KEYS TO BETTER RABBITING
Choosing Good Rabbit Dogs
Editor’s Note: Rabbit hunting comes in several
variations, but all of them are fun. Here's how to score,
using the various tried-and-true methods.
Most rabbit hunting purists are staunch beagle-hound
men and not without justification. The beagle is the
world-renowned rabbit dog. I know that bassets and daschunds
are also known
to be good rabbit chasers, but most hunters don't take
these two breeds seriously. As for me, any dog that
will stay on a rabbit's track, not run other critters,
and bring a rabbit full circle is a good rabbit dog.
However, there are three schools of thought on what
makes a good pack of beagle hounds.
"I like to have one good jump dog and three to
four pack dogs," George Armstrong explains. "I
like to hunt one rabbit at a time, and I enjoy hearing
the dogs run the track. I believe that having more than
one race at a time going on detracts from the hunt and
messes up the dogs' ability to stay on one track. I
won't keep a dog in my pack that will run deer or other
game. I'm not quite as staunch a rabbit hunter as Armstrong,"
Eddie Childers observes. "Although I don't like
for my hounds to run other game, as long as they don't
stay away
for long and don't take the whole pack with them, I
can live with the problem. I have some good dogs that
run rabbits most of the time. Others of the beagles
will run their own rabbits, while some of the dogs are
pack dogs. Occasionally, when they make a mistake and
run other game, I correct them. But I don't think that
an occasional mistake warrants my eliminating them from
the pack. I am not a hound purist. If the dogs want
to pack, then that's all right with me. If two or three
of them decide to run their own rabbits, that's OK,
too. I just
love my dogs and love to hunt rabbits with them."
Mel Stewart is a field-trialing/gun dog specialist
who wants every dog in his pack to be able to run its
own rabbit. "As a matter of fact, each time a pup
becomes the leader of the pack and starts jumping its
own rabbit, I remove the puppy leader from that pack
and put it with a pack of leader dogs," Stuart
comments. "If the last few pups in the original
pack fail to become leaders, then I get rid of them.
I want every one of my beagles to be jump dogs. I want
my dogs to locate all of the rabbits they can find in
an area and not to rely on each other. My leader dogs
will pack as long as there is only one rabbit to run.
But if they cross
another rabbit's trail, I want at least one dog in the
pack to take the initiative to find the second rabbit
on its own. I don't permit my pack to run other game.
I believe the tendency to do this can be bred into a
pack or out of a pack. And the key word here is 'tendency.'
I try to breed only dogs that have demonstrated the
tendency not to run anything but rabbits. Now this is
not to say that in the early stages of their training,
young dogs won't run other game. But, usually less correction
is needed than if they have a bloodline that has the
tendency to run trash. I want each beagle in my pack
to be straight and independent. I like to hunt all leader
dogs when I'm trying to find rabbits." Although
I have hunted with packs of beagles from all three categories
of dogs, I must admit that I prefer the excitement of
having several races going at once, not having to chase
dogs that take off after other game and seeing several
rabbits hop out of the same briar patch at once.
TOMORROW: DECIDING ON A RABBIT
GUN
|