EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

Got a young male from Mr. Mason that has alot of hunt, loves hogs, deer and armadillos  :). I have a shocking collar but he usually hunts out of sight. How would you break him from deer and armadillos. If I knew how to catch a dillo I would get one and put it in his pen and light him up. I also thought about getting a deer hide and laying down a trail and lighting him up when he decides to follow it. Anyone have any other ideas ?   thanks

Lee,
If you can't catch him on a deer you can use a hide or deer scent and lay a trail and shock him of he take it.  Best way too take him where deer are or at a feeder and schok him when you can see him doing wrong.

Took his sister this morning and she found a hog and we were throught cows and deer.  Just takes time and catching them doing it.

Lee,

I've heard from more than one person that an armadillo smells just like a hog.......One of the only animals I dont really mind if my dogs trash on........deer is a different story......I like Mr. Mason's feeder idea.......

Something I have heard, but never tried is goats.  I have been told that goats smell similar to deer and you can use them to break your dogs off deer.  Anyone heard of this or know if it is true?

With all due respect . . . armadillos don't smell like hogs and goats don't smell like deer. There are studies being conducted in Sweden, now . . where one dog is trained to track one particular wolf or bear and will cold trail this particular bear across the much hotter track of another bear or other bears. They can tell the difference down to one member of a species, differentiating him from his own kind . . . so a dog does not mistake a goat for a deer.

Very seldom does a deer run like a hog. If you know what to listen for you can tell when an open trailing dog is running off game.

Also, and this is only from my own experience . . a dog bred for certain game, especially dangerous, fighting game like bear or hogs . . . will put much more effort into running that type of game. My young dogs will definitely bump and/or run trash but seldom do it with as much gusto. If one prefers to take off game, refuses to accept correction or ever quits the target game to run trash . . he is asking to be excused from your program. Regardless of the speed or nose or other attributes of a dog in your pack . . if he can't be broke . . get rid of him as soon as possible. And never breed them as they certainly reproduce themselves as often as not.

For those folks breeding dogs without hunting backgrounds/families . . . good luck. How long do you think it would take to breed stock or game sense into bird dogs and Great Danes, etc . . to the point where your preference overcomes their natural instincts?

Hard to say definitively... I've lost track of the number of bird dogs I've seen who, given a choice, would much rather run feral cats or rabbits than hunt birds. Seems like most coon dogs and big-game dogs too, if left to their own devices from puppy hood, would much rather run deer and mice than anything else... sometimes I wonder if it's just a wolf thing.

If these studies are true then we should be able to train our dogs to hunt nothing but boarhogs...they obviously smell different.. I know some old timers who use to run deer could tell when their dogs were on an older buck...or so they say..

Seems like most coon dogs and big-game dogs too, if left to their own devices from puppy hood, would much rather run deer and mice than anything else

I guess that would depend on what you call a big game dog. Seen an awful lot of dogs sold as big game dogs who were good at it . . but didn't come from that type of breeding. There is a difference between a dog doing something . . and generations of selective breeding.

Guess I never stuck my nose in the right spot.... ;D

If I can see my dog on an armadillo I'll yell "get-out", but I wont loose any sleep over it.....but I'm talking RCD's........If my RCD's want to have an armadillo snack on the way to a pork dinner I don't mind......deer, cattle, hoofstock are a different story.......just the way I see it......to each his own.....


good point....