Melon Ranch Hounds

I get asked all the time what I do to make my puppies. The truth is, I don’t do much more than pay very close attention to my breeding program. The bottom line is, hound men need to be realistic when it comes to the dog they have. You can wish, hope, crave, desire, and want a dog to make it until doomsday and if it isn’t bred right, it won’t make it. The instinct, desire, and drive has to be built in or you’re setting yourself up for more trouble than anyone should endure. I have two methods that I use which are split between the day the puppies are weaned until they reach six months old and six months old to finished. Let’s start with the day they are weaned. I have a big pen I put these puppies in. In my opinion I feel like a large area for them to move around in adds to their growth, maturity, and over-all health. For the first week they are in this pen I spend more time watching them then interacting with them. Over the years I’ve found that there will always be three personalities among the puppies. There will be at least one (maybe more) that spends time away from the group. These puppies show independence early and explore the new pen usually on the first day. It is important to pay attention to their body language because some puppies will stay away out of fear rather than confidence. The confident puppy will have his head slightly higher than his spine and his tail will be carried above his back. Once these two traits are noticed you can bet that this puppy is one of the alphas in the group. Secondly, There is always the middle of pack personalities which usually go explore but do so with others. They will argue with the other puppies but if things get physical they will give the power up. Lastly, you will have the submissive puppies. These submissive puppies will avoid confrontation at all cost. Furthermore, these pups will carry themselves in an obvious submissive manner. These personalities do not in any way give insight into how they will turn out, but it gives insight into how we, their owner, should handle them. Through trial and error and years of running hounds I’ve learned that handling all of the puppies the same way leads to not as many making the cut. After I’ve decided who is which personality I will begin going in the pen with them daily. One thing I cannot stand about a dog, is jumping on me. Sadly, the first thing a puppy wants to do is coming running up and jump on me. By knowing which dogs have which personality, I can deal with it based on their traits and accomplish two things. First, I can get the point across very quickly that jumping on me is a bad idea. Secondly, I can accomplish that without causing unrealistic fear in the puppies. When I walk in the pen they come running. The dominant puppy makes his move and before his front feet touch my jeans he gets a thump in the nose and a simultaneous “NO”. That typically doesn’t work the first time so when he comes back the thump moves to his throat and a little harder. Normally you’ll see a split second of surrender and when you see it, pet him. Repeat as needed and before long he’ll bounce right up to you and wait to be petted but not jump on you. On the other end of the spectrum is the submissive pups. If we start thumping on these young hounds we will cause fear rather than respect and likely cause enough of it to break their will. When these puppies come running up and make their move to jump I simply place the area between my thumb and finger in their chest and push them back while saying “NO”. Each time I have to repeat this step it gets just a little harder. If for some reason it takes more attempts than it should, I will push and keep pushing until the fall over. Once they are on their back I will hold them there for a few seconds while repeating “No”. As you may have guessed by now the middle personality puppies get something in between the dominant and submissive dogs. Typically by doing this twenty minutes into day for a couple days, the jumping is over and by the end of the first week it is over for good. Daily visits is all that is required from now until they are six months old. Full feed anytime they want it and clean fresh water. Let them grow and be puppies, they only get to do that once. On the day they reach six months old they move from the puppy pen into the pen with the hunting dogs. Based on my knowledge of personalities I can have a very good idea of who to put them in the pen with. If I have a puppy that is always fighting the others and acting like a bully, he will go in the pen with the most angry old male hound I have. The puppy will go in, start trying to play, and the old dog will warn him with a growl. Because this puppy is dominant he will not take that warning seriously and will push the matter. The old dog will growl and knock the puppy off of his feet and one of two things will happen; both of which you need to NOT intervene. The puppy will lie still and quiet, he may whimper as the old hound stands over him and snarls. This will end in a few seconds with boundaries firmly in place. Option two is the puppy fights back and gets his entire butt handed to him and maybe even a little bloody. The result is the same, the boundaries get set. You can’t put the submissive dog in with the cantankerous old males because they can’t handle the dominance. Submissive dogs can go with any hound but the old mean ones. The middle personalities can go with any hound but the mean ones. From now until they make it (or don’t) I simply take them hunting. The knowledge of these personalities comes to light again once the actual hunting has begun. Dominant dogs require more stern correction, the middle personalities a little less, and the submissive, the least of all. Let’s say for example that I have three puppies, each with their own aforementioned personalities. I’m not concerned with which one I start first, I am only concerned with starting one at a time. The puppy gets assigned a tracking collar and loaded in the truck with the rest of the hounds. When I arrive at where I am going to hunt and turn the hounds out, I turn this puppy out as well. At this point, I have zero expectations and he can choose to go down the road with the other hounds, run off, or stay right where he is. Whatever he chooses, I go hunting. I don’t spend a second calling him or whistling, I never want him to think that people talking means to stop what you’re doing and come here. I’d say 75% go down the road with the hounds, 20% stay put, and 5% run off. Up until now I have shown this puppy no caged animals, never dragged a hide, or anything like that. This bloodline was created with purpose, the puppy either has the instinct or it doesn’t. If he/she goes with the dogs down the road the next hurdle is to see if it’ll go with them on a trail. That’s usually a 50/50 type thing on the first trail. Usually I give them four cat races to decide to do it. If for some reason I think that they are just immature or the light hasn’t come on, I’ll give them more time. Once they go with the dogs trailing and running there are only two more hurdles to get over. First I determine of they are contributing to the race in some positive way. Do I hear them and if I do, are they barking because everyone else is barking or because they smell the cat. If I hear them barking simply because other dogs are barking, I correct it. If I notice them barking when they smell the cat, great, the second from the last hurdle is behind us. Lastly, for a hound to make my cut and join the all pro team he/she has to show me that they run to catch, they’re not afraid of a fight, and they quickly develop what I call cat sense. Cat sense is a term that means they understand how a cat behaves and where they need to be to catch it. The hounds that make the cut will quickly begin showing signs of these traits. Training a cat hound, for me, is as simple as the things mentioned above. At the end of the day I don’t necessarily train my hounds, I show them what I don’t want. For example, smelling and running anything but a cat is a bad idea. Barking out of place or without reason causes the dog uncomfortable problems. Not handling and forgetting in any way that I am the unquestionable leader of this pack causes problems. With the right bloodline consistent correction and consistent cat hunting/catching is all that it takes.