training a dog to wind.

[Nickjones]

I have three bob tail cur pups that are about nine weeks old. i know its early to start them but i want to teach them to wind off a fourwheeler and off the hood of my truck. any good way to do this. also i want to teach them to throw loops looking for hog. all the dogs i have a pretty short range and really wont roll out and look for a hog unless its a hot track.

[BIG BEN]

 Either the dogs will do it or they wont. We hood hunted bears in Cali and only a handful of those dogs would wind a track from the hood.

[DanS]

Most all curdogs will wind on top of a box......some just are better at it than others......naturally, some have better noses than others.....but the big difference is whether you will have to keep the dog snapped up on top of the box, or if it will ride unsnapped and stay up until it strikes......I call this the dog's "manners"......The big difference I see between a good wind dog and a great wind dog, is whether you need to keep the dog snapped up while you are riding or if he'll stay put, unsnapped, and then load and unload without you getting out of your truck......

For instance,  my two main strikedogs can rig a hog with the best of them.....but the minute you unsnap them they are gonna take off on foot, whether they smell one or not, and if they come back and load up, if i don't snap them to the top, as soon as the truck starts moving, they will unload and starting roading again......so i leave them snapped and ride till they start barking.  That is why i don't consider them great wind dogs, there "style" is not right.....

Some of my old dogs that are long gone, would ride unsnapped all night, jump when they smelled one, and come back and load up if they couldn't work it out, and then you where off down the trail, without having to get out of the truck.....That is a much better style of wind dog, I always seemed to catch more hogs with that style of dog, all other nose qualities being equal.....

All you can do as a hunter, is throw them up top, night after night, until you learn what kind of manners your dogs have....then work it the best angle you can.....knowing how to hunt your dogs, is just as important as how good of a nose your dog has......

as far as training them to hunt in loops....you can't.....they are just gonna hunt how it's bred into them when they are unsnapped.....

9 weeks is way too early.....I wouldn't even start bringing them to the woods until they are 9 or 10 months old.....

[HIGHWATER KENNELS]

Aint it amazin how u can have the same litter of dogs but not all of em will have the Sense that the other one has.  It dont matter how u train em they will always become their own dog.  Those with the best sense dont come around often enough.

[hillbilly]

As far as winding I think that is a natural thing in a dog, meaning born with it or not. As far as hunting out I wouldn't hunt them with your short range dogs if you don't want them to hunt that way.

[txmaverick]

Teaching  a dog to wind is possible and not that hard just need to be committed to the task.

Call me with your credit card ready and ill share my secrets with you.
Joking call me during the day 8-5 830-370-3663 i will give you some pointers.

[Eric]

I believe if you want to teach dogs to wind you need to be set up to wind. You need to be set up with platforms and/or snaps or what ever you are going to use from day one. Repetition is going to be the key early on and you want to take away as many variables as possible. Not all dogs wind the same or have the same manner. Both you and the dogs have to learn how to hunt when winding.

Its just like catchdogs... any $50 Pit can catch a hog... but it is truely and art when done right by both the handler and the dogs.

[LAredneck]

At three months old ill start taking mine around my small pen while feeding hogs usually 3 or 4 at a time for a few weaks.  Then ill bring a little older dog thats already baying and so far most of the pups will follow suit.  I currently have four that are running in a wooded pen that are 6 months old. I always enter pen from down wind and even at that young age they are winding.

[Nickjones]

I dont start trainning my pups till they are about four months old. Just trying to get some pointers before i start training. I have trained most of my dogs but have only been hunting for a little over two years so dont know all the keys in training one.

[craig]

As far as winding I think that is a natural thing in a dog, meaning born with it or not. As far as hunting out I wouldn't hunt them with your short range dogs if you don't want them to hunt that way.

X2

[txmaverick]

Ways of training dogs vary as much as the many types of trucks people drive and why they drive them. Everyone does something different for different reasons with different breeds of dogs. One way is no better than any other unless you know for sure that way will not work in your area or with your breed of dog or your style of hunting.

Again Nickjones if you would like you can call me, we can chat.

Winding is something that can be taught it is not easy, but it can be just anything else with a dog you have to work at it and the more natural ability a dog is born with the easier it is. Again it can be taught, but just like people there are dumb dogs. Hunting loops can also be taught but that is a VERY hard thing to teach and has to start very early.

[craig]

maverik,   i cut all my credit cards up years ago.     but i would still like to hear some of your techniqes. 

with these sorry dogs i have i can haul them around on a wheeler or back of a truck and they will all wind , i just havent figuered out how to make one do it if one dosent .   

[Drue]

I got a idea that might be good to teach one to wind or at least get them started. Does anyone know where you can get hog sent for training? Without having a caught hog.

[Bryant]

I would first get the dog loading up, and riding the hood / box / or whatever you intend to use.

Set a trap, and get you a handful of small hogs.  Find you a good grain field and periodically stake those hogs out by driving in a t-post and tying them out.  Then ride through the area coming from down wind and see if the dogs will come off.  If not, rig an older dog along.  Do this often..change hogs locations and driving path. 

I don't hunt this way, but a friend does and this is how he works young dogs (and does it OFTEN). 

I'll also mention that is just like anything or any other method...some dogs will be better than others.  The guy I know hunts, trains, and breeds exclusively for this method of hunting.  When his young pups are four or so months old, you can chain them in the back of a truck and go for a ride.  The whole time, the dogs will have their noses straight up with heads going back and forth.  He calls this "grading the air" and it's not something learned....this young in their lives, it's something bred.

[coach]

One way we use to train younger dogs was we would tie up a hog for a couple of days next to a tank and under a tree. Let the area get nice and rank smelling from that stinky boar hog. We would then proceed to road the dog down wind of the area letting them to wind the hog. Once they caught the hang of what we wanted from them, we would change tactics and clip them on the truck and repeat the process. The dogs either knew the hogs were there or would wind them and begin to get excited. We would then unsnap them and allow them to run up and bay the hog for a while and repeat the process a couple more times. Then move on to another scenerio.

[treeingratterrier]

Teaching dogs to strike off the box is very very easy.  You need a striking rig in the front of the truck like those deer hunters use with a receiver mount to set the dogs in that you are going to rig.  It used to be pretty easy to when all of the trucks had flat hoods to just use the hood with a small rug bungee coreded with hooks so the dog wont slip or slide off when they get interested in a scent.  Of course it speeds up the process if you have a hood dog to train with.  If you dont here is how to start them.  Get them working on a small hog or raccon in a rolling cage and barking real good at it, start laying down a trail with the wetted down piglet or coon, let the dogs out to trail it up and bay, praise the dog tons when it uses its nose to wind or sniff out the "lost critter".  Do this every day and get them interested in hunting up the lost piglet or coon.  Keep moving the piglet farther and farther away and do this at least 50 times.  Then get the dog to just get used to loading and unloading in or onto your striking box.  Ride the dog in the rig snapped in with no possible escape to be run over.  Feed the dog on the striking rig platform and water it there as well, leave it there overnight with no way of hanging up and strangling.  Then start loading and unloading the dog until its second nature to jump un n the striking rig and wait to get fed and petted.  Then for a week or so take the dog riding in the rig snapped in and get him used to being snapped in the rig and riding in the front of the truck, get out and praise the dog and try to unsnap and unload him over and over until he loads and unloads on comand, keep him snapped in after he loads and praise him tons for a good ride in the rigging platform.  Now you have a handle on the dog and he is used to jumping off and on the striking rig in front of the truck bumper.  All the time you are getting the dog use

[treeingratterrier]

used to the rig and you should keep him interested in a game of find the lost caged piglet or coon at the same time.

Beg borrow or steal a bunch of small hogs, get somebody to weave up some type of a rope bag that you can place a small piglet into.  Take the piglet in the sack and hide it just off of the road you are going to drive later with your dog in the rigged position, try to drive into the wind and watch the dog and slow down it you have to and hiss em some if he is not sure where the piglet is or  coon is hidden.  Let him smell and if he trys to wind release him and praise him if he strikes the game and then goes into the brush to find it and bay it, it helps like crazy if you have a rig dog to help him open up the first time out.  You need to have a lot of hogs in dog kenels or weaved sacks and do this all morning and try to get him striking off of the now usual place to ride.  Repeat repeat repeat again and again and praise him like mad if he starts winding and trying to bark to let you know he has found the lost piglet for you.  It will soon become a game for him and he will now know when he is in the striking box and you are saying wind em up boy that he is going hog or coon hunting, some dogs open more than normal, some wont  but will with another dog, it helps if the dog is slow to open or wind if you drive into the wind where the piglet is hidden and hiss em up tons and even bark like a dog to get him to open.  Repeat, praise, do it again and soon he will know he is hunting when he is removed from the dog box and placed on the strikeing rig.  There is a lot more but thats how i did it from watching lion and dry ground snow hunted hounds in mexico and Az utah and south texas.  I have rat terriers that will strike off a rig on dead hogs and deer that city boy shoot and leave, blackmouth curs and leps are great hood dogs, some fast tracking hounds do great too if you have lots of 10000 acre places to hunt.  Lavon davis and Billy Don Blevins prob first hood hog dog i saw

[treeingratterrier]

PS, its a lot better if you have a dog on the hood if you have a low level truck so you can watch the dog as you are driving down roads or by grainfeilds or river bottoms, a good hood dog used to bring $1000 more when i was hunting tons, greatest dog i ever saw was a blackmouth cur named Whitey and a blackmouth red cur named Red, Lavon  Davis and Billy Don Blevins were still both hunting together way back then down here.  There was older guy that hunted with them as well who had a great dog from Angleton but the dogs name and the owners name escapes me.  I owned a bobcat dog that would strike off the top of a dogbox if it was really a hot cat track.  I did hunt with a guy who had a Old Line Black and Tan Foxhound that would strike hogs going 70 miles an hour down us hiway 77, he was a wolfe dog but would switch to hogs when he got around him, prob was if he heard a wolf going to the hog scent he would run it and all of the other dogs would come back to the truck fraid of getting shocked out, we just used him to start when it was really dry and not many hogs around the ranch, now days there so many hogs everywhere its crazy.  There is no excuse for not having a hood dog if you have the time and place to train them, they are tons of fun to bet on if somebody you hunting with has one as well, and they keep from wearing out all of the pack roading if you are on a big ranch or its 100 at midnight like down here sometimeslol