begal or doxi?

[killjoy]

so to enhance my hunting, i am getting a dog. not exactly sure which one i want. I know people have done good work with Doxi's, but what about begals?

I had a begal x Dashchund once and it was a great dog, but i dont know which way i want to go. i would like a little bit bigger dog, but the doxi will be able to get in to tighter places.

thoughts are much appreciated.
Mike

[Joby]

Hey Mike, congrats on taking the jump to adding a dog to your hawking team. There's nothing like watching a dog work with your bird. But, remember that whether you get a beagle or a doxie, there is a good bit of training on your part to get it hunting bunnies and for the bird to tolerate it. Regarding the choice between doxie or beagle, it depends a lot on what you're after and what size fields you're hunting.
-Joby

[killjoy]

Well I had a fortunate turn of events. The breeder I talked to has both doxi and baegal, she has a 4 year old beagel that was trained to hunt on the farm she lived on. Apperently the breeder had to change her name cause it was very telling of her hunting ability. The maurader is what they called her. Gonna check her out this weekend.

[killjoy]

went and checked the dog out, she is a very nice dog.
i got to see the AKC papers on her and she has field champion blood line in her.
very quiet and reserved. she was running around with her 16 week puppy and the puppy was using her as a chew toy, she was frustrated but took it all in stride.
i am going to pick her up today.
be nice to have a dog in the house again.

[killjoy]

so this was weird as hell.
my dad called and said he wanted to drive me to go pick up the dog.
2 minutes later the breeder calls and she sounds distressed.
so it turns out her duaghter, 10, freaked out that they were gonna sell the dog. she appolgised alot, but told me this had never happened before. i agreed since it was her business to sell dogs and i reminded her that she offered the dog to ME when i called up asking about a puppy.

she said she freaked when i said i was going to put a shock coller to train the dog to stay away from the bird.

i never said that, i said i KNEW PEOPLE that used shock collers to train the dogs to mind the bird.

then she gave me a TOTALLY NOOB ANSWER!!'
"my husband who is a vet tech reccomends that you get a puppy to introduce to the bird so they can grow up together."
<- that was me
"ok that would be fine for the dog, but i can put a new bird in front of that dog every year, so it does absolutely nothing for the bird."

so i have a person knowing nothing about falconry, didnt even know what it was, telling me how i should be a falconer. kind of pissed me off a little.

so then she offers me another dog, but now its $150. when i originaly called it was for a $400 puppy, then SHE offered me the 4 year old for $50.

she seemed to have a nice setup, the kennels were air conditioned indoors with a doggie door to the outside on 14 acres. so i am kind of mad about the whole thing, she says she doesnt want to sell her, but in the same breath she says that she needs to get rid of some of the adults???!!!!

not sure what to do.
guess the treck is still on.

[MarkT]

I hate to say it but if it were me I would get a puppy as close to 8 weeks as you can get and introduce it to birds from day one. I would never pick up an adult dog to to work with my birds. In my mind a dog should be intorduce to birds at a young age and raised around them. I know you want to get a dog now so it is ready to go when you get a bird but I would strongly suggest you hold off getting a dog until you have a bird in hand and then get a puppy to start. You won't get much use out of the dog this year but in the long run I think you will get better results doing it that way.

[killjoy]

thanx for the advice mark.
i would have thought the dog would have had a leg up, get it , since she had been trained as a hunting dog and wasnt gun shy and other things important to hunting.
but i feel you are right a puppy is the right choice.

[Joby]

If getting a beagle puppy, I wouldn't introduce it to any bird until it was at least 16-20 weeks, or maybe even a bit older. If a puppy gets hit too young, it might refuse to even hunt with one. We don't even introduce the doxie puppies to the birds until they're at least 5 months or so old, although that's also got something to do with their size.

[Master Yarak]

If it were me.... I would focus strictly on the raptor. Based on your history that seems to be more prudent than trying to add a dog into the mix. Once you have met with success you can release, retrap or acquire another bird THEN train it with a dog.
As always you get exactly what you pay for my advice is always FREE ;D
Yarak

[MarkT]

May 10, 2010 19:11:51 GMT -5 Joby said:

If getting a beagle puppy, I wouldn't introduce it to any bird until it was at least 16-20 weeks, or maybe even a bit older. If a puppy gets hit too young, it might refuse to even hunt with one. We don't even introduce the doxie puppies to the birds until they're at least 5 months or so old, although that's also got something to do with their size.

We either disagree on this or we have different meanings for introduce. For me introduce doesn’t mean taking the bird and the dog out hunting. It means getting the dog used to the bird and to some extent the bird used to the dog. In my mind the younger the dog is when these introductions are made the better. If you are going to feed the bird, bring the puppy, if you are getting the bird out to weather, bring the puppy, if you are going to do any manning of the bird, bring the puppy. I think you can see where I going with this. If you have the bird out, have the puppy present. What you are trying to get to here is the puppy sees the bird as just another part of its world. When the bird is eating I would allow the puppy to get close but make it respect the birds space. These are all things that I find are easier to get a puppy to accept than an older dog. I would agree that I wouldn’t take the bird and the puppy to the field to hunt together much before 6 months but before that you can have a lot of hours clocked where the bird and the puppy have been able to get used to each other.

[falconer147]

I already have 2 beagles. one older dog that I used to train my puppy which is just now 8 months old. He is a very intellegen beagle and Im getting a RT very soon. How does that sound as far as introductions go?