hey guys this may be nothing but thought i would ask. My pups are both approaching a yr old and both have started and my younger one has jumped several rabbits on his own and even circled one. I have never seen the older one actually jump a rabbit but he has been in on most of the chases and was running seperately once so i guess he has jumped at least one rabbit. Now that yall have a little background on my pups my question is. when i turn them lose it takes them a long time to settle down a start hunting. Example yesterday i took them to a friends house and turned them loose at around 6:30 and they didn't even quit playing until almost seven and then until about 7:15 they just kinda walked around in front of me and showed no intrest in hunting at all. then it was as if you had turned on a light bulb in there heads cause all of a sudden the just started putting their noses to the ground and really going through the brairs and brush piles. so is it normal for a pup nearly a yr old to take this long to start searching for a rabbit because in this heat i am scared to let them go more than 1hour and half but because it takes them so long to start hunting they are actually only really doing anything for about 45min instead of an hour plus.

dont put them down together then they cant play

pups==never let them get bored,never wear them out ,always pick them up wanting more,builds desire

thanks i'll give it a try

I second what Monte said.Run them both solo at seperate times until they can both flat out pound a rabbit by theirselfs.Then pack them back up.My 1 1/2 year old still plays like that every once in a while with my pup.When he starts that, I just give him a tone on the collar and it usually breaks his attention from playing and gets him back to bustin the brush.I know it gets frustrating sometimes but they will grow out of it.Good Luck keep us updated on their progress.

The solo thing is on the money. I bought a started dog. I tried him out for two weeks before I bought him, always with another dog. If I would have soloed him, I probably wouldn't have bought him. It took ALOT of solo time to get him staightened out. The guy I bought him from, never soloed him. He is not to bad now. But if there is a dog that is running with him and he thinks that dog knows a little bit more than him. He is glued to that dogs hind end. It really is frustrating. But the more I solo him the better he gets. Run him with other dogs, so he can get the pack mentality. But solo, solo, solo them every chance you get.


Paul

soloing my hounds sure seems to bring out good stuff in them.