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How do you guys teach dogs to rig from the dog box or on the hood?Does anyone know where a guy can get a hood mat for rigging? Used or new. All advise is welcome

To be honest I've never taught a dog to rig right off. Most I would guess started the same way. You road hunt the dogs and when they have the right stuf its not much of a change for them to strike from the dog box. I wouldn't worry about putting them on the hood its easier and safer to rig off the dog box or out of the bed . I believe a rigg dog will strike from anywhere, granted more air flow helps to a point. But I've had dogs strike from inside a horse trailer enclosed except for vents and gaps in the floor, from the truck cab and inside the dog box. My boxes are much more open then the northern boxes or coonhunter styles . I don't rigg my dogs though since most areas I hunt only have a trail in and then its horseback or foot . I bet someone has trained a dog to rigg without another dog and it probably includes driving past trainers to get the dog to open.

Some strains of dogs here have been bred for that purpose for so long a lot of them are naturals, and some dogs that may be litter mates to those natural rig dogs may never make a rig dog. As peg leg said just teach them what you want to hunt and start hauling them on the box, lots of hunters here no longer need to haul them on the box, just have a hole big enough to get their nose out is all it takes. Yes, I have known of hunters to plant desired game near the road to teach dogs to rig. Dogs that open freely on a cold track tend to make, on average early rig dogs. Some of the tighter mouthed dogs take more time and game to learn to rig in my experience. I have owned some natural rig dogs that started rigging cold bobcat at a very young age. Just keep in mind some dogs never made rig dogs, it is in the breeding. Hope this helps, just my experience. Good luck Al

Every dodge I own rigs right out of the box, my best rig dog can wind one from a dead sleep

What really makes a rig dog is a dog that uses its nose in the wind more than on the ground. We have a dog that doesn't run a track on the ground unless its really cold. Otherwise he runs with his nose in the air and winds it. If he's runnin a bear but he's behind on it, he might cross 80 yards up or down the road from where the bear did. His nose in the air the whole time. Now of course this trait isn't a must, but before a bear tore him up and messed him all up and got him scared, he would strike any bear that had crossed the road or was layin way off the road, especially with a good wind. But it also helps for a good rig dog to have a cold nose, especially later in the season as bear are gettin harder to find. But training em isn't really somethin we do. When the dog knows what it should be runnin, we know its a straight dog, it's proven it has a good nose, and it'll open as soon as it gets a whiff of bear, that's how we know its a rig dog. There's not alot of training involved.

Every Dodge i ever owned broke down right out of the box!