Fencing Training And Pointer Lurcher Update.

[Minkenry 1,044]

I looked all over for an article on here discussing how to train a young dog to safely work around barbed wire fences, but searching for "fence" brought up a ridiculous number of unrelated topics. My pointer lurcher Onsa (3/8 racing greyhound, 3/8 American staghound, 1/8 saluki, and 1/8 English pointer) is now 14 months old, and I've decided she's old enough to start running jackrabbits (our local species of hare). Previous to this she has had plenty of experience being out and about and has hunted small prey like muskrats, brown rats, kangaroo rats, squirrels, and cottontails with my mink. In addition to this she's also hunted lots of feral cats, and been on a couple raccoon hunts. During all of this she has obviously had experience around various types of fences. But yesterday when I took her coursing hare for the first time, I realized that she still doesn't know quite how to handle a fence while chasing prey. She jumped it a couple times, and went through it once or twice, but I could tell she was hesitant, and I was worried about her hurting herself if she approached a fence when running too fast.

 

So my question is, is it safer for a dog to jump over a barbed wire fence, or to run through it? Or does it even matter? I worry about her going through the fence too fast and getting sliced open by a barb, and I also worry about her jumping the fence and maybe landing wrong, or catching a leg on the top strand of wire. What have you guys done to help prepare a young dog for hunting around wire fences?

 

For those of you curious, my pup has been doing quite well for pretty much any job I've thrown at her so far. She handles feral cats very well, and can take around half a dozen in a night, dispatching them all solo. As far as her raccoon experience, this has been limited to only two hunts, both of which involved other dogs helping her to handle the raccoon. I'm not sure yet if she'll be any good at handling a raccoon on her own when the time comes, but she's showing some good signs so far. Hopefully she continues to progress in that area, as I'd like to continue to do a little bit of raccoon hunting with her from time to time. As far as foxes are concerned, we have started looking for them, but we haven't found any close enough to give her a run on them. I'm hoping we can get her on a fox or two in the near future! And then after she's gotten a good number of raccoons and foxes under her belt, if she's showing good signs on being able to handle them, I'd like to try her on a couple coyotes, maybe after she's 2 or 3, we'll have to see what happens. Though hunting foxes is a definite goal I have for her, hunting coyotes is more of something I'd like to try with her if she proves to be good enough on handling raccoons and foxes first.

 

 

 

Here's a picture of a raccoon that Onsa and her brother caught and dispatched together.

 

Edited April 18, 2017 by Minkenry

[WILF 44,320]

Any yapping at the coons ?

[Minkenry 1,044]

Any yapping at the coons ?

All teeth and no bark, unless I hold her back and make her watch, and then she barks, wanting to get in on the action. The first hunt she went on I was hunting with some friends and their terriers. I held her back and made her watch them make a couple kills, to build up her adrenaline, and make her want it more. Then at the end of the night I let her on one that two terriers had stretched, that way she got to experience some positive coon hunting, without getting bit her first time. Her second coon hunt was her and her brother without any other dogs. We didn't actually intend on hunting raccoons that night, but when I saw one just sitting there in the spot light, I couldn't help it and sent the two pups after him. They killed it together without any barking.

Edited April 18, 2017 by Minkenry

[bird 9,594]

 

Any yapping at the coons ?

All teeth and no bark, unless I hold her back and make her watch, and then she barks, wanting to get in on the action. The first hunt she went on I was hunting with some friends and their terriers. I held her back and made her watch them make a couple kills, to build up her adrenaline, and make her want it more. Then at the end of the night I let her on one that two terriers had stretched, that way she got to experience some positive coon hunting, without getting bit her first time. Her second coon hunt was her and her brother without any other dogs. We didn't actually intend on hunting raccoons that night, but when I saw one just sitting there in the spot light, I couldn't help it and sent the two pups after him. They killed it together without any barking.

 

would a coon give a better fight than a fox ,? as not all dogs like to tangle with a fox, once they been bitten few times .! jut wondered if a coon would dish it out like a fox can .

[Minkenry 1,044]

would a coon give a better fight than a fox ,? as not all dogs like to tangle with a fox, once they been bitten few times .! jut wondered if a coon would dish it out like a fox can .

 

 

I can't speak from personal experience, as I've never caught a fox before, but from what everyone tells me a fox is a joke compared to a raccoon. Raccoons are much better fighters, being able to ball up on a dog's face and use all four feet to hold on, along with their mouth. They are also much tougher, making them harder to kill than a fox. At least that's what I've been told, and it makes sense to me. I've even heard someone say that in his opinion, a really hard raccoon can be worse than some coyotes. But like I said, that's all hearsay as I haven't seen a fox or coyote caught in person. You'd have to ask someone with experience on both to get a more accurate answer than I can provide.

Edited April 19, 2017 by Minkenry

[straight2hand 303]

My bitch has never landed funny after a jump, occasionally the danger can be catching the top layer of wire, but my bitch normally springs from the top of the barb. Personally I get nervous if my bitch goes through at pace if there is no sheep wire underneath. I would say jumping is safer but because dogs are driven creature they can lose a little bit of self preservation at times! Normally a sensible dog will adjust if it gets caught out ones or twice.

 

Would love to see my bitch on a racoon one day

 

ATBS2H

[Penda 3,218]

I've dogs that jump like stags when I'm teaching them to jump the minute they come across a fence in a chase they either bounced off the fence gone through or odd occasion they've gone over it like I always say unfortunately it's in the lap of the gods what will be will be ?

[leethedog 3,071]

When I kept lurcher I used to start them jumping as soon as they were able to scrabble over a 9 inch board to get to there dinner after that I put dinner inside a string fence and went up from there I've never had a lurcher that couldn't clear a 5 bar farm gate or wire fence by a foot at good speed

[Shaddy93 840]

Hurd off very experienced dog men that have been and done it all that them raccoons are sh*tbags, just saying, good topic though smart looking dog

[Minkenry 1,044]

Hurd off very experienced dog men that have been and done it all that them raccoons are sh*tbags,

 

I'm not understanding what you mean by this statement. Are you saying raccoons are hard for a dog to kill, or easy? And compared to what? Raccoons aren't as tough as badgers, but killing a fox is easy compared to a raccoon if you ask anyone who's been on both. I've talked to lots of guys who've been on lots of both, and they all agree raccoons are "tougher hands down". As for myself, I have yet to see a dog on a fox, so I can only go on the opinions of others. But all of the opinions I've heard from people with first hand experience agree without exception.

Edited April 20, 2017 by Minkenry

[Shaddy93 840]

Easy fella so iv Hurd anyway, I know some lads that went some dodgey country to do abit of digging with jagd terriers they were digging coons and they told me it was rubbish no fight in them.

[DogMan85 722]

Apparently they fight like they have hands and even try and drown dogs if they are caught in water.

[jiggy 3,207]

Apparently they fight like they have hands and even try and drown dogs if they are caught in water.

that was a movie you were watching and it was a panda not a raccoon (KONG FU PANDA) good film though.??

[krawnden 1,036]

Barbed wire's a bitch. I think all you can do is get her as familiar as possible with the stuff while out mooching/training both in daylight and at night. Then when she encounters the stuff at speed it's in the lap of the gods. Several of my dogs have had a nasty injury from it but have gone on to be a lot more careful. But even with experienced dogs they sometimes make a right pigs ear of a jump. My heart's always in my mouth when they jump the bloody stuff.

[Minkenry 1,044]

Apparently they fight like they have hands and even try and drown dogs if they are caught in water.

Yeah, a coon can drown a dog in deep water. Any dog, doesn't matter how tough or big they are, runs the risk of being drowned by a coon if the water is deep enough. If the water is shallow, that's a different story, but if the water is deep enough the dog must swim, and not too close to the shore, a coon can kill the dog if it goes for it in the water. Sometimes they will let the dog go if it quits and tries to swim away, but sometimes not. I've even heard some hound guys say a good coon can kill more than one dog in the water, but I don't know if that's really the case, or just an exaggeration. I know I've personally had to jump in and save a pit bull that was being drowned by a big coon.

Edited April 24, 2017 by Minkenry