Behind every well trained deer hound is a lot of hours of training put in to make sure that your pup is ready when you dump the box. The process of training each dog can be simple or some may take a little more work before it gets the hang of it. The key things to always remember are patience and baby steps. No matter if you have a misfit hound off of an unplanned litter or a puppy of a champion bloodline, it's going to take some work.
The first step to deer dog training is to get your dog familiar with the scent at a young age. For my puppies, whenever we processed a deer I would be sure to take a scrap leg or cut off a piece of hide to let the pup smell and familiarize itself with what it needs to know. Also something that may seem silly but I found to really help when it comes time to start field training is getting them familiar with the chase. Use that young puppy energy and just let them chase you around the yard. I do this with my pups on a daily basis for the first few months after they begin to get moving on their feet. Just like any other activity it is the fundamentals that make a well rounded dog.
After familiarizing your dog with the goal it is time to get them into the field. Typically I like to start mine around eight months old before allowing them to start really running to make sure their bodies have developed enough to handle the workload. When starting field work with a pup I like to choose one or two good “teachers.” A teacher dog is a more experienced hound that is a bit slower than the rest but is always true to its track. Choosing a dog that is slower and more accurate will allow the pup to slowly tag along and follow the teacher’s lead. It lets the young hound have time to process everything and really learn what is happening. Field work with the dog takes time, the pup may want to come back to you as the owner. The pup will likely just break off from the pack without explanation the first few times. This is not a deal breaker by any means. Keep taking the pup every chance you get until it sticks with the teacher on a good run. Once your pup has started to get the concept of running with its teacher it can move up to the main pack. Some dogs do this in two or three hunts while some may take months before it develops the fundamentals of a sound hunting dog.
Moving your pup up to the main pack may be extremely rewarding or it may show that there is more work to be done. Having confidence that your pup knows how to perform is key. The main pack will tie in everything it has learned to one faster motion. From knowing how to get down in the cutover and look for the track, going to another dog once it alerts a track and then jumping the deer and packing together and running. Once they get a good run, a helpful note is to reward your pup. Once the pup reaches where the deer lays, it is a reward to them to be able to smell it and see what they accomplished. You can almost see in the dog’s eyes that it now understands why they have worked so hard to reach this point.
After this moment you can bet on your pup wanting to be in on every run and itching to get in that box every morning come time to load up. They show the excitement and the drive when they come flying off the tailgate when the dog box door opens and that is when you know you have successfully “broke” your deerhound.
