cut into her share? Hard to tell, but can you see what I'm getting at here. So what do you guys do? How do you go about raising your pack together? Do you have problems with compitition among the pack wether it be meal time or a pecking order when penned together? You got hounds that are a little thinner and some that live a little higher off the hog??? Whats your insight on all this? Joel

[TomJr]

At feeding time I stand over the dogs and watch them. It only takes a few minutes of my time and I can put a stop to food aggresion early on. The older dogs don't realy need me to stand over them anymore but I still do most of the time. I make them eat only out of thier own bowls, dropped kibbles are free game though. Any glaces are corrected right away, but thats early on or when a new dog enters the pack they always test the system.

They all eat in the same area a foot or two apart. I bring the food out and they have to wait quietly while I put the bowls down(no jumping ect). I say the dogs name and set that bowl down only that dog is allowed to come to that bowl. I also noticed that once they figure out that eating fast doesn't allow them to get more food they seem to slow down.

Right now I have 4 older dogs and 2 new pups that are still learning, the pups are still having to be corrected from time to time on staying at thier bowls and are dropping kibbles while looking about. But they are alot better than they were when I got them.

They are 6 months now so part of that is maturity but most of that is my enforcing a structure on feeding time. When I got them they would eat out of the same bowl but were starting to push eachother and while not fighting yet were also beginging to growl at eachother. So I made them eat out of seperate bowls like all the others, this also makes it easier to make sure they all get enough food and not too much. It also is easier giving meds that are mixed in with food.

[outlaw13]

[sheimer]

I let all my hounds eat out of the same dish from time to time. It's taught early on that there will be NO squabbling what so ever. I even had a strange hound over for the last few days that was allowed to eat out of the same dish as one of my males. The pup didn't understand right off, but he figured it out within a few feedings. I think that it's just another way to show them that your the leader and will take care of all their needs and they don't have to be a jerk to one another. I generally have my hounds all either chained or kenneled seperately, but when it gets cold or another dog comes to visit all my hounds get kenneled and fed together. Two intact males and one female. Don't get me wrong, they sometimes need corrected still, but it's few and far between.

Mabey Full Cry Hounds(Dean) can chime in on this. I know he runs all his dogs together and prefers it.

Scott

[houndnem]

hell I've had 4-12 hounds in the same pen for 10+ years. never had a problem. I did seperate them this last year and now when they are penned together they tend to be more growly and such. I think it's just howeveryou have had them penned from a young age. change it up and you might have a problem.

[Unreal_tk]

I kennel my dogs together most of the time. I have a big automatic feeder and a 40 gallon tank in my big kennel. I have had them chained most of the winter because of no power back to the barn to keep the water unfroze. But I like them to have to get along rather than compete for anything. I think it keeps the pecking order in better balance because it stays established all the time rather than when im working them only. I have 3 females and one uncut male at the moment that I kennel together. Soon to be another male when he gets old enought. Ill most likely keep my males chained when the females get close to their cycles. Only downside is dogs who get fat easy, but I take the feeder out of the kennel most of the day and keep it in for 2 hrs or so.

[FullCryHounds]

I've had all me dogs together now since 98. All males. Some cut, some not. Like any other training, you teach them where their spot is and put thier food down in the same place every day. All my dogs run to thier spot before I get there and wait to be fed. It only takes a few days to teach them. I don't let them eat out of each others bowl until they are all done, then they all go around and clean up each others bowl. But once I put thier food down, I walk away. Never had any fights over food or any other fights. I just introduced two older dogs this past fall. They figured out the routine in a few days. If you have a handle on your dogs, and they understand you are the pack leader, you won't have problem. Just like a wolf pack, there is a pecking order and my dogs understand I'm the pack leader. You don't have to yell at your dogs or ever hit them. What they understand is being put on thier backs with you standing over them. That they understand as a dominate position. I've only had to do that with a couple of dogs over the years but it only took once.

Dogs like and understand routine. Once they understand that, you can teach them anything.

[bigboarstopper]

I recently went from 7 to 6 dogs all kenneled together. I feed them together an in a similar way as some above. I feed them one at a time. I will call out the dogs name when im ready to put the bowl down. One thing I do to keep them listening instead of just getting used to a routine is that I will feed them out of order from the previous day. It made it more difficult in the begining but now its routine and they listen better as a result. I only have food aggression issues if I have a new dog or pup in the mix. The new dogs will always eat last to re-enforce the lesson.

[twist]

I am a firm believer in a well mannered dog but to me there is no need to feed dogs together or kenneling together. What is the benefit of this if any! If you start mixing males with females sooner or later there will be a problem. I dont care how deciplined they are you have a few males in with a female coming in and you are looking for trouble. jmo Andy

[Trueblue]

[FullCryHounds]

Andy, I used to keep dogs kenneled seperately for almost 20 years. 13 years ago, I switched to keeping them all together. Now, I will admit, I've never kept intact males and females together. I've only kept males together. Some of my males are intact and some are cut. The advantages I've found to keeping dogs together are overwhelming. Now again, this is all males, no females. All the aggression is gone. The dogs never bark in their run because they are bored. They are overall much healthier and have a much better mental attitude. My dogs all sleep in an 8 foot long insulated dog box when its cold so they stay warmer. Feeding time is easy since they all eat next to each other. I only have one heated water bucket to clean out every day instead of 8 seperate ones. Ive never had a sore or bloody foot in 13 years because thier feet are so much better conditioned. The dogs run around chasing each other and play all the time now instead of sitting in a small kennel bored to death day after day, week after week and sometimes month after month.

[treeumall]

hi there, in my experience i think at times you may have a squable once in a while, but overall they are no diffrent than a wolf pack they will assemble a alpha female and a alpha male in that pack and once that is assembled the problems halt untile a younger male will try the alpha male. sounds crazy but think about it, they are still a canine. i have found even on chains i keep all my hounds in a tight circle, i do this for that reason. not saying i dont have a squable once and a while but i never have a dog fight with dogs tore up. dogs are a pack animal and will live like that after there pack order is aquired. well this is just my opinion, and it seems to work in my kennel.
keepem treed

[Brianshounds]

I chain all my dogs, but having said that when i go hunting sometimes i need to keep all my dogs in a kennel or horse trailer at night. they all do fine eating out of the same dish, i decided that if they cant eat out of the same dish then i dont need to keep them. the most i have had together was 10 or 11 threw the years. five males one cut, six females. I put all my dogs in a 3ft by 6ft dog box and they all do just fine together, i even put my little puppies in with them 3 months and older. if they cant get along they go down the road. ..... just my two cents.....

[twist]

Good post everyone its nice to see how others out there do things different. Always very interesting to me. Like i say as long as the hunter is happy thats all that matters. Andy

[MT-plainsman]

Theres more than one way to skin a cat, and apparently theres more than one way to raise your hounds too. I understad everyone's way of thinking here, and it does make sense to me for the most part, but my main concern with some of these methods is that of Andy's... "If you start mixing males with females sooner or later there will be a problem." This is the only hangup in my mind on raising a mixed sex pack right now. Joel