communicating with your dogs in the woods

[justincorbell]

This post in a way stems from a conversation I was briefly involved in on facebook where the subject began with the age old loose vs. rough dog discussion. I made a comment along the lines of  "to hell with rough or loose dogs, use intelligent dogs" and my basis for this was that if you were working with smart dogs that you could talk to in the woods you essentially could get them to do as you asked in regards to baying/catching/calling off etc..... the responses were all over the place from guys saying "I agree" to guys saying "I would never call my dogs off a hog" and "why would I want to do that". At that point I left it alone as I didn't care to get in an argument about it and didn't want to have to post rebuttal to all of the responses BUT I did realize that there's alot of guys out there that hunt places that require them to kill every hog they touch and I get it so there was no reason for me to justify my initial comment as most of them would never need/want their dogs to call off of a hog in the first place. Having said that I also know that there are alot of guys out there that still work hogs like we do and figured this would be a great place to have this conversation so here are my questions for you.

1) do you hunt places where you have to kill everything you catch and if so do you believe that having dogs that you can talk to is important or not and why?

2) for those of you that hunt places where you are still able to work the hogs do you believe it is important to be able to direct your dogs and why or why not?

3) do you feel that being able to call your dogs off of a hog or hogs is  a good or bad thing? do you think it hurts the dog or do you believe it helps the dog or neither...and why?

4) taking it a step further, (for those that use systems that can tone a dog) do you feel that toning a dog off of a track hurts the dog? If so why? (obviously I am not talking about puppies/young dogs, this is more directed towards the older seasoned dogs)

looking forward to reading some of your answers.



 

[Austesus]

I’m required to kill every hog I can, I hunt for farmers so if I didn’t I wouldn’t have access to that land. So in that regard, I would never call a dog off of a pig if they had one. All my dogs have been in the house at some point or another so they’re all taught basic commands (sit, stay, come, etc..). Idk why I haven’t worked with them more with the alpha, I just never put much time or thought in to it.

     I’ve recently started working on tone training them. I give a series of 3 beeps for them to come back. If they don’t start heading my direction I give them a hard bump, and then repeat. It’s been great so far, I’ve only used it once in the woods, and it was for a dog that was hesitating coming back across water. I gave the beeps and he jumped in and started swimming like a fish. I plan to use it when the dogs are getting close to a road or if one goes a direction that I don’t want him too. In my opinion you could never have too much control over what your dog is doing. I’m slack about it, but it wouldn’t ever hurt have them listen better or know more commands.


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[Slim9797]

This post in a way stems from a conversation I was briefly involved in on facebook where the subject began with the age old loose vs. rough dog discussion. I made a comment along the lines of  "to hell with rough or loose dogs, use intelligent dogs" and my basis for this was that if you were working with smart dogs that you could talk to in the woods you essentially could get them to do as you asked in regards to baying/catching/calling off etc..... the responses were all over the place from guys saying "I agree" to guys saying "I would never call my dogs off a hog" and "why would I want to do that". At that point I left it alone as I didn't care to get in an argument about it and didn't want to have to post rebuttal to all of the responses BUT I did realize that there's alot of guys out there that hunt places that require them to kill every hog they touch and I get it so there was no reason for me to justify my initial comment as most of them would never need/want their dogs to call off of a hog in the first place. Having said that I also know that there are alot of guys out there that still work hogs like we do and figured this would be a great place to have this conversation so here are my questions for you.

1) do you hunt places where you have to kill everything you catch and if so do you believe that having dogs that you can talk to is important or not and why?

2) for those of you that hunt places where you are still able to work the hogs do you believe it is important to be able to direct your dogs and why or why not?

3) do you feel that being able to call your dogs off of a hog or hogs is  a good or bad thing? do you think it hurts the dog or do you believe it helps the dog or neither...and why?

4) taking it a step further, (for those that use systems that can tone a dog) do you feel that toning a dog off of a track hurts the dog? If so why? (obviously I am not talking about puppies/young dogs, this is more directed towards the older seasoned dogs)

looking forward to reading some of your answers.

I do not hunt one single place where I am required to do anything with the hogs one way or the other. Some places I kill most we bay, some places I don’t even carry my rifle. The 2 ranches I work on and the immediate surrounding property we hunt, we do kill most of these hogs when we can because they directly impact our operation.

lots of dogs out there that could be really good that in my opinion are instead really sorry, because they are owned by somebody with a “hog hunter” mentality that cares nothing about anything other than seeing hogs die. I’ve killed plenty of hogs by now. For the last 2 years it’s been all about just how good can I make one. A dog that is. These days my motto is simple, I own cow dogs that will hunt hogs. All our dogs go both ways, so yes for me it is important to be able to direct them, and for them to listen the first time. Hog hunting and cow hunting are one in the same in how I approach it and how I expect my dogs to approach it. Then you add in the fact that we shoot over them, it’s damn important they know how to listen and better yet to pay attention for themselves. I can tell my dogs to get around a set of hogs or cows, or call them out, or load on the truck, or go to their kennel. At the end of the day it’s the individuals opinion whether that makes them a better dog or not, but it is a fact it makes it more enjoyable to own them when they have a handle and some manners


I believe it is more than a good thing to have the ability to call dogs out, you hunt long enough there will come a time where your either gonna put yourself in one hell of a bind, or you call the dogs out and save a lot of trouble. Whether you can recognize that time, and then put away your macho man pride and let that hog walk is your deal, but atleast the opportunity is there if the dogs will do it. I think dogs that will call off/out, are a better dog for it, a lot more longevity to this kind of dog rather than one that “can’t” or won’t.


Toning them off hasn’t hurt mine in the slightest. Kept them and me out of plenty country we had no business in. If anything it makes mine catch another gear on the next track.


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[K-Bar]

Very well said Slim. I agree 100%.  Having control of your dog is a positive thing. Not a negative.
The tone to me is no different than “come here”. They should always do that no matter what. I’m not saying I have as much control of mine as I should because I don’t get to spend the time I used to, but it’s still true.

[Austesus]

Another thing I’m going to start working with them on is how to behave when it comes to loading up. Right now I have to leash each individual dog and walk them to the back of the truck and tell them “load up” and they’ll jump in. I would like to be able to open their kennel, say load up, and have hem go straight to the truck and get in the box without me walking them. Right now they wanna take off and do laps around the yard and have me cussing at myself for trying it. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do it, other than my own slackness in training. My other pet peeve, that is also my fault due to lack of training, is that every dog tries t dump when I open the box. It’s an hour ride to my land, and there’s a gas station 5 minutes from there that I collar up at. It’s always a pain because when I open the box every dog wants to bum rush out. Like I said, this all comes down to me not doing what I need to do on my end.


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[t-dog]

Discipline is necessary and only makes the dogs better. Think about it from a sports standpoint. Your championship teams or individuals are 9.5 out of 10 times the most disciplined ones. It's no different with dogs or horses or kids. There are lots of factors for it but my bay dogs do not have the handle that my dogs in the past had. It's absolutely no fault of theirs. Over the years I have learned the simplicity that accompanies discipline, especially with my catch dogs. Not having to lead them and them stay right with me, being able to call them off or back to me if they haven't caught a hog that broke in what I think is a reasonable distance, even directing them to the exact hog I want out of group. Being able to tell them caught hog and them leave it alone is so nice when I'm by myself. Instead of them pulling against me while I'm trying to tie, they are sitting there listening for the dogs to put up bay again and getting their wind. Now it is a little hard to tie if they are trying to lick your face while you try to tie but that's ok. It doesn't take years to establish a handle like that. It does takes a willing disposition work at the house. My Hondo dog had less than a full season of hunting under his belt when I directed him to the hog I wanted out of group crossing a pasture. He and the hogs both were in a run when I did it. You can do it after a dog is grown but it's easier to do if you start as puppies. Things like playing ball and tug of war are great tools and they are great tools to keep one legged up when grown. Telling a pup caught hog when playing tug of war and making them let go or not letting them take off as soon as the throw a ball but wait for you to say go and again caught hog when they bring it back with a ton of praise. This doesn't make them want to catch any less. In fact I think they are excited by it. You can almost see it while they wait on you to get done and the next bay to happen. It's like they understand, ok I already hammered this sucker bring on the next one. Bay dog or bulldog all I see that it does, when done right, is reinforce your alfa position.

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[justincorbell]

Another thing I’m going to start working with them on is how to behave when it comes to loading up. Right now I have to leash each individual dog and walk them to the back of the truck and tell them “load up” and they’ll jump in. I would like to be able to open their kennel, say load up, and have hem go straight to the truck and get in the box without me walking them. Right now they wanna take off and do laps around the yard and have me cussing at myself for trying it. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do it, other than my own slackness in training. My other pet peeve, that is also my fault due to lack of training, is that every dog tries t dump when I open the box. It’s an hour ride to my land, and there’s a gas station 5 minutes from there that I collar up at. It’s always a pain because when I open the box every dog wants to bum rush out. Like I said, this all comes down to me not doing what I need to do on my end.


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One trick that will help you is to start feeding them in the bed of your truck, puppies and grown dogs and every time you bring em tell em "load up" then feed em, even the stubborn older dogs will more than likely figure out pretty quick that when you say load up its a good thing and they will want to do it on their own. I have a couple that want to run around and act a fool for a couple minutes before they load up occasionally so I normally let one of my grown dogs that will run and jump right in the bed go first......... most of the time its monkey see monkey do.

[Thrailkille1989]

one thing i have noticed about calling my dogs off hogs is sometimes when i ease up to a bay they will come to me like they know im gonna call them off. i give them a little yelp and there rite back at it. so i think you have to becareful how often you call them off dont make it the norm i guess. just my thoughts i dont have a dog over 3.5 years old so there all still learning

[Austesus]

Another thing I’m going to start working with them on is how to behave when it comes to loading up. Right now I have to leash each individual dog and walk them to the back of the truck and tell them “load up” and they’ll jump in. I would like to be able to open their kennel, say load up, and have hem go straight to the truck and get in the box without me walking them. Right now they wanna take off and do laps around the yard and have me cussing at myself for trying it. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do it, other than my own slackness in training. My other pet peeve, that is also my fault due to lack of training, is that every dog tries t dump when I open the box. It’s an hour ride to my land, and there’s a gas station 5 minutes from there that I collar up at. It’s always a pain because when I open the box every dog wants to bum rush out. Like I said, this all comes down to me not doing what I need to do on my end.


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One trick that will help you is to start feeding them in the bed of your truck, puppies and grown dogs and every time you bring em tell em "load up" then feed em, even the stubborn older dogs will more than likely figure out pretty quick that when you say load up its a good thing and they will want to do it on their own. I have a couple that want to run around and act a fool for a couple minutes before they load up occasionally so I normally let one of my grown dogs that will run and jump right in the bed go first......... most of the time its monkey see monkey do.

Are you feeding all the dogs at one time, or individually? And are you doing this at normal feeding time or before you go hunting?


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[TheRednose]

Another thing I’m going to start working with them on is how to behave when it comes to loading up. Right now I have to leash each individual dog and walk them to the back of the truck and tell them “load up” and they’ll jump in. I would like to be able to open their kennel, say load up, and have hem go straight to the truck and get in the box without me walking them. Right now they wanna take off and do laps around the yard and have me cussing at myself for trying it. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do it, other than my own slackness in training. My other pet peeve, that is also my fault due to lack of training, is that every dog tries t dump when I open the box. It’s an hour ride to my land, and there’s a gas station 5 minutes from there that I collar up at. It’s always a pain because when I open the box every dog wants to bum rush out. Like I said, this all comes down to me not doing what I need to do on my end.

You should have no problem doing both of these things. I have my dogs trained this way already. I go open the tail gait and the dog box doors, then I walk around and open the side gate, then I just go open the kennel doors to the dogs I want to bring and tell them to load up and they haul backside around the side to the front drive way jump straight in the box and lay down waiting for me to come and shut the door. Same when I am collaring up, I go to the dog box door, open it up and call the name of the dog I want to collar and only that dog will come out, i will collar it and then call the next. My dogs caught on to it real quick so I am sure yours will too.

[Austesus]

Another thing I’m going to start working with them on is how to behave when it comes to loading up. Right now I have to leash each individual dog and walk them to the back of the truck and tell them “load up” and they’ll jump in. I would like to be able to open their kennel, say load up, and have hem go straight to the truck and get in the box without me walking them. Right now they wanna take off and do laps around the yard and have me cussing at myself for trying it. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do it, other than my own slackness in training. My other pet peeve, that is also my fault due to lack of training, is that every dog tries t dump when I open the box. It’s an hour ride to my land, and there’s a gas station 5 minutes from there that I collar up at. It’s always a pain because when I open the box every dog wants to bum rush out. Like I said, this all comes down to me not doing what I need to do on my end.

You should have no problem doing both of these things. I have my dogs trained this way already. I go open the tail gait and the dog box doors, then I walk around and open the side gate, then I just go open the kennel doors to the dogs I want to bring and tell them to load up and they haul backside around the side to the front drive way jump straight in the box and lay down waiting for me to come and shut the door. Same when I am collaring up, I go to the dog box door, open it up and call the name of the dog I want to collar and only that dog will come out, i will collar it and then call the next. My dogs caught on to it real quick so I am sure yours will too.

What was your method of teaching both of those things?


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[justincorbell]

Another thing I’m going to start working with them on is how to behave when it comes to loading up. Right now I have to leash each individual dog and walk them to the back of the truck and tell them “load up” and they’ll jump in. I would like to be able to open their kennel, say load up, and have hem go straight to the truck and get in the box without me walking them. Right now they wanna take off and do laps around the yard and have me cussing at myself for trying it. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do it, other than my own slackness in training. My other pet peeve, that is also my fault due to lack of training, is that every dog tries t dump when I open the box. It’s an hour ride to my land, and there’s a gas station 5 minutes from there that I collar up at. It’s always a pain because when I open the box every dog wants to bum rush out. Like I said, this all comes down to me not doing what I need to do on my end.


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One trick that will help you is to start feeding them in the bed of your truck, puppies and grown dogs and every time you bring em tell em "load up" then feed em, even the stubborn older dogs will more than likely figure out pretty quick that when you say load up its a good thing and they will want to do it on their own. I have a couple that want to run around and act a fool for a couple minutes before they load up occasionally so I normally let one of my grown dogs that will run and jump right in the bed go first......... most of the time its monkey see monkey do.

Are you feeding all the dogs at one time, or individually? And are you doing this at normal feeding time or before you go hunting?


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I feed my puppies together in the bed of the buggy or truck once they get to be 10-12wks old. I like to start letting them ride around in the evenings by 14-16wks so its one less thing that they have to learn down the line. I personally don't feed my grown dogs in the bed of my truck, I was gearing that comment more towards puppies. but I wouldn't recommend feeding them together regardless of where you chose to feed em. My dogs are pretty laid back but they can be hole in the butts come dinner time.

[Austesus]

Another thing I’m going to start working with them on is how to behave when it comes to loading up. Right now I have to leash each individual dog and walk them to the back of the truck and tell them “load up” and they’ll jump in. I would like to be able to open their kennel, say load up, and have hem go straight to the truck and get in the box without me walking them. Right now they wanna take off and do laps around the yard and have me cussing at myself for trying it. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do it, other than my own slackness in training. My other pet peeve, that is also my fault due to lack of training, is that every dog tries t dump when I open the box. It’s an hour ride to my land, and there’s a gas station 5 minutes from there that I collar up at. It’s always a pain because when I open the box every dog wants to bum rush out. Like I said, this all comes down to me not doing what I need to do on my end.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

One trick that will help you is to start feeding them in the bed of your truck, puppies and grown dogs and every time you bring em tell em "load up" then feed em, even the stubborn older dogs will more than likely figure out pretty quick that when you say load up its a good thing and they will want to do it on their own. I have a couple that want to run around and act a fool for a couple minutes before they load up occasionally so I normally let one of my grown dogs that will run and jump right in the bed go first......... most of the time its monkey see monkey do.

Are you feeding all the dogs at one time, or individually? And are you doing this at normal feeding time or before you go hunting?


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I feed my puppies together in the bed of the buggy or truck once they get to be 10-12wks old. I like to start letting them ride around in the evenings by 14-16wks so its one less thing that they have to learn down the line. I personally don't feed my grown dogs in the bed of my truck, I was gearing that comment more towards puppies. but I wouldn't recommend feeding them together regardless of where you chose to feed em. My dogs are pretty laid back but they can be hole in the butts come dinner time.

That’s why I was asking, mine won’t share food for the most part. My buddy trains his dogs to eat together, and a few of mine have been at his house long enough that they will. Most of them will start a fight over food.


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[Goose87]

Another thing I’m going to start working with them on is how to behave when it comes to loading up. Right now I have to leash each individual dog and walk them to the back of the truck and tell them “load up” and they’ll jump in. I would like to be able to open their kennel, say load up, and have hem go straight to the truck and get in the box without me walking them. Right now they wanna take off and do laps around the yard and have me cussing at myself for trying it. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do it, other than my own slackness in training. My other pet peeve, that is also my fault due to lack of training, is that every dog tries t dump when I open the box. It’s an hour ride to my land, and there’s a gas station 5 minutes from there that I collar up at. It’s always a pain because when I open the box every dog wants to bum rush out. Like I said, this all comes down to me not doing what I need to do on my end.


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Over time my dogs learn to go get in the truck, I always have the tail gate down and box open, my old dogs I would collar up while they were on the chain and unsnap them and they would go straight to the truck parked in the front about 200 yds from the kennel, I was also hunting dang near 7 days a week back then and only had 5 dogs, so it was more repetition than me training, I run an EXTREMELY tight ship, my dogs must walk a line in the discipline dept., it all starts at home, you can't get to the woods and get mad at a dog for doing something and then start trying to fix the problem in the field, I don't allow any unnecessary barking on the chain or in the box, one thing that makes me so mad is dogs rushing the gate when I open the box, I have a good whooping stick and will crack one across the nose while yelling get back or I'll pop them with the gate of the box if they stick their head out, my best friend is bad about opening his box and just letting his dogs all bust out, that's where problems start, I take mine out one at a time and leash them up and then cast them, having a handle is a must for me, I've gotten rid of dogs before because they wouldn't handle and couldn't take the discipline required to put a handle on one  and would flip out, almost like they didn't have the ability to learn...

[Austesus]

Another thing I’m going to start working with them on is how to behave when it comes to loading up. Right now I have to leash each individual dog and walk them to the back of the truck and tell them “load up” and they’ll jump in. I would like to be able to open their kennel, say load up, and have hem go straight to the truck and get in the box without me walking them. Right now they wanna take off and do laps around the yard and have me cussing at myself for trying it. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do it, other than my own slackness in training. My other pet peeve, that is also my fault due to lack of training, is that every dog tries t dump when I open the box. It’s an hour ride to my land, and there’s a gas station 5 minutes from there that I collar up at. It’s always a pain because when I open the box every dog wants to bum rush out. Like I said, this all comes down to me not doing what I need to do on my end.


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Over time my dogs learn to go get in the truck, I always have the tail gate down and box open, my old dogs I would collar up while they were on the chain and unsnap them and they would go straight to the truck parked in the front about 200 yds from the kennel, I was also hunting dang near 7 days a week back then and only had 5 dogs, so it was more repetition than me training, I run an EXTREMELY tight ship, my dogs must walk a line in the discipline dept., it all starts at home, you can't get to the woods and get mad at a dog for doing something and then start trying to fix the problem in the field, I don't allow any unnecessary barking on the chain or in the box, one thing that makes me so mad is dogs rushing the gate when I open the box, I have a good whooping stick and will crack one across the nose while yelling get back or I'll pop them with the gate of the box if they stick their head out, my best friend is bad about opening his box and just letting his dogs all bust out, that's where problems start, I take mine out one at a time and leash them up and then cast them, having a handle is a must for me, I've gotten rid of dogs before because they wouldn't handle and couldn't take the discipline required to put a handle on one  and would flip out, almost like they didn't have the ability to learn...

Thanks for the tips, I’m going to start working more on both of those things. When I hunt I don’t cast, I walk hunt and take everything that is in the box. Normally I just open the doors and let them all out. If you were hunting like me would you just let them out one at a time?


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[Goose87]

Another thing I’m going to start working with them on is how to behave when it comes to loading up. Right now I have to leash each individual dog and walk them to the back of the truck and tell them “load up” and they’ll jump in. I would like to be able to open their kennel, say load up, and have hem go straight to the truck and get in the box without me walking them. Right now they wanna take off and do laps around the yard and have me cussing at myself for trying it. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do it, other than my own slackness in training. My other pet peeve, that is also my fault due to lack of training, is that every dog tries t dump when I open the box. It’s an hour ride to my land, and there’s a gas station 5 minutes from there that I collar up at. It’s always a pain because when I open the box every dog wants to bum rush out. Like I said, this all comes down to me not doing what I need to do on my end.


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Over time my dogs learn to go get in the truck, I always have the tail gate down and box open, my old dogs I would collar up while they were on the chain and unsnap them and they would go straight to the truck parked in the front about 200 yds from the kennel, I was also hunting dang near 7 days a week back then and only had 5 dogs, so it was more repetition than me training, I run an EXTREMELY tight ship, my dogs must walk a line in the discipline dept., it all starts at home, you can't get to the woods and get mad at a dog for doing something and then start trying to fix the problem in the field, I don't allow any unnecessary barking on the chain or in the box, one thing that makes me so mad is dogs rushing the gate when I open the box, I have a good whooping stick and will crack one across the nose while yelling get back or I'll pop them with the gate of the box if they stick their head out, my best friend is bad about opening his box and just letting his dogs all bust out, that's where problems start, I take mine out one at a time and leash them up and then cast them, having a handle is a must for me, I've gotten rid of dogs before because they wouldn't handle and couldn't take the discipline required to put a handle on one  and would flip out, almost like they didn't have the ability to learn...

Thanks for the tips, I’m going to start working more on both of those things. When I hunt I don’t cast, I walk hunt and take everything that is in the box. Normally I just open the doors and let them all out. If you were hunting like me would you just let them out one at a time?


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To teach them manners and put a handle on them, YES, if you have enough leashes, leash each one up to trees and the tail gate and collar up or while your getting your stuff ready, it's not going to hurt a thing, more than likely it will help, and further establish your role as the alpha/pack leader...

[TheRednose]

Another thing I’m going to start working with them on is how to behave when it comes to loading up. Right now I have to leash each individual dog and walk them to the back of the truck and tell them “load up” and they’ll jump in. I would like to be able to open their kennel, say load up, and have hem go straight to the truck and get in the box without me walking them. Right now they wanna take off and do laps around the yard and have me cussing at myself for trying it. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do it, other than my own slackness in training. My other pet peeve, that is also my fault due to lack of training, is that every dog tries t dump when I open the box. It’s an hour ride to my land, and there’s a gas station 5 minutes from there that I collar up at. It’s always a pain because when I open the box every dog wants to bum rush out. Like I said, this all comes down to me not doing what I need to do on my end.

You should have no problem doing both of these things. I have my dogs trained this way already. I go open the tail gait and the dog box doors, then I walk around and open the side gate, then I just go open the kennel doors to the dogs I want to bring and tell them to load up and they haul backside around the side to the front drive way jump straight in the box and lay down waiting for me to come and shut the door. Same when I am collaring up, I go to the dog box door, open it up and call the name of the dog I want to collar and only that dog will come out, i will collar it and then call the next. My dogs caught on to it real quick so I am sure yours will too.

What was your method of teaching both of those things?

For them to box themselves, I always start by opening the tail gate, dog box door, and side gate before I go and get them. I do it one dog at a time in the beginning to lessen distractions. Then I lead them straight around and straight into the box and pet them up. After a while I start doing it without a lead though I am still walking around with them to make sure they do it. If they start to run off I immediately call them back over and when they load up I pet them up. Then once they can be trusted to do it off lead then I start doing it with more than one dog at a time. Then before you know it you just open the kennel doors and they will box themselves.

As for letting them out only when they are called you need to make sure they know their name first, then I start using the box door for reinforcement when they come out when they are not asked and I pet them up when they do it right. Just a little tap with the box door is usually all you will ever need. After a while they will learn to wait for you to tell them it is okay. I do the same thing when I feed, they all sit back while I fill their bowls and will not move until I tell them okay. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[Austesus]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I’m sure it will take a little while. But I’m going to start putting more work in to it. First I need to continue with the tone training. I’ve just now started them on it. Once they’re all doing well with that I will start doing practice loads when I’m not hunting. I’ll try it with the collar so I can tone them when they try to bolt. They’re starting to learn that if they don’t start moving my way after a series of 3 beeps then they get a shock. I always take them one at a time to the box on a leash. I thought I would try it without the leash one time and I spent 10 minutes chasing the dog around and haven’t tried to work on it since, my own fault. Part of the issue is how excited they get. They start raising cane in the kennels when they realize we are going hunting.


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[Slim9797]

Best piece of advice I could give somebody is if the only time your dogs are on the truck are too and from hunts, you are doing the dogs a disservice. I pack my dogs around from early on, fixing fence, fishing, hauling cows, going to the roping pen. Pick a dog, chain his ass in the bed and go on about your day. Whether he ever comes unsnapped or not, he’s learning a lot more than he would be sitting in that kennel at 6 months old my 2 pups have likely seen more miles and country than most peoples 1.5 year olds. My gyp pup will ride unsnapped with the big dogs, head in the wind rolling 70, outside of hearing a bay, she ain’t coming off unless I send the big dogs over the bed rail or drop the tail gate.


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[justincorbell]

Best piece of advice I could give somebody is if the only time your dogs are on the truck are too and from hunts, you are doing the dogs a disservice. I pack my dogs around from early on, fixing fence, fishing, hauling cows, going to the roping pen. Pick a dog, chain his ass in the bed and go on about your day. Whether he ever comes unsnapped or not, he’s learning a lot more than he would be sitting in that kennel at 6 months old my 2 pups have likely seen more miles and country than most peoples 1.5 year olds. My gyp pup will ride unsnapped with the big dogs, head in the wind rolling 70, outside of hearing a bay, she ain’t coming off unless I send the big dogs over the bed rail or drop the tail gate.


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I agree. I don't bring mine into town but I do start taking them for rides in the evenings after work in my buggy or truck when they get to 5ish months of age. the pups I raise are 100% chain/lead broke before they are ever placed on a chain or clipped to a lead in the woods because they are conditioned to being clipped in the bed of my buggy or truck and know the drill. Makes life easy when its time to move them from the puppy yard to the dog yard on chain setups, there is zero fighting the chain and barking/flipping out. Just one of 100's of little subtle shortcuts that can help you  and the dogs with relatively no effort........ my little girl loves going for buggy rides so we would be doing it whether I had dogs or not but being as I do i'm killing 2 birds with one stone....plus I enjoy riding too lol so call it 3 birds