My pup, Buster, is almost 11 months old. He is part Three Ki Beagle and part Lemon Beagle. We only got him to the woods to hunt bunnies four times. The first time out got him acquainted to the area. Second time, he done a lot of sniffing tracks. Third time out he found his voice and managed to stay on a couple for awhile. Fourth time out started slow. It was not a good day for bunny hunting. The snow was a bit sticky and his bell kept plugging up. Then he got on one but lost it shortly after. Then he got on one and held it for quite awhile before losing it.
Then he got on one and got sidetracked by a deer track (or the deer itself). His tracks ran along side of the deer track and then in the deer tracks. There were four sets of deer tracks. We spent over an hour tracking him down. If it wasn't for his bark, we would never have gotten him back. That deer led him on a long run through the woods, across a snowmobile trail and out to the dirt road. It looked like the deer tried to lose him on the road by going back and forth across the road,
Jim went up an old partially grown in trail and I went down the road and onto another snowmobile trail hoping we could cut him off one way or the other. Jim heard him bark not too far from the trail. He saw where the deer had crossed and went in. He ended up carrying Buster out as he forgot the spare leash. Buster seemed quite pleased with himself but he was one tired pup.
Now, the big question is, "How do we stop him from chasing deer?" Jim said when he was a young lad, his grandfather had told him the only way was with a bullet. I don't want to do that. If I cannot break him of that, he will be a leash dog for the rest of his life with no freedom to run unless we fence in the yard. It would have to be a pretty high fence too as he can jump quite high.
Any ideas anybody?