Simply put, a finished dog is fully trained hunting hound. Fully trained means that he dog has basic obedience mastered, starts, trails and circles his own rabbits to the gun, will hunt with other dogs, and will not run Deer or other off game. Most dogs take two or three years to reach this stage of development. Finished dogs are a good choice for people that don't want to take the time or put forth the effort to train pups themselves. They are a great choice for someone who is new to beagles, and wants to be able to start hunting soon after acquiring a dog. They are not a good choice for the hunter trying to save money, as they are not cheap to start with. Currently the price you should expect to pay for a finished dog begins at $500 and goes up depending on breeding and hunting ability.
Starting the pup is the hard part, but finishing him is the most time consuming. The short version of this process is to hunt your started pup every chance you get. This sounds easy, but there are a few points that need to be considered. The definition above states several points that need to be met before the dog can be considered finished.
For a hunting hound there are only two commands that I consider necessary,
and a few commands that are very helpful. I will out line here how I teach
a dog the return command, and how I teach "No" to the dog.
Return Command
The fist command that the dog must have mastered is the the return command. My dogs know to come to their call names, and also to my whistle. This command is the first that I work on with all dogs. When I get a new dog that is older or even a pup I allow about 2 weeks for the dog to become familiar with me. During this time the dog stays in the kennel. I give it lots of attention at feeding time, and even go out just to pet the dog in the kennel. I repeat the dogs name as I feed it, and try to be sure it knows its name by the time I let it out of the kennel. When I am sure the dog knows its own name I move onto the check cord. I use a 25' cord at first. I attach to check cord to the dogs collar, and then put it on the ground. I let the dog play and run, but I don't let it get more than 25' from me. This means that the cord is always in my hand. I call the dog to me at different times. If the dog does not come as soon as I call, I pull on the cord. If that does not get his attention I pull him over to me with the cord. I praise him and give him a treat for coming. We continue to work on this skill for the next few weeks. It does not take long before the dog understands that it has to come to you when you call. When I am sure the dog has the command mastered within 25', I switch to a 50' cord. Most of the time the dog will come now no matter how far away it gets, but I like to be able to remind the dog of it's responsibility. When the dog understands that is has to come on the check cord, I will let it drag the cord around the yard. This way the cord is still there, and I know I can catch the dog if I can get within 50' or so. The dog will most likely still come when called, but I can not let the dog disobey my commands. When I am sure the dog understands the commands while on the check cord I move up to the E-Collar. I use a TriTronics field 70, but any collar with adjustable correction levels will work for yard training. The use of E-Collars causes more controversy than it seems to me it should. Here is the simple rule to using a E-Collar: Use it last. Don't try to skip steps. Use the check cord for as long as you can, then move up to the E-Collar. Let the dog get a long way from you, but keep him in sight. A mowed hay field works very well for this. Call him once. If he doesn't come, correct him on the lowest setting. Increase power as needed for the particular dog you are working with. I have seen some dogs just lay down and refuse to move when corrected on the lowest setting. These dogs can not be trained with E-collars. I don't work with dogs like this, but some hunters are able to make decent rabbit hounds out of them. The majority of the time the dog will come back when reminded. It only takes enough correction to get the attention of the dog. Once you have the dogs attention, repeat the command once. If it still does not come in, increase the correction. The idea is to get the dog to respond with out the correction. I run my hounds with E-collars when hunting for the first few years. This allows me to refresh the training that occurred in the yard as it is needed. If the dogs needs correction too often, I have found it to be or more benefit to work with them on the check cord again.
"No"
This command is something that every dog must learn. This is very useful in the rest of the training process. This is very simple to teach. Repetition is the key. A dog that is well bonded with his master can tell when the master is displeased. I practice the "no" command whenever the situation allows. This has been very useful to me as I have kept a beagle in my house.
"Down"
Other hunters use the "down" command as well. When given this command the dog will lay down where it is and wait for the handler to release it.
"Sit"
I use the sit command. This is not completely needed in beagles. I use it when I want a beagle to sit by me so that I can clip a leash to it. It is also very useful in the house. "Sit" is very easy to teach. Operant Conditioning is the the key to this training.
"Kennel"
This is a great command to use in the yard. The dog goes in the Kennel when you give the command. Not needed to hunt with a dog, but a nice thing to have in the yard.
"Load Up"
This is another time saver in the field. It has turned into "get in the truck" with princess as she rides in the cab with me.
These are a few commands that I have used or seen other good hunters use. A beagle can be taught to behave just like any other dog.
Starting your pup was handled in a different article. Getting past this point is the next thing. This takes a great deal of time in the woods with wild rabbits in front of your dog to get it to run full circle with consistency. My pups run alone 90% of the time. Running solo makes them depend on themselves, not another dog to get the job done. This means that a lot of runs are not going to end in my seeing the rabbit. I don't have a strong desire to kill a lot or rabbits so this is not a problem for me. At some point a gun needs to be introduced to your beagle. I have read a great deal about gun shyness in beagles. I think it is rare to get a beagle that is naturally gun shy. I think it is fairly easy to make a beagle gun shy. I introduce the pups to loud noises early. I bang on the kennels at feeding time. When I take them out in the field as pups I clap my hands loudly. When I am comfortable with the dog's reaction to loud noises, I introduce them to a .22 rifle with CB caps. CB caps have a very light report. I wait until the dog 50 to 100 yards away, and I shoot the CB cap into the ground. Normally pups don't even respond to this light noise. If they seem startled I wait to see what the do next. If they come to me, and act shy I know that it is too soon to introduce them to more gunfire. If they look up and then continue looking around and playing, I wait a few minutes and repeat. When the seem comfortable hearing the CB cap at range, I fire when they are closer. If after a few more outings like this, I change to standard velocity .22 shells. We repeat this exercise until we are ready to try CCI Stingers. These .22 shells are hypervelocity, and very loud. They are also my first choice for hunting. If this works well with a rifle, then I will try Stingers in my .22 pistol. I wear hearing protection for this exercise. When we have gone through this whole regimen, I will try a shotgun at range. Then work up to the point I can shoot very near the dog. The idea is to have a dog gun ready by the time they circle that first rabbit to you.
There is really only one way to make this happen. That is to run your dog with other hounds. I don't like to do this until I know the dog can get the job done on his own. One bit of advice on getting dogs to run together is to kennel your dog with another dog you want it to run with. This is especially important if your pup wants to play the whole time it is in the woods with another dog. This takes time, just like anything else.
This is something that was very difficult before I purchased E-collars. In the old days, a hound would have to be caught in the act or running off game and then "corrected" with a switch. There are a lot of other strange methods of "breaking" a dog off deer, but I don't recommend any of them. If you can't buy an E-collar, (they are available used at places like the collar clinic), borrow one. This is the best way I know of to train the dog not to bother Deer or other off game.
It seems like here in Michigan there are a lot of Deer, and Coyote. These are the two biggest problems I have had as far as off game is concerned. It is fairly easy to set a dog up on Deer. Spring through Fall Deer like to feed at night in farm fields. If you can get permission to train in a farm field, you are half way there. (In this state, I have little trouble finding areas to train dogs not to run Deer) When I find a deer in a field I lead the dog toward the track or even better toward the deer. If the dog shows interest in the track, or even in the deer as it runs away, I correct him on the highest setting available. I hold the button down until the dog has quite running the track. Most often this only takes about two seconds. Ideally, we then go find a rabbit to run. We repeat this set-up as many times as the dog will show interest in the track. Then we go looking for deer in different settings. I have had dogs seemed to associate the correction with the running the deer in an open field, only running deer at night, and so on. The key here is to never let the dog get any pleasure from a deer track. The problem is, you have to be 100% certain that the dog is running off game, before you push the button. A good rabbit dog can turned into a house pet in about 4 seconds if you get this wrong. Better to let the dog get a taste of Deer than to shock him for doing the right thing. If I think the dog is "green broke" on deer, I move on to the next step. I try to make the dog tell me I am a liar. I will often call a dog over to a hot rabbit track. The dog gets very wise to my "Tally Ho" call, and will come running. I try this with a hot deer track. If the dog will take the track I correct him. I want the dog to think that the deer track is what is causing him to get shocked. This works well for me, and it has not made any dogs less likely to come to my "Tally Ho". When I am sure the dog will not start a deer on his own I go the next step. Many dogs that would never start a deer, still get pulled into deer chases that other dogs started. This is a situation that requires patience. Unless you have access to dog that will run deer, it is hard to set up your dog for this. All I have been able to do is wait until I am hunting with another dog that starts a deer. That is why I run my dogs with E-Collars until I am 99.99999999999999999% sure they are "deer proof". Coyote are much harder to set up. If they were that easy to find they would not last long. Again always having a collar on the dog is the best way to handle this problem. In other parts of the country there is different off game to train for, but I believe that Deer are the biggest problem across the country.
Once your dog has basic obedience mastered, starts, trails and circles his own rabbits to the gun, will hunt with other dogs, and will not run Deer or other off game. You can called him a finished hound. This is something to be proud of, as many beagles never make it to this point.
