Starting young lurcher on rabbits

[Sakina&Lyra 0]

Hi, I'm completely new to this forum although not new to lurchers! I have been struggling a bit with my new girl Lyra, she's 14 months now, 1/2 deerhound, 1/4 grey, 1/8 beardie 1/8 saluki. Sire is working lurcher dam show lurcher, Lyra purchased as a pet but my husband and I greatly enjoyed hunting with our last lurcher who sadly died in an accident last year.

 

With our last girl she just went to rabbiting naturally and would catch, bring to us and then kill on our say so. She was excellent at finding in the grass and bracken and had brilliant focus. I will admit though it took her til age 2-3 before she became really good at it. We did some training at around 1yr old with a fur covered dummy, scent and bungee but not a great deal of it, she seemed to learn most of it on her own.

 

Lyra seems to be a bit slower, she is showing a lot of interest in the rabbits and has been chasing them getting lots of praise from us, but I can't figure out how to encourage her to focus on just one. Also sometimes she just stands there staring at a lone rabbit in the grass and doesn't even try! I know she is still young and am happy she is at least showing some interest but we don't know how to properly train her for rabbiting as our last one just seemed to develop the skill on her own! In all other aspects she is a fantastic dog, has 100% recall to whistle and is incredibly fast.

 

We feed our dogs raw food and so whatever our last one caught would either go to her or our dinner...so we're very keen to get back to having a decent catch! Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Wallace1 17]

give her time , she will pick one up when she is ready atb

[iceman001979 1,316]

Some deerhound crosses take longer to come on then most crosses.Be good if you could mate up with someone as working luchers that could show her the ropes all the best

[KenKeeping 13]

Some deerhound crosses take longer to come on then most crosses.Be good if you could mate up with someone as working luchers that could show her the ropes all the best

From what I read on this forum, that seems to be the best way, dont it!

Taking a young dog out with an experienced dog to get them seeing how they do it.

 

and is it right that summer rabbits are easier for them to catch, as they are not so wise?

[iceman001979 1,316]

Some deerhound crosses take longer to come on then most crosses.Be good if you could mate up with someone as working luchers that could show her the ropes all the best

From what I read on this forum, that seems to be the best way, dont it!

Taking a young dog out with an experienced dog to get them seeing how they do it.

 

and is it right that summer rabbits are easier for them to catch, as they are not so wise?

Easy to catch because they are full off young and to busy trying breed then think about you and your dog.

For me the best way to bring on young dog is with older dog but make sure the older dog knows what its doing and as no bad habits that the young dog could pick up.

[Sakina&Lyra 0]

Thank you, she was still too young last summer so this is the first real opportunity we've had to introduce her to rabbits. I also very much agree that it would be great to take her out with some experienced workers, we will try and find some contacts but we moved from the countryside to a less rural area so lost touch with the lurcher workers we knew previously!

 

I'm glad also someone agrees about deerhound crosses being a bit slower - she seems to show a fair few saluki traits too - stubborness and a lack of brains to go with it! I do think she's got potential though so we will carry on trying.

 

Thanks again for the replies guys, I've seen a lot on this forum to keep me busy reading for a while so I appreciate the help!

[3 Turns 326]

SHE,LL COME GOOD SOON ENOUGH

[furgle 14]

yeah plenty of patience and praise