Training timeline for hound puppy
Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 7:23 pm
I have been doing some reading on what everyone thinks is a general timeline for hunting a hound. There seems to be a large variance on where everyone starts their dogs. My first hound pup arrives mid November. This will give me all winter to take him out with us on bird hunting trips and let him run wild and get some exposure to the outdoors while the snakes are hopefully gone. With my drahthaars they are doing off leash "hunting" and controlled tracking scenarios beginning the day they come home at 8 weeks and hunting and having birds shot over them by six months. I am planning on just doing the same structured routine with this hound dog along with all the same obedience but instead of birds obviously using some gland scents to set up some tracking exercises a couple times a week and some dead game drags until he is about 5-6 months and I can do gunfire introduction. I think the only time I plan on showing him a caged coon a couple times is to introduce the gun. Not sure how else to do gunfire intro with a hound. We do it with rabbits and launched pigeons/quail for bird dogs. Then working him on coons and hopefully bobcats over the summer. That will put him at just over a year old next winter to get out to New Mexico for some quail and see if we cant chase some big game. How is everyone else doing gunfire introductions for these dogs?