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I have a 9 month old pup I just aquired to run with my broke dog and am wondering what the best way to get him staying outta trash tracks is. He is green as grass, been on one lion with a bunch of broke dogs and just kinda followed along. He hasnt had much ground work done with him but were working on that. I just thought before I took him out it might be a good idea to let him know chasing deer is not what were up too. Whats your thoughts on this guys? I have a shock collar and plenty of trash tracks handy, was just wondering the best way to go about this, also could someone refer me to the post about the lion scent and making drags. Thanks a million to anyone who has a minute to give me some advice!

By the way im not rigging these dogs, if that makes any difference. Thanks!

houndcrzy. your best option is a good sound practice of knowing what to expect from your lead dog. example if he finishes tracks a high percentage of the time or if he struggles some than quits.a pup gets into trouble when there is nothing to run.good or bad. it is a game of consistancy. i make a young dog sit out a marginal track and wait to either cut it in as the track warms up and crosses a road. or even walking him to a tree. as you begin to finish several sucessful races,i switch directions and go deer hunting. i allow in a controlled environment the young dog to take a bad track and line it out stopping him in his tracks.he will either choose to or not .if not, resume the good tracks. remember one thing in 37 years of hunting i never owned one single dog that didn't try his hand at running deer. just my luck? i never put a foreign dog on the rig deck until i know the dog.i never mix hounds until i know what i'm mixing.from there i resume my hunting for good game. i use a ratio of 10-15 good tracks, set him up on the bad track. even a dumb hound will figure out the one time he does wrong it hurts.i would run the lion tracks with the e-collar on and if the dog slips off, send him to the road period.young hunters always say to me split race? my answer, better have two trees! all the other times he does well there is praise. at the point your dog is out of control it is hard to realign him to the good side.i call this good handling.he is looking to please his master. most people who fail, do so because they are not honest with themselves. if you are ready or not to add the next dog or pup to the pack. a bent dog needs consistancy just like a recovering alcoholic does. he don't need to hang out with a bunch of drunks. hard analogy? it is as hard as you make it or humane.remember you are the boss. best of luck!

Thanks alot for that info Mike! And thats exackly it, I dont want to have him get going on the wrong side of things at all so I want to do everything I can to prevent that. Im wanting to get him out and take him on some walks just to spend some time with him,get him out of the kennel, and start getting him to handle better, is that all alright and a good idea? My other question is if I have him out on a walk in the back forty and we come across some trash is this an appropriate time to show him we dont go hunting after those tracks? Just thought I could use this time for some training as well as Im waiting on days off to get back out into the bush running cats. I just want to put as much as I can into this dog and give him every oppurtunity I can to turn into a good hound some day. I have a guy that is "mentoring" me with alot of years of experience but I would love some more info from you guys, if you get a chance Im all ears! Thanks for your time!!!

houndcrzy,

Here is my advice. Don't get real tough on him at 9 months old for crankin on some trash. It's a lot easier to reel them in than it is to cast them out, if you get my drift. I like to see a dog with a lot of drive. He might drive you nuts, but will most likely finish out to a pretty decent dog.

What I would try to do is like Mike said. Do your best to keep him on some tracks that finish into what you want. Try to keep him with a few good bent dogs. Once he gets that a bit, feel free to let him on on the tougher ones that might end up with nothing.

houndcrzy,nolte is right about getting heavy handed with the e-collar. it is a fine line. you can easily ruin a dog going over board with this method. but a trash burner is of no value either. go with the temprament of the individual dog. and yes the back forty is the ideal place .as you don't have to cut into your valuable hunting time. i have a hard headed 7 month old that has been shocked a dozen times and he takes it in stride. anything less and this pup would own me....lol. this is just him, but he is now as broke as the dog he is hunted with and at this age that aint bad.

Thanks alot guys, I guess I'll just try and take him out and see whats gonna happen, I havent hunted the dog and I dont think he has had a fare shot at things. Hes more or less bin dumped off the truck with the rest with no handling or ground work at all. The guy said he has WAY to many dogs and I can take him and keep him if I want.....so thats what im into with him so far. He is wanting to go BIG TIME as soon as I leash him and bring him out he sticks his nose in the dirt and wants to get to sniffin something!!! He just has alot of energy and wants to get doing something in the worst way is what im trying to say. I can hardly hold onto him just letting him out to do something in the kennel! i guess Ill just try and spend alot of time with him and get him handling and see what he wants to do! But the more advice the better if any one has any! Thanks alot for the help!

Hey Houdcrzy, I am kinda new to this whole Hounding thing myself. What I try to do is just work with my young hounds on handling while around the house. I will teach them their name and what here means, and then once I get them doing pretty good with that I will start taking them roading with the other dogs getting them use to the whole roading thing, when they get off track I try to use my horn so they start to associate that with coming back to the truck.
Once they get this down and I know I have got them under control at that point I take them to the woods with me. I put out a couple older dogs and maybe one pup at a time and road them together, if the pup starts to play and goof around with the older dog I just tone him ( in the act) to get him focused again. The older dogs will stop and smell the good scent as it comes and the pup will smell the good stuff with them then as they road along and the pup starts to take off on a scent that the older dogs don't pay no attention to I just kinda bump my horn calling the pup and kinda grunt BAADDD!!!and if that doesn't work then I just bump them very lightly with collar till they come back, but the scolding usually will work and with my young hounds they pick up pretty good this way. Once the hounds acutually get a track started I just let the pup roll with them and if they get off track and start running oppisite directions or it seems they are running trash just bump em with collar on low setting going up as needed and tell them BAADDD! Usually my pups will get going back to the older dogs as he hears them opening up on the track. I don't really start getting them good with the collar till they get the swing of things then after they start to know the difference between good and bad tracks I get a little more intense on the breaking. If you pay attention to you hounds and the pup you will know what he's doing and when its something good or something bad. My pup are 7 Months and 9 Months right now and when I first took them to the hills they were all over the bucks but after a few trainning sessions now I know when they smell a Deer or Yote cause they will stop and wind a little then look back at me or the older dogs and see what they are doing and I just grunt BAADDD!!!
Like I said, I am fairly new to this whole thing but this has worked for me and I don't really have pups trashing off on me that much when I get at them early you just don't want to go crazy with the collar cause you can really wreck a young dog in a hurry.Just watch and learn your dogs and don't trust till they prove you wrong cause if you make excuses for them or think they are smelling a track your older dogs are walking right past cause there colder nosed dogs your in for a long road ahead of you. I have hunted with people and their dog's open on the rig and my dogs just sit down and look back at me like here it comes, and then they try to tell you that maybe their dogs are colder nosed or got a better wiff of the scent thats when I just tell them good luck and go hunting by myself.These are just a couple of things people try to convince themselves instead of correcting the problem. Good luck Let us know how it goes.

See ya,

Beardog

Thanks alot bear dog and everyone else, were headed out friday morning I cant wait,gonna try and post some pics for you guys when I get a chance here! Can somone refer me to the post about the cat training scent you can buy? Thanks alot.