Minkenry 1,044 Posted February 8, 2015 Report Share Posted February 8, 2015 I'm close to getting caught up with editing my videos! Just one more after this one, and you guys will be all caught up! 9 Quote Link to post
bunny tickler 876 Posted February 8, 2015 Report Share Posted February 8, 2015 superb results henry with the work you have put into him , entertaining video thanks for posting Quote Link to post
wyeman 1,257 Posted February 8, 2015 Report Share Posted February 8, 2015 Another excellent video - many thanks! Quote Link to post
Jax13 251 Posted February 8, 2015 Report Share Posted February 8, 2015 without trying to sound like i'm playing down what this little guy (and you) can do - how much of it do you think is just pure instinct and prey drive rather than training? obviously the caching and hunting instinct is there and the training side will hone and reinforce what he has naturally (and tame him a bit so you keep all your fingers!) but with the mink do you find that they all do this naturally or is it rare to find one that is so driven? Quote Link to post
noddy10 411 Posted February 8, 2015 Report Share Posted February 8, 2015 You certainly put the time in pal, when will the gloves be off.............haha Quote Link to post
Minkenry 1,044 Posted February 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2015 without trying to sound like i'm playing down what this little guy (and you) can do - how much of it do you think is just pure instinct and prey drive rather than training? obviously the caching and hunting instinct is there and the training side will hone and reinforce what he has naturally (and tame him a bit so you keep all your fingers!) but with the mink do you find that they all do this naturally or is it rare to find one that is so driven? Whenever I train a wild animal, it is my goal to find a way to shape their natural instincts to fit my goals. I rarely attempt to get them to do something unnatural, and prefer to find a way to guide their instincts, rather than fight them. The caching instinct, as you mentioned, already exists in every mink. However, it exists in different degrees in different mink. Some mink have a very high drive to cache, and will obsessively cache every object they find interesting. Others only cache high value items like food. Some mink are so easy to train to cache, that it feels more like I'm working with a golden retriever. Others are so difficult, that I don't think it's possible to get them to cache in their carry box on a regular basis. I'm still trying to figure out just what attributes make some mink so surprisingly easy to train to cache, and others so extremely difficult. So far, the three mink I've seen that were so very easy to train, all seem to have a stronger caching instinct than others (this is three out of the several dozen I have either worked with, or watched others work with, so these were quite exceptional mink). But in addition to this strong caching instinct, they also need to be mold-able enough to learn to cache in the place YOU the trainer want them to, and not just where they want to cache. Some mink have a strong desire to cache, but they are stubbornly persistent in caching their prey in the wrong spot (usually some deep dark hole where you can't get to it). I would like to breed a line of mink that are natural cachers, thus cutting the training time down significantly, and making the mink more consistent once trained. This would be more valuable to me than just about ANY OTHER TRAIT a mink could have! Even if the mink is a pure coward, if it caches consistently, I can simply find a rough and tough mink to do the hunting (that's pretty easy) and have the cowardly cacher just retrieve the kill after the hunt. As far as hunting is concerned, yeah, it's pretty much all instinct combined with learned experience. About all you can do to really "train a mink to hunt" is to give it a few easy kills to get it started, and then give it an additional head start by training it to trail, which isn't absolutely necessary, as experience will teach them this as well, it just gives you a bit of a head start. Then everything after that they learn on their own through experiences they have while hunting. Your "training" in this instance is basically giving the mink experiences to learn from. 1 Quote Link to post
*The*Field*Marshall* 674 Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Just jumped on the tail of this series, although I did see how you acquired him last night. . I am most impressed! I can't be the only one thinking "I need to get me a mink!" haha that I don't I would have the time or patience to achieve such results, not least your confidence and competence with training the animal - bravo. The mink is a far superior animal to a ferret/polecat! That said, I don't think it would be an effective for rabbits in burrows? I mean you wouldn’t need the nets, that thing will be retrieving them! Haha great stuff 1 Quote Link to post
Bergman 4 Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Would love you to make a DVD of some kind. May be putting all the hunting clips to gether Or rearing a mink from kit to adult.would be something different. 1 Quote Link to post
Minkenry 1,044 Posted February 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2015 Would love you to make a DVD of some kind. May be putting all the hunting clips to gether Or rearing a mink from kit to adult.would be something different. I'm one step ahead of you actually My plan this coming spring is to raise a kit (hopefully one by this buck) and show the kits life and training from birth, step by step until its first few hunts. 1 Quote Link to post
Bergman 4 Posted February 11, 2015 Report Share Posted February 11, 2015 Nice one. Looking forward to watching that. Long time to wait. The black un is on the boil now for a good hunting DVD . That clip of it chasing the muskrat was fantastic. Few more of them on a DVD you got yourself a few dollars.bit pocket money for the missus. Be the first of its kind. Well done.top man Quote Link to post
owen12345 43 Posted February 28, 2015 Report Share Posted February 28, 2015 Nice one Looking forward to watching your DVD mate Quote Link to post
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