Starting pups, part 2

So, to review, it's spring and we've got a litter of pups.  Until they're weaned, it's basic health care.  After weaning, the "training" (which is mostly socialization) begins.

Several years ago the Virginia District of the MFHA had Rick Smith speak at our annual Master's meeting.  He is an excellent speaker, excellent teacher and incredibly knowledgeable about hunting dogs of all kinds.  He pointed out that if you know what you're looking at, you can watch a litter of pups and you can see which pups are leaders and which are followers.  If you can get those leaders trained, the rest will follow.  If you can't get those leaders trained, they become the trouble-makers.

At a minimum, the pups should be handled routinely.  At best they get an introduction to walking out -- that doesn't mean they get turned loose to wander around.  "Walking out" means they're following someone and being kept (more or less) in a group.  At this point in their lives the proper handling is really most important.  If you're too tough on them, they may be permanently discouraged or they may become extremely shy and skittish.  Some hounds have a shy personality to start with.  Proper handling at an early stage can help them.  Improper handling can ruin them.

At some point in this process the pups ought to learn to lead.  Again, every hunt is different.  Some will start with leading and some will start by tying the pups.  Here's an explanation of the latter from Gamble Hill Hounds' comments in Care During Breeding, Adolescence in The Foxhound Kennel Notebook (produced by the MFHA).

Our puppies are introduced to the "wall" for their first lesson in restraint.  They are collared and coupled to a ring set in the wall that will not give.  The puppy learns that to fight the wall, the restraint, is fruitless.  The huntsman is the one, the only one, to take the puppy off the wall so the puppy associates the huntsman with relief from a difficult situation.  We see the beneficial result of this training conditioning often . . . We had one hound that got caught in a snare trap and instead of fighting it and causing the trap to tighten and strangle her, she relented and was unharmed until she was released.

This is similar to the way some people train horses to tie.  It's probably best if there is some effort made to teach the animal to yield to pressure first, before tying, but young hounds will almost never hurt themselves if they're tied.  As an aside, I've seen a lot of hounds tied and very few ever got to the point where they wouldn't pull on a snare in a hunting situation.  Maybe I haven't seen one that was thoroughly conditioned.; maybe I've been around too many hard-headed Crossbred hounds, but even on a blank day most hounds are not willing to be left behind.

How much time is spent tying pups and then leading them is highly variable.  Some hunts will do no leading at all.  Some hunts will walk pups on lead regularly for months.  Whether it's important to a particular hunt depends somewhat on their territory.  If a hound gets separated on a chase and is likely to end up in a subdivision, having it broke to lead and to be handled by strangers is important.  If you're hunting rural territory you may prefer your hounds to be a bit more shy around strangers so that they don't get picked up.  As in everything, each hunt is different.

Once the pups can be tied or lead, they're ready to get coupled to another hound.  Again, there are various ways to do this.  If a separate space or kennel run is available, two pups may be coupled together and allowed to run around and figure it out.  This is done while the huntsman is on hand, probably doing various chores around the kennel so he can keep an eye on them.  For this exercise, many huntsmen have switched from standard couples (generally made of chain) to a bungee (aka bungie or shock) cord of some kind.  It's certainly kinder on the legs which will inevitably get tangled up and many people think the pups learn faster with this rig.

Finally (yeah, finally!  I know this is long -- sorry!), at this point the pups are ready to start being coupled to an older hound and going out with the pack for exercise.  More on that in the next post.

Starting pups, part 1

Let's start with Andrew Barclay's article, The Dog Days of Summer, in the Summer 2011 issue of Covertside.  (Probably I should just direct everyone to the article and just shut up.  But, no . . .)   Mr. Barclay is a renowned huntsman (retired) from Green Spring Valley currently serving as chief instructor for the MFHA's Professional Development Program.  (More on both the MFHA and that program eventually.)  He is also one of the few professional huntsmen who has done much writing on the subject.  His vast experience shows in his writings.

In most kennels the arrival of summer means that there must be puppies to break.  The term "puppy" in this case means the adolescent pups from the previous season.  They are actually about a year old, and will be starting their hunting careers in the fall.  The term "breaking," in this instance, refers to the process of teaching these young hounds to stay in the pack while walking out.  They need to be exposed to house dogs, cats, horses, and the other day-to-day distractions they will encounter in the field.  In kennels that have ample staff, some of this training can be done while on hound exercise during the season.  In most kennels, however, pack breaking must wait until spring when there is time to hand-walk each hound and get it used to walking on lead.

(That is certainly a clear and concise explanation.  The man not only know his stuff but he knows how to communicate it.)   His comments about kennels with "ample staff" go right to the heart of the matter.  I'm sure that perfectionists like Mr. Barclay cringe when they see the half-assed performance of many packs.  On the other hand, he strikes me as a practical man and the situation in most hunt clubs is driven by economics.  Where "ample staff" is not available, you make do with what you've got.  If your performance is sufficient (that is, if the pack and their performance are good enough), your members will be happy and your hunt will thrive (or at least survive).  If your hounds are not properly trained you'll have all kinds of trouble and your hunt club is doomed.  (Well, maybe not doomed but it sounds dramatic, doesn't it?)

So, dragging this back to the subject, usually pups are born in the spring.  They'll get some kind of handling over the summer.  Once they're weaned, that may mean that the staff plays with them regularly.  Some members may stop by and play with them.  (These are usually nearby local members who've been very involved with the hunt for a very long time.)  Most huntsmen are extremely selective (picky) about who messes with their hounds, including puppies.  At some hunts the puppies will be all but ignored.  Repeat after me:  Every hunt is different.

At this age the pups are learning all the time but no hunt kennel can take the time to really teach little pups much of anything.  And they really need to just be pups and be healthy and happy.  Getting them out and just walking back and forth will get them started following along.  That is a huge part of their education but you've got to have a safe place to do it.  Some pups will wander off to smell something exciting.  Some will see a bird and wander off momentarily.  If the kennels are near a road it's almost impossible to do this kind of walking.  Pups are easily distracted.  You need one person to lead and he's got to know what he's doing and get them all started off together. He's got to be able to keep their attention or more accurately to get their attention over and over as they get distracted.  One person following can quietly discourage the wanderers.  Too much noise from that person or too many people following will be too distracting -- the pups won't focus on the leader and they'll just mill around from one person to another.  So, it's not difficult but it's not simple.

And that's a good place to stop for now.  Mr. Barclay has more to say on this subject and you can be sure that I do, too.  If you have comments or questions or if something is not clear, please comment below or send email.

Couples

Image from Karen L Myers, KLMImages.com, used with permission.
[Well, there will be an image here soon!]

I've received a suggested topic with several related questions.  Unfortunately I feel compelled to start with some terminology before we get into the meat of the topic.  The suggestion went something like this.

Hound walking on horses . . .  what goes on?  how often?
Walking the young hounds on foot . . . where?  how often?  pups of what age?
When do the young ones graduate to mounted exercise with the pack?

All good questions.  The most important point to remember when reading any of these posts is that every hunt club is different.  Just engrave that somewhere and keep it in mind.  There are huge differences among individual hounds, packs of hounds, culture at each hunt, personality of the hunt staff.  There are a lot of factors involved and there are many ways of doing things that will be successful for someone.

It seems sensible to deal with couples first.  This is actually a term with two distinct (but related) meanings.  Margaret Cabell Self explains the one of these clearly and briefly in The Horseman's Almanac and Handbook.

Hounds are counted in couples.  This grew out of the custom of keeping hounds coupled together with short chains on swivels.  A hunting man would never speak of twenty-four hounds; he would say "twelve couple."  Thirteen hounds would be known as "six and a half couple."

The second meaning of the term may seem confusing to newbies but seldom causes any problems.  The device for keeping two hounds joined ("short chains on swivels") is also called couples.  You'll also hear it said that one hound is coupled to a second hound.  In the picture, you can see the couples connecting the two hounds.  These are nice, modern couples used at the Virginia Hound Show.  In the hunt field you'll see plenty of sturdy, old-fashioned couples that truly are made with a few links of chain.

So much for the basics.  That terminology is quite standard, almost universal.  Of course, when and where and how couples are used is highly variable.  Every huntsman has his own ideas on the subject.

So, that's one of the basic bits of terminology we all need to understand in order to move forward with this discussion. And those are the usual disclaimers.  I'm going to break off here and start the next installment in a separate post.