Hunting Up.

[Clip 0]

Hi

 

Go easy on me guys, i'm a newbie and i know i must sound daft to you lot

I can't get my 2 year old saluki X to obey me when he's hunting up, we've had a couple of incidents know where he'll catch on to a scent and just clear off and he's gone for hours, he travels quite some distance too. I've been trying to line train him and keep him on a 30ft line for months, walking round this place we go. He's great on the line but he's not daft and when i brave an off lead attempt he's gone. The times this has happend he's been very succesful at catching his quarry (hare) but obviously due to the legality of this i don't want to encourage this behaviour. Is there any other method i could try to break this habbit or have my bumbled attempts at training him screwed it up for me?

 

Thanks

 

Clip

Edited February 8, 2007 by Clip

[Ray Mears 272]

that is personaly a no no for me say if you take him on the lamp first slip and then you have to spend hours looking for him and at 2yrs old he should have been coming straight back to you at 10 months let alone 2yrs if i had a dog like that i would have to sell it too a good home a start agen no offence ment all the best and good hunting whippet boy :thumbs-up:

[Guest Dale]

that is personaly a no no for me say if you take him on the lamp first slip and then you have to spend hours looking for him and at 2yrs old he should have been coming straight back to you at 10 months let alone 2yrs if i had a dog like that i would have to sell it too a good home a start agen no offence ment all the best and good hunting whippet boy :thumbs-up:

 

wouldnt give up on him just yet , saluki's are known to be abit slow on the up take , my whippet bitch hunts up every now and again , i just give her a sharp telling off and she gets bk in gear , b pateint with the dog , have you had it from pup? .. whippet boy i wouldnt just sell the dog , maybe the dog is a family pet also? ..

 

Dale

[LDR 29]

Are you taking him to the same ground all the time or does he do this wherever you go, even if its his first time there? Have you had the dog from a pup, if so what recall training methods did you use? Is the dog a quiet type or an outgoing type, all these things can affect the way you get it right. Dont give up on it mate! it'll still learn, 2 years old aint an old dog!!!

[Guest bezza]

I have had some success with this problem by training the dog to return to a specific blast on a gundog whistle. Give it rewards for returning to whistle at first and then when it realises what the whistled command means but ignores , get after it and shake it by the scruff repeating the recall blast on your whistle. That is not going to work in a big area cos the dog will obviously outrun you. So do it in a confined area at first. This system worked like magic with my dog who used to hunt up on her own when lamping. Now she returns every time whether she catches or not . Also worked with my mates pup. But these dogs have collie blood in them. Saluki blooded dogs from what i have herd might be a different kettle of fish.

[Stabs 2]

I had this problem with my bitch when she was younger. The issue arose because I was lamping her on the same ground that she hunted during the day so she was familiar with where the game could be. It was difficult for her as I wanted her for a mooching dog during the day and I wanted the exact opposite at night. It's a question of patience and time and getting the dog out. When she was new to the lamp things were testing, but over time and with a little experience they soon learn that the quicker she comes back to me the quicker she gets another run. She is still a bugger on her first couple of runs but on the whole she's ok. When I lamp on my own (most nights) I don't use a slip but in company and on others land then I always do.

[Guest JOEB]

I had this problem with my bitch when she was younger. The issue arose because I was lamping her on the same ground that she hunted during the day so she was familiar with where the game could be. It was difficult for her as I wanted her for a mooching dog during the day and I wanted the exact opposite at night. It's a question of patience and time and getting the dog out. When she was new to the lamp things were testing, but over time and with a little experience they soon learn that the quicker she comes back to me the quicker she gets another run. She is still a bugger on her first couple of runs but on the whole she's ok. When I lamp on my own (most nights) I don't use a slip but in company and on others land then I always do.

 

That about sums it up .........my experience exactly, only difference between you and I mate is that I allways use a slip, because I have to.........they are not well enough trained not to use one with the lamp.

Funny, in the day I dont need one, but if they see something in the beam, they are off.

J

[Guest ROXY]

Try an electronic collar if he dosent come back when you call give him a zap, bit drastic but it worked for a mate of mine . When i train mine and it comes to the stage when they get a bit head strong i call them in if they blank me i throw mud at them it frightens them rather than hurts but once they see you bend down to pick some up again they pay attention and usally come to you, then i over praise them to get the message across.

[LDR 29]

I'd leave that one as a last resort mate, not sure how it'd work for recall, you might find you zap it and it just fucks off panicking and ends up dead under a car!

[Guest JOEB]

JMHO, but I dont think that many lurchers benefit from any type of "force".......some dogs just take longer than others.

J

[Clip 0]

Thanks for you replies.There is no way that i'm giving up on him and not a chance in hell i'm getting rid.

To answer your questions longdogrunner, i've had him from 4 months old and on the whole his recall is fine.I used various methods but had the best success with the long line. It's always at the same ground, we can not go there for weeks if not months but as soon as we're there its like we was there yesterday. We have other places we go and he'll occasionally chase at these but will come back quite quickly of his own accord and the one time he did disappear for longer was becasue he caught a something, but he did alert me of his where abouts by barking profusely, this was in thick woodland and i took it as a job well done, he was most likely disoriented,not knowing where i was and the best thing for him to do was to bark so i could find him.We still visit this wood on occasions and i feel in control of him there.If we go some place new he will chase if theres something to chase,sometimes its hard to get him back and some times he'll snap out of it quickly and we'll be on our way. He's definitely an outgoing type dog,very full of himself.

 

Thanks

 

Clip.

 

Thanks again for all the replies, been some more while i was writing my reply.

Just to add, been down the scruffing/force road and to tell you it didn't work would be an understatement, he didn't respond well to it at all. He bacame very lacklustre with training and came across quite depressed in general, it wasn't nice seeing him like that at all.

 

Clip

Edited February 8, 2007 by Clip

[Meerihunter 7]

How much daily exercise (free running) is getting each day? I find with the pures anyway if you don't give them enough they will take it for themselves.

 

If you are the boss there will be a distance from you to your dog where he will not attempt to disobey you, I think you need to start keeping him close very close and call him back to you and release him to that short distance, when he responds give huge praise, high pitched sqeaky voice the works, if he doesn't instant fury roar at him, the minute he stops and reponds squeaky and praise again. You are aiming to give the clearest must unmistakable message. You must be consistant, DO NOT let anything go unchecked as you will undo everything and make your recall meaningless.

[LDR 29]

Where i live, i've got fields right out the front of my house, this did make me lazy for a while always walking the dogs in the same spot and one of them started to do the very thing you're going through now, as soon as the door was open or the lead was off he'd be gone straight to the spots he knew there would be stuff kicking about, it's took about 6 months of repitition and continuous verbal commands to get him to the point where i can walk him on the fields with no lead on and he doesn't piss off!!!! you'll get there mate, just remember that dogs are creatures of habit the more you repeat something the better they get at it!

 

Remember though that it applies to bad behaviour too, the more he gets away with pissing off the harder it'll be to fix!

[Guest Lurcherbitch]

that is personaly a no no for me say if you take him on the lamp first slip and then you have to spend hours looking for him and at 2yrs old he should have been coming straight back to you at 10 months let alone 2yrs if i had a dog like that i would have to sell it too a good home a start agen no offence ment all the best and good hunting whippet boy :thumbs-up:

 

 

Hi there whippetBOY, no offence ment here, but i was horrified reading your reply to this post. Because i run a rescue i see too many give up on there dogs too easy.

Would'nt it be a good idea if you let the more experianced guy's and gals give advice? after all they do know what they are talking about.x

[elma-fudd 0]

i have 2 pups with saluki in them one ov them is very head strong and wants to hunt up her self but at the moment she is on lead watching the other one she does,nt like it but she will learn and her recall is not bad at the start of the night but by the time its home time she fucks about even if mine never makes the grade,she would do for mooching ,she will allways have a home with me .