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Post by poorfarm on Feb 3, 2008 8:29:10 GMT -5
We're at the time of the year where it's getting tough to find rabbits up around here. The olny thing I have going on is rabbits that hang around our house and property. Lately when we let out Götz who just turned 11 months, he makes a routine check of the hotspots, and usually there is a chase with the rabbit making it to a big brush pile we have out behind the kennel.
I know it's not doing a thing for his rabbit tracking. This is pure "search and destroy," but he is getting fired up and focused on finding these rabbits. Like I said, it's about all we have right now.
As long as he's not running accross the road or through our neighbor's, is there ANY reason to stop his little routine search and rabbit chase as it relates to the spring VJP test?
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Post by drahtguy on Feb 4, 2008 15:25:10 GMT -5
I wish I had that problem. We have very few rabbits around here. (west central Mn) With the VJP coming up, I have to figure out some way to get her on some rabbits. She's probably had over 100 points on Pheasants, but has yet to chase a rabbit. I gotta figure something out pretty quick.
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Post by Wildflugel on Feb 4, 2008 19:35:36 GMT -5
Dave:
The one thing I would be concerned about is having Gus learn to sight chase the rabbits instead of using his nose to track them. When judging I can always tell the dogs that have sight chased a bunch of rabbits because they will take a few steps down the track with their head down, stop, pick their head up, and look around trying to find the rabbits. If Gus is primarily tracking the rabbits up to cover and not sight chasing them there it should not be a problem.
In my opinion it is critical that you are able to put Gus on a track and just not have him run loose until he crosses a track. At the VJP test the dogs will be on leash walking behind a line of spectators and judges. It is important that the dogs do not see the rabbit. When it is Gus' turn you will be called up to the hot spot and told which direction the rabbit went and to release your dog. You want to be able to get your dog to put his nose on the hot scent on command so that he can work the track.
Wildflugel
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Post by poorfarm on Feb 4, 2008 22:22:14 GMT -5
Jill, Thanks. I was hoping you'd chime in on this. I was worried about that a little. One one hand I'm glad Gus is getting fired up on the rabbits, but I can see where it's counterproductive if he's not tracking them.
Oh well, burning the brush pile was on my list of winter things to do. Maybe I'd better do it sooner than later.
Sort of ironic how it's getting hard to find rabbits out in the field and I have them living around my place, but it's becoming a negative rather than a positive.
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Post by greenranch on Feb 18, 2008 14:17:02 GMT -5
I have the same thing sort-a. Rabbits close to the house but far and few between out where I want them. I set a cage trap and catch them by the house then have my son take it out in the field while I stand close but out of sight for the pup, then after he releases it and it is out of sight I put the pup on the track. This has really worked very well for me. It doesn’t take hours finding a good track and I can somewhat control the area I work in. Although the rabbits rarely go where I want them.
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Post by Wildflugel on Feb 19, 2008 10:02:08 GMT -5
Jeff, isn't that always the case. When you don't have a pup to test there are rabbits coming out of the woodwork. But get a pup that needs to be tests and the rabbits seem to move out of the country! I have had to resort to fur drags as we had a tularemia outbreak last year that really put a hurt on our rabbit population.
Wildflugel
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Post by greenranch on Feb 19, 2008 11:13:08 GMT -5
Isn’t that the truth? Year before last they wouldn’t leave our garden alone. So I was catching and moving them to the back forty. I’m sure they made it back but it still would have been nice to work a dog on them after I released them.
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