[kenbro77]

Hello, My name is Kenny. I am a Licensed Falconer. I hunt Rabbits and Squirrels using a Red Tail Hawk. This past season Rabbit population has been down and walking through a field has brought little to no success. I decided that adding a beagle to the team would help me get rabbits that I have not slipped in the field. My Hawks name is Abby and my dogs name is Ziva. The hawk is a passage (under 1 year old) Red Tail and my beagle is a pure bread 7 weeks old. I have never trained a dog for hunting so I am here to learn about this. I hope that next year I will have myself a bunny getting pair. I will post pictures of them later. Hope to receive a lot of input from you guys/gals on the forums.
Thanks

 

[patama1004]

First of all, a warm welcome to you and your team!!! :wave: I just keep my beagle as a companion, but I'm sure some of the members here hunt and can provide you with the information you need.

Hope to see pictures of your team and read about them soon. Again, welcome!!!

 

[Murphys Dad]

Welcome to the BW pack!

Hunting rabbits with a beagle and a hawk. Thats a new one for me. I don't hunt with or without beagles, but I know beagles hunt rabbit by chasing them down until the collapse from exhaustion. I don't know if they could be trained to work together.

Hopefully we have some hunters here that can help.

 

[Gingergoose]

Welcome Kenny!

I've been involved with wildlife rehabilitation for about 8 years. We intake and get care for bunnies as well as hawks.

When it comes to the food chain, I cringe and close my eyes...and those poor bunnies are so at the very bottom of the chain.

Raptors are such magnificant animals. My friend has education permits and she has a red-tail named Chaucer and a barred owl called Clapper. To be able to see these animals up close is incredible considering most people only glimpse them in the sky if they are lucky.

I've never heard of hunting a beagle and hawk together (but what do I know /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif ) so I'll be watching this thread, too.

~Denise~

 

[kenbro77]

Thank you for the welcome. I know most of the people on this site are just dog companions. The purpose of the beagle is hunting. It is a sport dog and I believe in using an animal to it fullest capabilities. As far as people who hunt with the beagle, you do not run the rabbit to exhaustion. The rabbit gets chased by the beagle in the attempt to head it back to the hunter, who shoots the rabbit. As far as hawks and beagles, the beagle is used just to flush the rabbit from hiding and the hawk takes the kill. I know it is hard for animal lovers to hear this (and I am one too) but that is how the food chain works. I love and respect rabbits, they are a worthy chase. I may be in the wrong place to discuss hunting rabbits, I just wanted people here to know what I intend to use my beagle for. So please do not debate with me over this as I just want to discuss the training and love for my dog.
Thanks,
Kenny

 

[jtward01]

We used to rabbit hunt with our beagles quite a bit when I was younger. Used a shotgun instead of an falcon, however.

Rabbits, when pursued, will naturally try to circle back to their den. When the dogs jumped a rabbit we'd just follow with our ears, and watching for the white flags on the dogs' tails, and wait for the rabbit to circle back to where we were. When they came into view "bang." Next stop was my mom's frying pan.

 

[Gingergoose]

If you love your "beetle", you're definetely in the right place.

Re: hunting, I expect Northwest Redneck and maybe a couple of others to jump right in and be happy to share stories about it.

 

[Murphys Dad]

Kenneth,

No debate. Beagles were born to track and hunt. But here, we lean to the companion side of things. It all comes down to respecting each others views.

Take a look over at http:\\[url]www.beaglesunlimited.net[/url] . They are very hunt and trial oriented and should be able to offer training advice.

 

[kenbro77]

Quote:Originally posted by Murphy's Dad:
Kenneth,

No debate. Beagles were born to track and hunt. But here, we lean to the companion side of things. It all comes down to respecting each others views.

Take a look over at http:\\[url]www.beaglesunlimited.net[/url] . They are very hunt and trial oriented and should be able to offer training advice.

I joined another forum that has rabbit hunters http://www.beagleboard.com/index.php
I not only want to learn about that. I also want to learn from this group about proper care for a beagle. Thanks. :thumbup:

 

[Murphys Dad]

Kenneth,

I wasn't asking you to go elsewhere, I was just offering information to help you train your beagle for hunting.

Feel free to stay and ask away.

 

[angelaH]

Welcome to Beagle World Kenneth. I dont hunt but I am sure our beagles would love to do so! For this reason we have to keep them on the leash outside our property at all times.
Our first beagle came home with a rabbit and ate it apart from the head!!

Interesting to hear you hunt with a hawk, please put some photos on for us. How do you stop the hawk from just killing the bunny?
There are a few hunters on this site, so hope they write soon. Any questions you have about beagles feel free to ask.

 

[Murphys Dad]

While I lean toward the companion side of beagles I realize that all beagle love to hunt so we (My beagle and I) do it on lead which won't work with falconing.

I hate to say it but are you sure your Red Tail won't consider Ziva as prey? A western jackrabbit (really a hare) is about the size of a beagle and our Red Tails take em all the time. Our kit foxes (Slightly larger than a beagle) while they are mostly nocturnal fear our Great Horned Owls. Just a serious thought? When my beagle and I are around eagles or even goshawks I am most vigilent.

In order for a beagle to flush a rabbit he will need to be off-lead, Rabbits tend to run to their warrens but hares just run and if distracted by a baying beagle, they would be very tempting targets for a red tail.

Once in hunt mode a beagle can pursue over great distances with the risk of encountering larger predators and other troublesome critters. There is some safety in numbers and beagles that hunt off-lead usually do so in a pack and I would think at least a pair for flushing would be perferable.

There are a few on the board that let their beags hunt off-lead but most of our beagles are pampered patio pooches. The last thing I want to do is discourage you from participating in this forum, I really would love to follow Ziva's training and how successful Abby and Ziva become. I do think that there are oher forums where you could get better insight into training techniques,

As much as I love em, beagles they are breed to run prey (initially rabbits) to the ground (corner them) where the human following teh would finally arrive and dispatch the prey. I am not sure how a Ziva would take having the object of her pursuit swooped from above but I bet she would follow Abby back to you! I bet after working together Ziva would consider Abby part of her hunting pack.

 

[kenbro77]

I will continue to stay on this forum as there is still a wealth of knowledge here. As far as Abby getting Ziva that would be possible if it were not done right. The dog and hawk will be around each other a lot. I am not the first to do this. Flying hawks over dogs are done a lot. Most us rat Terriers. As far as using multiple dogs I will in the future. here are a couple of pics. You will notice the hood on the hawk because she is not accustomed to ziva. Also ziva is not tied to the perch it is just looped to keep her in the shot.

Click to see the pics:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a88/KennethBreaux/ziva005.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a88/KennethBreaux/zivaandabby016.jpg

Edit: Images exceeded 650 limit - see links

 

[Murphys Dad]

Ziva is adorable and Abby is beautiful. I've had several red tails and one immature bald eagle follow me whilst riding my motorcycle on two track roads in the middle of nowhere just hoping I'll distract a critter. The eagle (1974) actually stayed in the sun which was over my right shoulder and I didn't know it was an eagle till it swooped past me for a jackrabbit that was intently watching me. Mr. Jackrabbit jumped sideways just in the nick of time and the eagle couldn't correct his flight enough. As he banked back Mr Rabbit bailed under a big old cactus and either the eagle missed that manever or was concerned about me because he'd regained alititude and didn't continue pursuit. In 1974 we hadn't seen a bald eagle in Southern Nevada in over a decade (I attribute their return to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring) and while I knew what I saw, it took me two years to convince my friends at the Department of Wildlife I had really seen a bald eagle. They only winter for a short time, arriving about the second week of January and leaving in early March but Mr and Mrs Eagle were sighted two years later at a small lake about five miles from where I first saw one of them. Last year there were more than 60 of them wintering over. To which I say bless you and rest in peace Rachel Carson.

Have a friend that rehabilitats raptors and she has a Red Tail she takes to schools. She cautioned me not to stand behind her red tail and fortunately I heeded her advice. She always brings a large moving blanket for the floor as they seem to go without warning. I'm sure you know what I mean and I sure hope Ziva learns to stay out of the line of fire /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

Is abby as curious as the Red tails in the wild? I've watched a Red Tail float almost stationary on a thermal for like 5 minutes at the top of a hill 8/10 feet from me and my motorcycle just trying to figure out what the heck I was /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

Ziva is young enough she will bond with Abby, I sure hope Abby comes to accept Ziva as well.

 

[Murphys Dad]

Welcome to Beagle World. :wave: My beagle, Li'l Girl, is strictly a companion dog. Her only hunting is chasing after squirrels in our woods. We live in NW Georgia on wooded acreage and have a family of red-tailed hawks who return every year to nest. My husband says he believes the baby(ies?) are hatched now. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cool.gif Much to our dismay, just about the time they start peeking over the edge of the nest, the trees fully leaf and we can't see them. Maybe that's what nature intends.

 

[angelaH]

Beautiful photos! Ziva looks very happy! I like the way she is holding her own leash!
Abby is a fine bird. How do you stop her reducing the rabbit to fluff?

 

[Billm715]

Welcome to Beagle World Kenny. I am a hunter and take a month off every year for deer season. I however do not hunt with my Beagle Lyle for rabbits or hare, which is what we have around here. He came from a large hunting kennel but refused to hunt. Lyle is also a bit gun shy. He is "in training" though for locating moose and deer sheds.

 

[missmollygirl]

Hi Ken, welcome to the forum. You won't find many rabbit hunting beagles on this board, but mine is. She is 4 years old and her name is Molly. As far as training goes, we used the approach of enhancing her instincts. We were lucky enough to get her from a breeder who also runs trials and "starts" beagles on hunting. When she was 6 months old, we took her back to the breeder for 4 weeks so she could run and sharpen her instincts. He has a 1 acre fenced in starting pen. She at first would run with her mother so she had an example to follow. Then after awhile, she would go off on her own and find her own bunnies. After that, she would not pack up. To this day, she still won't. I don't think there is an actual training they go through as a lab would for duck hunting. We rely on total instinct. Also, another thing you would have to work on is recall and that's the toughest one. You have to come up with something that will catch their attention. Sometimes it works and sometimes you are up to your waist in cattails trying to get them back.

My other concern, as I believe someone expressing above, is if your hawk might see your dog as prey, especially now being that Ziva is so small. But, I'm sure you have thought that one out.

Again, welcome and thanks for posting pics of two beautiful animals.

 

[BeagleBob]

Welcome to BW Kenneth!!

I am intriqued by the ida of hunting with the hawk over a Beagle. Never heard of it that I can remember. We used to hunt wabbits with Beags a lot. My father had quite a trio at one time. VERY good rabbit dogs. I have never been around the training part though. My dad has a friend in Nashvlle TN that still hunts quite a bit. Thats where we got our first two. Now, ours are strictly companion dogs.

Both your pup and hawk are marvelous looking animals. Good luck with the training!

Keep us informed on how its going...and of course-post more pics as Ziva grows.

 

[LuckyBeagle]

That is definitely something unique to me. I have never seen a beagle and a hawk so close. That is very interesting. I cannot wait to hear all your tales. WELCOME! /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif