Squirrel dog questions

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  • BigBoodro

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    Mar 20, 2012
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    Hey fellas, I ended up rescuing a little cur dog, mostly mountain cur lineage, and although I will eventually get a duck dog, my main interest is training up this little pup for chasing bushy tails. Any tips, tricks, trainers, etc that you guys would recommend? Hes right around 5 months old, trails all the time when outside, mostly coons and squirrels, and is very intent on watching squirrels in the trees around the house. I think he would be a natural hunting dog but I need help. Thanks again on the help with the duck dog questions but now this haha.
     

    Emperor

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    Mar 7, 2011
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    I have hunted squirrels my entire life (going on 46 years). I only hunted squirrels with dogs one time about 4 years ago in the dead of winter (late January). No leaves on any trees. The absolute hardest time to hunt squirrels traditionally! It was a kick in the ass!

    Those damn dogs picked up the scent and ran straight to the tree the squirrels were in EVERY time without fail!

    Good luck in your pursuit. It was a lot of fun!
     

    Labeeman

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    Oct 11, 2010
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    Get some squirrel tails and tie them on a string and let the dog trail it to a tree. Throw the sting over a branch and act like the squirrel is climbing a tree. Let him tree the tail and go from there. You can also trap squirrels and let him smell them in the trap and then let them go and let him tree them. Do this near a tree so the squirrel has a place to climb. They learn quick. Take them to the woods as much as possible . Only down side is they will be barking all the time in your back yard when they chase squirrels. It can be quite a pain in the ass. They also will chase every opossum and raccoon that comes in your yard unless you keep the dog penned up or in your house. Good luck it is a fun sport for sure.
     
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    MOTOR51

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    Get some squirrel tails and tie them on a string and let the dog trail it to a tree. Throw the sting over a branch and act like the squirrel is climbing a tree. Let him tree the tail and go from there. You can also trap squirrels and let him smell them in the trap and then let them go and let him tree them. Do this near a tree so the squirrel has a place to climb. They learn quick. Take them to the woods as much as possible . Only down side is they will be barking all the time in your back yard when they chase squirrels. It can be quite a pain in the ass. They also will chase every opossum and raccoon that comes in your yard unless you keep the dog penned up or in your house. Good luck it is a fun sport for sure.

    I remember training dogs with squirrel tails when I was a kid.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
     

    BigBoodro

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    Hey all, I appreciate the help so much, especially the thoughts on catching live squirrels and releasing... never would have thought of that on my own haha. BS is still the best resource for wisdom and plain sense.
     

    whbonney26

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    Im not professional trainer or anything but our redbone comes off of championship bloodlines (Coon Hunters) and we could tell she wanted to hunt by the way she was always sniffing on trails in the yard and looking up in trees.
    Basically all we did was any time she would see a squirrel outside we let her go and she would run after it and it would run up a tree. We would pump her up and get her all excited. We did that for a while and she developed a true passion for chasing squirrel up the trees. She gets so pumped up that she ran up and climbed part way up an oak tree. She was actually about 10-15 feet in the tree. That worried me. Thought she was going to climb up and possibly fall. Then we started shooting them down and letting her get them and bring them to us. At first she did not want to let them go but she is getting the hang of that now.

    Now, even when we are not hunting and we let her out the first thing she does is go towards the trees and smells and looks to see if anything is there. After a while if nothing is there she will turn her attention to doing her business or whatever.
     

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