Hey all,

My mom wants to get a new puppy for my stepfather. he has had in the past beagles, and swears they are the best dog. He hunted with them a lot, but after his last one died (got sick after eating something dead she found in the mountains) he never got another dog.

Anyways, my mom has found some here in town, they are 4 months old though, and wants to get him a female (he, like me, prefers female dogs). I know that dogs are trainable even as they get a bit older, my dog I got from the pound when she was about 3yo and she learned a new name, house trained etc. BUT, I never tried to train her to hunt.

My question:

is 4 mo. too old to be trained to hunt?

thanks very much.

Red

In my experience, not at all!
Just think each training step through carefully before implementing it.

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quote:

Originally posted by Dago Red:
...My question:

is 4 mo. too old to be trained to hunt?

thanks very much.

Red

Absolutely not!

Get her in the field and let her start to develop her instincts as soon as possible though.

no training necessary. trust me if theres one thing she will know how to do it's hunt. now obediance and other tricks may take time but, the first time she sees her quarry she'll know exactly what to do.

Stay away from show-line. Ask the breeder if both parents are hunter or show dog.

You'll find that many dog trainers won't even think about training a dog until at least 6 months old. Some even longer then that.

If you are going to get it started on rabbits that is not too young and is really easy. Just take the pup out to the field and jump a rabbit call it over let it get the scent. You may have to jump a few and make a few trips but it will hit the pup to start tracking. I wouldnt start to shoot around her till she is running. Its a lot of fun and you can run your dog even when you cant hunt.

4 months is perfect to start a beagle, Ive had alot of them and I like to take them out young but have gotten dogs that where 3 years old to hunt. The best advise I can give you about training them is make sure you make hunting fun for them. In fact what kind of dog you'll have is directly up to you. Most beagles can hunt but the best one 's come back at the end of the day, jump into the truck ect ect. You need to spend alot of time with them. I introduce them to gun fire as soon as I get them, start low noise and make sure they see you when you fire.

ran a number of beagles back in the day with my dad, and four-six months is an ideal time to start them in the hunting field