Saturday, January 23, 2010

How to get my dog to squirrel hunt?

I have a papillon breed dog he's about two years old I read they are good hunters and I want to take him squirrel hunting this october 2009How to get my dog to squirrel hunt?
It's going to be almost impossible in the short length of time . But start now and by the end of hunting season he may be started pretty good. This is the quickest way to get him started. You need to kill a squirrel. Take the squirrel and let the dog muzzle it and nip on it.Try and hold the squirrel and pull on it and the dog will try to take it away from you. Engage in a slight tug of war with the dog.Do everything you can to get the dog excited as possible over the squirrel.Then have someone hold the dog or keep him in the yard as you take a string and tie it to the squirrel. Then drag the squirrel on the ground for a short distance. Then drag him up a bush or small tree that you can place the squirrel where the dog can see the squirrel when he trails it to the tree you have the squirrel up.Don't let the dog see where you placed the squirrel. Then let the dog loose and he will try to find the squirrel. He should be able to go straight to the tree and smell up it.When he sees the squirrel encourage him to get it. He may even bark at the squirrel at this point. Again, try to get him as excited as possible at this point. Now you can get the squirrel down. Let the dog play with it as you pull it around.Now it is time for the most important thing. You need to reward the dog not with just praise but a treat.You can either give the dog his favorite doggy treat or do as the old timers did when training their squirrel dogs. Cut the liver and heart out of the squirrel and take the gall off the liver (gall is bitter) and feed it to the dog. If you follow these steps you will have gotten the dog off to a good start. But if the dog showed little interest in the squirrel or trailing it, he will not make a good squirrel dog.Good luck!How to get my dog to squirrel hunt?
Get some squirrel stuffed animals and throw them around the yard or tie them to a string and run.
Simple.... just don't feed him. See how fast he reverts back to being a carnivorous predator.

2 comments:

  1. Squirrel hunting needs a special set of hunting gear, and even a special dog companion. They are trickier to hunt compared to larger game or fowl, and are a lot sneakier. If you’re the avid hunter that prefers squirrels for sport, then I found an article that perfectly explains the importance of getting the right dog for squirrel hunting: http://dogsaholic.com/breeds/info/squirrel-hunting-dogs.html

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