Hey everyone. I've got a question on a 3-year old English (Wilcox) gyp I've posted about before.
First a bit of history: I am firm believer in "starting slow" on training and hunting and didn't mess with her at all until she was 9 months old and I wasn't taking her hunting until she was about 13 months old. I have two older, decent dogs that she's hunted with a very little, but 90% of her hunting and training time was on her own. Her first two seasons I've averaged hunting her alone about 2-3 nights a week. My other two dogs are both 9 and they rest more than hunt these days
. She showed good potential her first season and made tremendous strides from Year 1 to Year 2 of hunting, last fall/winter/spring turning into a nice little pleasure hound. I've only caught her running deer once and she's not done it again, and I've NEVER had a possum in a tree. Her first season there were a few slick trees, but last season she was very accurate and almost always saw the coon.
Most of the areas I hunt I park and walk. She's a fairly close hunter, usually out there between 100 and 400 yards and checks in every 15-20 minutes or so. She's very thorough, seeming to sniff about every square inch of ground, and I've not noticed her cruising past more than a coon or two...the few times she's hunted with other dogs she trees a lot split on trees the other dogs blew past and gets a good amount of lay-ups.
I have hunted her with two of my brother-in-laws dogs two times in a different part of the state and she's not done well. She doesn't get far from me and checks back a lot more often. Only twice has she hunted with them other dogs, once backing them up and another time splitting, but usually not hunting real hard. I tossed it up to strange land, strange dogs, and usually dropping shortly after a 4-hour drive, and those dogs having to hunt harder for coons...they hit the ground running hard. I used to live there and my dogs were all that way until I moved to a part of the state with more coons. I wasn't too worried since she's hunted fine for me individually.
However, I would like her to get out on her own more now. She finished the spring very strong, but I've only hunted her maybe 5 times since April 15 (closed running season and then very hot summer). For the most part, she's shown less interest in getting out there. She's never been one to hit the ground running hard...instead she starts sniffing right around the truck and eases out into the woods ahead of us walking. Lately, I've wanted to walk a little less from the start and let her go without me right behind backing her up. I'll sit on a log and wait for her to leave, and she'll go maybe 40 yards and come back and sniff hard around me, but not getting more than 40 or 50 yards away. She'll also tree hard on a tree for about 10 seconds, and then fall away from it and keep hunting.
Last night I hunted her in a new swamp and my buddy and I just stayed at the truck for a few minutes until she got out there on her own and ended up treeing about 30 yards into the swamp. We then let her go again and she just messed around within 80 yards, going out, hunting, coming back every 5 minutes or so. We started easing in behind her and she got out 200 yards and treed one. We then went to a new spot and she caught one on the ground in a beanfield. After that, she was back to her old self for the rest of the night, keeping out ahead of us a few hundred yards and treeing another coon and hunting hard.
My question comes from just wanting to know how I can get her to show a little more drive to "get gone" on her own. As I've said, she's seemed to have lost some of that drive since last spring (although not over very many hunts) and I would like to see if it's not too late for her to get gone on her own the minute she hits the ground instead of milling around for a bit first. I don't mind her at all checking in, but then I want her to get right back out there again like she used too. I've had dogs kind of regress for a short period between season 1 and season 2 in the past, I've never had one who has regressed at this age. I don't believe I've done anything to "burn her out". She's still a nice little pleasure hound, just would like some tips about possibly getting her to push out without needing me following behind right away. I don't know if the way we've hunted has already made her into a dog that is always going to make sure I'm comiong behind, too. The rest of my dogs have always been "get gone and not come back till we find something". That was usually good and bad. I'd like a mix between that and what she was.
I just got a new pup and thought she'd be a decent pup trainer since she doesn't trash and isn't ill and is accurate. But I'm not going to use her for that if she stays like this...want to see a little more drive.
Thanks for the help.