Training of hunting dogs Chinese hunters have rich experience in training hunting dogs. To sum up, there are basic training principles, primary training of puppies and hunting training.

1. Basic principles of hound training: Before introducing the primary training and hunting training of puppies in detail, let's talk about training first General principles that hounds must follow.

(1) The importance of training; part of the hunting ability of hounds is acquired through congenital heredity, and part is cultivated through strict training since childhood. A qualified hunting dog is often the result of a hunter's hard-working coaching. Without strict, continuous and timely training, no matter how good a dog's innate breed is, it cannot become a good hunting dog. Therefore, hound training is very important.

(2) Personnel training: The training of hunting dogs must start from the young age of the dog, and the person shall be responsible for it, and the dog owner cannot be changed in the middle. It is difficult to achieve satisfactory success if the dog coach is changed in the middle. Not to mention that you should keep him for two days and let him play. This will inevitably distract the puppy's energy and seriously affect the improvement of hunting skills. If you treat puppies as playthings, they will only be dogs for play when they grow up.

(3) Training items and training time; an excellent hunting dog must have the three hunting skills of searching, chasing, and picking up. Therefore, tracking, searching, hunting, and picking up prey are trained focus. The purpose of training is to form a firm hunting conditioned reflex in the puppy's mind, to learn these three hunting skills, so as to complete the hunting task given to it by the hunter in the future. The six, seven, and eight months after the puppy is born is the period of the fastest development of its advanced nerves, and it is also the golden period for coaching the puppy's hunting movements. At this time, the puppies must be trained strictly and systematically in order to make them have good hunting conditioning. A year later, the development of the hound has been completed, the quality of the hound has been finalized, and retraining is very difficult.

(4) Training place; the primary training of puppies can be carried out in the hunter's living area, such as a wide courtyard, a rural threshing field, and an idle area outside the village. But puppy hunting action training must be carried out in real mountain hunting grounds. Through hunting field training, the hunting ability of hunting dogs can be fully developed, and puppies can be taught to track, search, hunt and attack, and pick up prey, so as to overcome the activities that do not meet the hunting requirements. The more times a puppy participates in real hunting training, the better its hunting skills will be. Therefore, hunters should often lead puppies for training hunting.

(5) Basic methods; the basic methods for hound training are encouragement and coercion. Encourage the development of its hunting behavior and forcibly correct its activities that do not meet the hunting requirements. For this reason, it should be discussed that the combination of encouragement and compulsion should be used as the basic method of training hunting dogs. The means of encouragement include lure. When the puppies complete an action, the hunter should give them meat encouragement in time; if the puppies are too timid to go into the water to pick them up, the hunter should drag the puppies into the water. When hunters use encouragement or coercion to train puppies, they must be gentle and not kick or beat at will. When the puppy's activities do not meet the hunting requirements, the hunter must stubbornly and repeatedly correct its wrong actions, patiently teach it the predetermined hunting actions, and must not accommodate and indulge, otherwise, it will leave bad problems in the hound. , affecting future hunting.

(6) Don't go beyond the scope to ask hounds: hounds only have a certain primary level of experience and the ability to control their own behavior. Therefore, unrealistically high demands cannot be made on hounds.

2. Primary training of puppies: The period from two months to six months after the birth of puppies is the period of primary training for puppies. The primary training of puppies includes;

(1) The training of obeying the master's command; the primary training of hunting dogs should start from two months after the puppies are born. During this period, the puppies' brain nerves begin to develop, and through training , conditioned the puppies' developing nerves for hunting. The 30 months of June, July and August are the fastest period for the development of puppies' advanced neurological development and the best period for training. After ten months, the development of the hound has matured, the hunting performance has been determined, and retraining has been difficult. For this reason, the puppies should be weaned at two months, brought back to be fed alone, and given a simple and loud name, such as Little Yellow, Saihu, Little Black, etc. Hunters call at any time, Make the puppies' developing brain nerves firmly remember their name. Every time they are fed, the hunter must call the puppy's name, so that the puppy will develop a good habit of obeying the command and come immediately. Conditioned reflex, which is very important for future mountain hunting. When puppies learn some simple movements, they should gradually increase the training distance, and gradually replace food lure with encouragement by stroking or tapping their foreheads. The commands issued by the hunter must be simple and precise. Such as going, coming back...It takes repeated training and frequent training to form a firm conditioned reflex. When the puppy is five or six months old, it needs to be trained in hunting skills. First, teach it to execute accurately Get up, Don't move, Lie down, Chase, Bite and other hunting commands. The puppy executes these hunting commands accurately. The hunter should touch and encourage it and give it some good food as a reward to make It is willing to carry out the master's command.

(2) Follow the master's training: the puppy is very affectionate with people and is willing to follow the master. Therefore, it is easier to train the puppy to follow the master, and can be lured with food. , Gradually follow the master without food temptation. However, to make the puppies follow closely behind the master without running around, it must be done through repeated coaching. At the beginning of following, the puppies are very new to the surrounding scenery, Sometimes they will run away to smell and watch, and the hunter will call it back immediately. If necessary, take compulsory measures, train the puppies to follow them with a rope, and then cancel the rope after getting used to it, and finally tame the hound into a good habit of walking beside the owner. ( 3) Cultivation of the brave character of the hound; three months after the birth of the puppy, hunters should take it to the wild to make it familiar with the natural environment such as mountains, rivers, forests, etc., and cultivate the brave character of the puppy. A puppy of a good breed, If it is tied at home all day, it will become a cowardly and useless inferior dog. On the contrary, if the breed of the puppy is not very good, if it can be practiced regularly, the hunter often takes the dog to the mountain for activities, and it will also be trained into a brave and capable dog. A good hunting dog. Take the puppy out in the field, don't be afraid of losing it. Calling it from time to time and not letting it have a little alone activity is not good for the puppy's growth.