I decided to see how my beagle could handle the woods, commands, and hunting for an animal. Our hunting club stocked pheasants yesterday and we hunted but there were a bunch left over. We cant hunt on Sundays in NJ so I just wanted to see if she would kick up some birds.
Now we just got an electric fence put in around our 1 acre property so she is used to commands off the leash but I didnt know how she would listen out of our property.
So we headed off to the fields and I started to work her with a 5 foot leash connected to her choke collar. She listen to everything I told her. I decide to take the leash off. I worked her thru the entire field without any problems. No birds but she did great. We headed up to work some headge-rows. Where ever I pointed, she went. She stayed in the middle of that headge-row the entire time and worled it straight down. Again, no birds but it was like she had done this for years.
We worked the whole farm and only had 1 row of standing grass to go. I sent her into it and start to work down towards my truck. All of a sudden, she flushes one! It scared the crap outta her sence she really didnt know what it was. I started yelling, "Go get him Dixie!", but she didnt even know where he flew to. I ran over to where I saw the bird land (farther up the same row of grass) and she followed. I sent her into the grass and all of a sudden I see her darting across the field right behind a rabbit! Well the rabbit got away and I called her back. I honestly couldnt believe she came back to me after chasing that rabbit down but she did. I had an excited tone to my voice and she remembered the bird. I kept telling her to "Get the birdy!" and she worked that patch of grass like a pro! Again, she flushed the pheasant and it flew to the same spot that she kicked it up the first time. This time she knew exactly where that bird went and she booked down the row. I ran down there and instructed her on where to go. We couldnt find the bird. I started to work the row with her. I walked ahead of her about 5 feet and I heard her stop. I looked back and it looked like she was on point?! I said, "Get'um!" and she jumped into the brush and flushed the bird AGAIN! This time, the bird landed in the corn field. I got all excited and kept telling her "good girl!" and petting her. All she wanted was that pheasant tho.
I want to take her hunting sence I know she is great at it but she is really gun shy and I dont think she will work good if the other dogs are around. Next week, when we stock again, I'm going to bring her and walk behind the hunters about 100-200 yards and just let her watch the other dogs work and let her hear the gun shots. Hopefully she will see that the other dogs are okay with it and she will just be excited to be in the woods with the other dogs. Its going to to tough but now that I know she is a natural born hunter, I dont want to waste that talent.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a291/hun...Clayvids132.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a291/hun...Clayvids135.jpg