Thread: how do you stop a dog being a Trail barker

I was given Lucy a month ago. Her previous owner said she was a good deer pointer and got him onto a couple of deer ok. Today for the second time i went into the forestry block im allowed in and a couple of hundred yards in a deer crashed off through the trees. I couldn't see it as it was a bit dark still and Lucy the super dog didnt even hear it. I had a choker muzzle on her so i hooked the lead on , she had worn it yesterday ok and i left it on all night, but she spent the next few minutes fighting it so i let her off. I walked up a road and was just about to step into the thick bush and she took off barking and chased a hind that was only about 4 metres away and i would probably walked onto. She dissappeared away into the distance and i could hear her barking as she chased the lucky animal. She came back about 20 minutes later happy as larry. She didn't take any noyice of the scolding so i put the lead on her collar for the rest of the trip.Saw lots of fresh sign but she wasn't interested in any of it.Walking out i let her off and let her run around but she dissappeared into the trees again and barked up another animal and took of again for a few minutes. Came back again [damm]so we went to the ute and came home. My problem is how do i stop her from barking and get her to point as she should do .Any advice is welcome , failing that does anyone want a very affectionate dog.

She needs to be trained mate that is all. They just don't do it all by birth right. You've got a lot of work to do starting right back to walking on the lead well. then hunting within range, then not chasing. The trail bark will disappear when you stop her chasing. Get to work on obedience, control and discipline, she'll be ready to hunt in a few months. If you keep hunting over like this I don;t predict her having a very bright future.

I can hear my old man saying, start again with the basics mate, but have a bullet ready just in case.

Nice looking dog too

Cheers
Pete

The question should be how do I stop my dog chasing deer ,get control first ,even if its on a lead it will indicate

Shoot

Took her out this morning and i saw a hind dissappering through the trees, couldn't get a shot, but followed it and Lucy didn't even pick up on it. Very dissappointing, i had her on a lead all the time. Then she took off and dragged me after Quail and started to bark.Then i decided to come home.

Stop hunting her immediately until you fix this. As mentioned above that isn't a trail barking issue, it's a steadiness issue. Steady her up - this may be a problem if she has had many chases before your time with her. Good luck

You have lots of hours of work to do with her to retrain her to be steady. She is hunting/ chasing for her entertainment and doesn't care what you have in mind for her. If you are prepared to do the hours of work she will be ok but it will be a long process. Chasing things is one of dog favourite things to do. Good luck

Mate, every answer, bar one which was of no value, have told you to go back to basics and don;t take her hunting... so what did you do???

I tried to make it clear....

Originally Posted by Ruff

The trail bark will disappear when you stop her chasing. Get to work on obedience, control and discipline, she'll be ready to hunt in a few months. If you keep hunting over like this I don't predict her having a very bright future.

It seems to me like you want us to give you permission to shoot her. You don't need our permission for that, many thousands have been shot for less. The issue you have here is that she isn't trained, doesn't have a clue what you want and so is now an indifferent chaser who is developing a trail bark. You can shoot her and start again, but if you don't do the work with the next one it is almost inevitable you will again have another out of control trail barker.

You mentioned the quail as though her tuning into them was a crime... did she know you were after deer? Did you tell her? Is she trained to know to ignore quail in certain circumstances? Is she now ignoring deer because the last few times she has trail barked she's been given a hiding for it and is now ignoring deer? (Training term is "blinking".) If this is thee cause of her ignoring deer today, you trained her do ignore them the last time she got a towel up for chasing one

It was meant to read every answer, bar one, was of value <--- doh!

I had a couple of pig dogs I inherited they where litter mates & around 4yo geez they had some bad habits , never chased stock but deer , possums where bad enough & 1 of them was a bit of a freak he'd hunt a k or more away by him self getting up to all sorts of mischief I had to get the gps gear to find the dam things , I dealt out all sorts of hidings & suprizeinly it didn't work he just bugger off & do his own thing!! I actually caught a couple of pigs looking for him after he'd got the beats for catching a possum, one thing about the situation was I'd only had them for a few weeks I hadn't really struck a dog like this fella before & was running out of ideas until someone pointed out to get control & watch them like a hawk..bloody good advice I went all out & resorted to something I'd never done before...putting the worst offender on a lead �� Man it sucked for both is us but blow me down after a couple of weeks progress was made , they stopped playing silly buggers & started catching some pretty good hogs I think In The end they new I wasn't taking any shit & we got along pretty good they turned into my mates & started listening so if u want to put the effort in it does work .

Originally Posted by Martin358

Took her out this morning and i saw a hind dissappering through the trees, couldn't get a shot, but followed it and Lucy didn't even pick up on it. Very dissappointing, i had her on a lead all the time. Then she took off and dragged me after Quail and started to bark.Then i decided to come home.

She will be good.
Don't worry about the quail,she is hunting.
I had a weimaraner that while she didn't trail bark ,did all the same things.
She found quail where I didn't expect to see them. Oterehinaiti Stream in the middle of the Kaimanawas for one.
Once I got a stop on her and she worked out what we were after turned out fine.
The dogs are smart enough to know what is/isn't on the menu after they learn.
She was about 15-18 month's when I got her.

The joys of picking up free to good home deals.....they rarely do what's promised.
I'd spend more time with the dog in and around home before even considering hitting the bush....and you've done that twice in less than a month, it's common to hear these stories from pig hunters and the result is usually another ponga fertiliser.
The bond between a hunter and dog for a deer dog needs a fair bit of time to mature into anything, you would never get that in a month.

You need to spend some time with someone or a group who can train you to train a dog. Sounds harsh but its the truth.

Training a dog from a clean slate is hard enough

What you have is someone elses problem

What it also sounds like is you have limited training skills at this stage

Get professional help to train yourself to train the dog or keep it as a pot licker and don't take it hunting

Sorry to sound harsh but its reality and a hard job fixing what you have got now