(UPDATE)training odd dog

KillerBear

KillerBear

New member
Wondering if anyone had any ideas on what and how to train my " odd dog" to hunt, he is a French mastiff runt bout 85 pounds pretty fast at times and strong prey drive just wondering what I should train him to hunt he seems cable
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PLEASEEE HELP ME
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thanks!
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can you tell me how to post pics ill show you the beasts. the french mastiff are suppose to be lion bear hog hunters butttttt we don't have those animals where I live
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…. does or has trained training a mastiff to maybe hunt rabbits ,deer or coyotes?????
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orrr maybe just a general on how you train your dogs to hunt ,rabbits deer or coyotes?????
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I got a Cane Corso he has gone out a few times with me. He is about 115 lbs.He has natural prey drive and loves to get out and hunt. I think you will find when your dog gets out in the wild he will be slow relative to everything else in the wild. Coyotes are shy around my dog he is just to big and aggressive. You might have more luck If yours is willing to play the game.

Shoot a few rabbits birds coyotes and what not and see what he responds to. I tried to teach mine to fetch dead coyotes but he is just not wire to fetch. He will sit and wait till I shoot something then go shake the stuffing out of it but that is not hunting. My dog loves to hunt squirrels I didn't teach him he just did it. unfortunately he is an equal opportunity butt kicker so you never get much squirrel back from him.

Mastiffs are big and stubborn, You will need lots of patients. If you have him around other animals watch for signs of aggression. It is a blurry line the neighbors Aussie Sheppard and a coyote once he gets going.

Good luck
 
I think deer would be out of the question unless you are just going to put him on badly crippled ones. I run McNabs on deer, and they really can barely get the job done some times because of how fast and cagey a deer can be, and they can do 15 - 20 miles an hour all day long. Your Mastiff will look like a tugboat tying to keep up with a offshore racing boat.

With the gas tank on those types of dogs being what it is, you will need to either get him some help or use him for close range turn-ns on whatever game you are hunting. I personally think endurance is one of the most important traits of dogs, so you will need to limit the amount of energy he uses trying to track the game.

As CC said, be careful of him getting worked up and make sure he stays on task. Those dogs don't think they are capable of losing a fight, so if you decide to turn him loose on Coyotes you will need to make sure he doesn't forget that his job is to bring them back to you not try to kill them all.
 
thank you for the feedback!!!

may I ask how you train your hunting dogs?? I have a small area where i live (only six acres) but a hour away is 45 acres i have acsess to but its on a mountain than an hour away in another direction is a state park.I am not sure if you can run dogs in a state park?.
 
I think you need to figure out what you want him to hunt before you think about how to train him. Decoying, baying, jumping, tracking / treeing are all so different.

Don't forget there is nothing wrong with a hunting companion that stays close and is just there for the company.
 
I would like to train I'm to run rabbits or tree squirrels is it possblie?

Could I take him in my hunting blind while deer hunting?
 
I don't run any kind of treeing dogs, so there are people here that are better capable of answering that part.

I do run deer dogs. Mine are trained to locate, jump, track and bay up cripples. We do lots of drive hunts for deer, so the deer is basically a tool to flush the deer out and get them going to guys on stands. When one is crippled, they are put on the last known track and will bay up once caught.

I simply start by giving my pups deer legs to chew on at a very young age (12 weeks). I want that scent tattooed on their brains. Then I will drag the deer leg around the yard or in a field, and put a couple of treats at the end of the trail. This gets them used to tracking. Next when deer season comes about, they are in the field all of the time. My current youngest was locating cripples at 4 months old. They are in the skinning shed with the dead deer, they are on the vehicles with the dead deer, and they just live and breath it for their first 6 months.

There are a million different ways to go, but you just have to remember that obedience is first, then start narrowing their scope to fit your needs. Dogs want to please you, so if you do your job and show them what you want them to do... they will try until it kills them. Make it fun for them. Be patient and realize that you will have a lot of bad days in the field before you start to have a lot of good ones.

Good luck.
 
THANK YOU
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Do you run deer in open fields or woods or thickets?

I think I would use the mastiff as a catch/bay dog and get a higher energy dog for running the deer.
also whats a couple deer hunting breeds?
 
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We hunt very steep country with a mix of openings, brush, scrub oak and heavy timber. Most of our big deer are located in the thick stuff.

Since we don't cold trail deer we use McNab, Cat, and Cur
 
If he is gun shy your into territory that can't be fixed through internet conversation. If he has never been around gunfire tie him to something he can't drag off then shoot a 22 a ways away from him see if it scares him. Keep it fun he will feed of your energy. You just got to get out and try it.
 
Can or has anyone trained a dog to hunt diffrent things? I'm training my dog on rabbits and wondering could i get him to hunt coons an squirrels also.
 
Rule# 1 to training a hunting dog (regardless of breed) in my book...

EXPOSURE to what you want them to do. Check their apptitude for the subject.

Here's my American Bulldog. She's treed coon, caught them bolting (when hunting the terriers), located in barns/buildings/haypiles/woodpiles, etc. I've squirrel, rabbit, and pheasant hunted her. Just remember, they don't all have it. Even a lot of hunting breeds don't have it. The French mastiff hasn't been a "real" hunting breed in probably 100+ years or more. Don't set your expectations too high. My bulldog came out of hog hunting lines, but South Dakota doesn't have any wild pigs. She has worked sheep as well. All natural. I just exposed her to what I wanted to see her do.


Working floor joists in an abandoned house...



Helped catch a few the terriers bolted and located a few and retrieved 1 to hand...



Saving the damage on the little dogs...
 
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