Close Hunting Dogs

[make-em-squeel]

Tone training your dogs will allow you to hunt smaller properties without sacrificing their range or bottom. I hunt lots of city places that are small and surrounded by roads... just a tone and my dogs stop and go in reverse.

interesting... ive always been to scared to try and make my dogs short range or bump them off a track, as to what i would do to them if they minded to well lol. Where can I read about tone training, obviously you start this after they show you they hunt good??

[Mike]

I start tone training them as soon as I start hauling them to the woods. Every time I call them to me, I'm toning them. If they don't come, give them a little shock. It doesn't take long for them to learn the tone means to come back. I can tone my older dogs off running a hog or even a bayed hog if needed. If they don't come off, shock them... they know they're getting shocked for not coming to the tone and not getting shocked off the hog. It takes some time, but it's well worth it. Saves a lot of long days or nights... and it keeps you on the right side of the law by not trespassing. And no... it does not affect their range or bottom.

[Slim9797]

lol, i bet theres plenty of folks wanting to sell you a close hunting dog, their called culls with no bottom. if thats what you want go with athletic abs,dogos,game bred pits or half those/half cur or cat or bird ie outlaw curs

Different strokes I guess. A dog that goes 2 miles to not find anything around this yard would be deemed a cull.


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[Rough curs]

100% with what Mike  said ,I run pit xmnt cur / cat  x pit  took a lil breeding for what I have now . I can catch a hog with in yards or miles depends how far I want to go , trained mine to stay with me till hogs are within reach or rig on a hot 1. If the hogs are not where I'm at then I brought the dogs to wrong place. I want too hunt the area I'm at not everything around me if that makes sense. If the dogs  go out it s game on.like Judge said different strokes for different folks

[Big Game Joe]

I agree totally with Mike also, only difference is I run rough Plotts. I usually either turn out on big tracks or at feeders/bait, if they get 150 yards from me, they are on one. They trail silent, so a lot of times we will bust him in his bed. If that happens, he ain't going nowhere. If the hog does get up and run, you have got to have the bottom to (run the air out of it.) Range is trainable in most any breed, within reason. I believe tone training is essential to hunting many of the places we hunt nowadays. Some people will say that I have too much handle on my dogs, but I would rather have it, than not have enough handle or none at all as some hunters I've seen. So in answer to the original question get you some ruff dogs and train them to hunt how YOU want them to hunt.    Mike Starling

[make-em-squeel]

I start tone training them as soon as I start hauling them to the woods. Every time I call them to me, I'm toning them. If they don't come, give them a little shock. It doesn't take long for them to learn the tone means to come back. I can tone my older dogs off running a hog or even a bayed hog if needed. If they don't come off, shock them... they know they're getting shocked for not coming to the tone and not getting shocked off the hog. It takes some time, but it's well worth it. Saves a lot of long days or nights... and it keeps you on the right side of the law by not trespassing. And no... it does not affect their range or bottom.

I did this with my 6 mo old pups this weekend, worked pretty good. I will continue

[Georgia-Hawgs]

That tone training is where it's at. I may be the guy on this site with the least experience training dogs. But I had a smart as a whip black mouth and he was 100% tone trained by 10 months old and it sure didn't take long. We was hunting some big farms down in South Georgia and the dogs got out by the road. I told everybody where they were and they all took off running and hollering for there dogs. The dogs were working a track and dang near a mile out. I toned my boomer dog and didnt even take a step in his direction. The land owner was with us and didnt have a dog in the hunt. He asked why I wasn't getting after my dog to. I said he's on the way back here now like a bat outta hell. And sure enough me and the land owner watched him come all the way back on the Garmin. He was sure impressed with that. 45 minutes later here come the rest of the crew and dang near to tired to keep hunting. 

[mike rogers]

I run leopard cur. They can range on out when hunting with go yonder dog, but hunt around 200 to 30 yards when by themselves. I hunt coons so it's a little different. LOL my game goes up a tree

[jpuckett]

MIKE, I think I’d haveta disagree with you, I do believe toning a dog off of a pig once they are on it will definitely affect their bottom over time, seen it happen, they just drop outta the race once they have hit that range. Not saying it doesn’t for ur’s but I think it would for most dogs


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[jpuckett]

I do tone train my dogs, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to do a lot once the race is on


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[Mike]

Jpuckett... I'll have to disagree. I started tone training dogs probably 8 years or so back with the old Tri-Tronics Trashbreaker. My main reason back then was because I usually hunted 3 nights a week and those late nights were killing me. When I was ready to go home... I could just tone them in. Since then, it's been a great tool for hunting smaller properties, hunting near busy roads and to keep from trespassing. I've owned a few truckloads of dogs since then... the curs I breed, hounds, hound crosses and all my bulldogs. It hasn't affected the hunt or drive in any of them... once they know the tone means "come back". Whether it's five minutes into a race or five hours, doesn't matter. I also know several others that train their dogs the same with no ill effects.

[jpuckett]

That’s interesting mike, you have much more experience and my evidence is mostly anecdotal. I appreciate the reply, sounds like the couple dogs I had it happen to maybe just didn’t really have enough bottom to begin with (which is a definite possibility) I assumed it was from the tone but I could def be wrong.


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[Mike]

The key is to be sure they are tone trained to come in before you ever attempt to tone them off a hog. Only use the tone for that purpose. Lots of folks tone them for everything and that just confuses the dog. I've seen people tone them to "get ahead" and then turn around and tone them to come back haha. I think the worst is tone, tone, tone, then shock for running trash... if they're trashing it's straight electricity. That tone should only mean one thing... come back. The only other thing I'll tone mine for is raising hell on the buggy... one little beep and they know to shut up. It takes time, but well worth it and can save a lot of headaches and prevent some bad situations from happening.

[Td3 dogs n hogs]

    Mike,
What system would you recommend for someone looking to start tone training? Also when you tone them back to you how long does it take them to start hunting again, or is the hunt over for that dog? Im in no hurry to start toning dogs off hogs, but I recently got some places that are real good hunting just close to the highway.

[Mike]

The Garmin Alpha with TT15 collars is the best thing since sliced bread my opinion haha. I've had mine almost 5 years now and love it... but any shock collars with the tone feature  and the range will get the job done.

The hunt isn't over, just load them and move to another spot and cast again, or start roading them or rigging them... whatever style you hunt. They shouldn't quit hunting from being toned back.

[Td3 dogs n hogs]

Thanks for the info.

[hyan]

Garmin alpha 100 train them with that n you can hunt any breed on 20 acre's to 200,000 thats the first thing mike thought me wen I hunted the city hunt near roads,homes,dog training kennels, near high fence's or any property lines just send them a text message them come right back on a hog or just out hunting

[Goose87]

Garmin alpha 100 train them with that n you can hunt any breed on 20 acre's to 200,000 thats the first thing mike thought me wen I hunted the city hunt near roads,homes,dog training kennels, near high fence's or any property lines just send them a text message them come right back on a hog or just out hunting

[Black Streak]

A dog that will bark at a big boar only invites races which often lead beyond the property boundaries.     Shocking a persueing dog off or calling it off in one way or another is not something I want to set myself up for.   Shocking a young dog off deer or stock isn't as confusing to a dog as shocking it off the quary you have spent so much effort trying get it to focus on.        Think id rather hunt a type of dog that eliminated these type issues rather than enabled them.     

[Goose87]

A dog that will bark at a big boar only invites races which often lead beyond the property boundaries.     Shocking a persueing dog off or calling it off in one way or another is not something I want to set myself up for.   Shocking a young dog off deer or stock isn't as confusing to a dog as shocking it off the quary you have spent so much effort trying get it to focus on.        Think id rather hunt a type of dog that eliminated these type issues rather than enabled them.   

If the handler has done the ground work at home then he has no need to “shock” a dog, people get so consumed on the whole shock hysteria when in reality the actual shocking stimulation should only be used as a last ditch effort, the tone is our way of communicating with dogs at a distance beyond ear shot, no different than two fighters stopping when they hear the bell ring or a ball player stopping play when an official blows the whistle, when those athletes were in their developing stages they were taught what those sounds meant, it doesn’t discourage them from being superior athletes, no different in dogs, I’ve seen countless times with my own dogs and others as well that are tone trained and it doesn’t mess with their performance one iota, it’s when joe blow gets out there with that fire stick in his hands thinking he’s somebody and going to solve all his problems on the first hunt right out of the gate without putting in the necessary ground work is when and where the whole “shocking” hysteria takes place...


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