nrh0011
Senior Member
Wirehaired pointing griffon, does both and more.
This a male or female you have? I need a female.Sq. hunting is actually kinda tough. There's a lot of little pieces to the puzzle. If the dog doesn't do one, it isn't going to make a sq. dog. As this will be a pet you're not going to be able to cull, consider pet quality. We have a pet here that would be a jam up sq. feist, but it won't bark treed after you kill a couple sq. Once it figures out the sq. are going in the bag, it refuses to share the tree.
It'd be a good idea to attend some comp. hunts (check UKC, NKC web sites) or hunt with folks who have different types before you settle on one.
Here's the brief version of training a sq. dog:
Be careful with loud noises up to about nine months. They go through stages where they are more impressionable about being made to fear things. Introduce gun fire slowly. A gun shy dog is an automatic cull.
After six to nine months of age, take to sq. woods where there are not deer hunters nearby at least three times per week. Keep sessions short, half an hour is good.
Heel the dog in to the hunt area. Cast it.
Don't shoot anything out unless the pup barks up. On the first few, even a squeak counts. As it makes more trees, require more barking. Once I start hunting a pup, it gets no attention in the woods unless it does what I want. Then I love up on it big time.
After a successful tree or three, start tying the dog at or right by the tree to teach it to stick to the tree to get the sq. out.
After the sq. is out and you loved up on it to beat the bad, heel the dog at least fifty yards away and cast it again. This teaches it to no go back to the old tree.
Some of these dogs get attached and will only hunt for their master. This is probably going to be 'your' dog, not hers. Good luck! It is a lot of work, but it is very entertaining.
And there's nothing wrong with saving time and money by buying a finished dog. Just make sure you hunt with it and see it will do what you want before buying.
This year my oldest daughter has turned six and has become a pretty good shot with her 22 rascal. I took her bow hunting two weekends ago and while she enjoyed it, she enjoyed squirrel hunting a lot more.
It was a bit frustrating with leaves on the trees, but she enjoyed the walking, looking, and getting to hear the barks and sounds. So fast forward a little and she has discovered that dogs can be trained to trees squirrel so she has put in a request for a squirrel dog and a rabbit dog (she proclaims she will be a vet when she grows up), only problem is I don’t know anyone who has either and everyone I have asked doesn’t know either. Can anyone point me in the direction of a good breeder/trainer where I can purchase either or both? I’m in the habersham county area of northeast Georgia.
I appreciate it, thanks.