juckler123 707 Posted January 1, 2007 Report Share Posted January 1, 2007 ive seen a lot of pics on this forum with lurchers marking warrens with their heads right inside the rabbit burrow to me this just gives the game away to the rabbit and more often than not will cause a lay up there is absolutely no need for your dog to be snorting down the hole if you teach the dogs properly not to do this the dog will still mark just looking at the hole and ive seen pics of dogs guarding nets in full view of the emerging bunny not all rabbits bolt a lot of em will try and sneak out but if they see the dog then its lay up time again better to position the dog away from the warren i place mine in the position i think the rabbit will head to with experience you will get this right ninety per cent of the time i hate digging and to me digging at a warren leads to more stop ends which in turn leads to more lay ups on large warrens lay ups do happen but on small sets if your sitting downwind and youve been quiet and not let the dog give away whats happening they should bolt no problem me personally i would sooner call the ferret out than dig three plus feet for a bunny what do you think? Quote Link to post
jonathan 0 Posted January 1, 2007 Report Share Posted January 1, 2007 one your ferreting you want the dog to mark then when you start setting the nets up he should leve it Quote Link to post
Ray Mears 272 Posted January 1, 2007 Report Share Posted January 1, 2007 how are you going to know if there is one in the burrow if your dog wont mark it. and i ay going to set loads of nets and hope thers one down there when i can get my dog to mark it and be pritty sure theres one home Quote Link to post
Paid 935 Posted January 1, 2007 Report Share Posted January 1, 2007 You make a good point, I havent a lot of experiance, but certainly this season I've had a lot more lay ups than last season, and the only real differance is this season I have a dog with me, who is doing a lot of what you mention, sticking his head down holes, and genraly being a bit to present around the warren. He is getting there, and being more alert, and less nosey while the ferret is down. Quote Link to post
juckler123 707 Posted January 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2007 (edited) youve missed the point a dog will STILL MARK a set without putting its nose down the burrow try teaching it not to put its head down and the dog will still stare at the set head cocked to one side to let you know the bunnys in there its even easier when approaching from downwind ive had dogs mark rabbits to the limit of the locator box without placing their noses to the ground its no great feat ive not had a dog that wouldnt do it im ferreting warrens i did 40 years ago little three and four hole sets and had rabbits out of em every year without a dig i feed my ferrets excessively and everytime i feed em i make a squeeking noize so if i get a lay up i can call the ferret out it helps to change ferrets after one or two seasons or as soon as they learn to kill get rid and get a young un again a lad i know uses ferrets to rats so i let him have em Edited January 2, 2007 by juckler123 Quote Link to post
BLACKBOB 9 Posted January 2, 2007 Report Share Posted January 2, 2007 You talking about something like this juckler Cheers bob Quote Link to post
juckler123 707 Posted January 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 spot on BLACKBOB a lot of folks dont realise how good the dogs nose is they get enough scent from round the warren to let em know somethings at home without putting their nose right inside the hole ive been out with dogs that snort down the hole taking great big lungfulls of air giving the game right away next worse fault is leaving them in front of the hole staring at the net when your netted up better to have the dog downwind either with you or positioned to watch the holes you cant see use hand commands for sit lie and stay and youve cracked it no noise will mean less lay ups everytime cheers juckler Quote Link to post
ginge2k6 0 Posted January 3, 2007 Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 My dog sticks his head down the hole in a similiar way to which you have mentioned juckler, only once has he made a grab at a rabbit that had not bolted fully and forced it to go bellow ground but that was early on in the season this being his first season full season of ferreting, he still marks in such a manner but it has not forced any rabbits to stay below ground recently. But how do you break a dog of this habbit, marking is a natural ability so how can you force the dog to do it differently, we can not all be perfect so the same should go for your dogs. Quote Link to post
socks 32,253 Posted January 3, 2007 Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 JUCKLER how do you teach a dog NOT to stick his head in a whole when he is marking ????? and why get rid of a perfectly good working ferret after a few seasons and get young inexperienced ones in ?????? there is no way i would swap my workers for youngsters ........... Quote Link to post
juckler123 707 Posted January 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 its not hard to keep your dog from putting his nose in the burrow just berate him when it does this and it will start marking staring at the hole all mine have done it what i do then is place em downwind but in site of any bolters as i said earlier a lot of bunnys will sneak up the pipe before bolting and if they see the dog or you they will sneak back in i used to let my dogs sniff and some would really snort when marking but i stopped em doing it and had a lot less lay ups as reguards to getting rid of good working ferrets if the ferrets learnt to collar em easy id sooner pass em on where i live its really sandy and the sets are well deep and after a lifetime of diggingthe less lay ups the better spade work is a young mans sport and young ferrets take no entering so each to their own i suppose just thought it might have helped a few folks out cheers juckler Quote Link to post
socks 32,253 Posted January 3, 2007 Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 its not hard to keep your dog from putting his nose in the burrow just berate him when it does this and it will start marking staring at the hole all mine have done it what i do then is place em downwind but in site of any bolters as i said earlier a lot of bunnys will sneak up the pipe before bolting and if they see the dog or you they will sneak back in i used to let my dogs sniff and some would really snort when marking but i stopped em doing it and had a lot less lay ups as reguards to getting rid of good working ferrets if the ferrets learnt to collar em easy id sooner pass em on where i live its really sandy and the sets are well deep and after a lifetime of diggingthe less lay ups the better spade work is a young mans sport and young ferrets take no entering so each to their own i suppose just thought it might have helped a few folks out cheers juckler surely by chastising the dog for putting his head down a hole to mark you are sending him the message that it is wrong and you dont want it doing this thus ending up with a non marking dog as the dog can understand what you want it to do .... dog goes to hole to sniff for rabbits you chastise everytime it does this ... result non marking dog .... and what about when the weather is blowing a gale and the dog needs to put his head into the hole to pinpoint the rabbits scent ??? at the end of the day each dog has its own uniqe way of marking whether its scratching at the holes head in or just a point .... THE FULL BODY METHOD .......... THE HEAD IN METHOD ......... THE POINT METHOD ......... Quote Link to post
Guest Frank Posted January 3, 2007 Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 Agree totally with socks on this one. Frank. Quote Link to post
juckler123 707 Posted January 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 ferreting in a gale you must be mad each to their own its hard to explain what im getting at all my dogs have marked sets without getting their heads inside thats just my way of doing things and i dont hardly ever get a lay up Quote Link to post
Stabs 3 Posted January 3, 2007 Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 When you ferret the dales, the weather is often dirty it's usually blowing pretty bad..... Quote Link to post
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