Training Derbies
By Ralph Gillum, BraceBeagling Columnist
July 16, 2003






Now that you have bred and raised that good litter and culled out any pups with physical defects, you are ready to start and train your pups. Dog training is like the old psychology question of nature vs nurture or breeding vs. training. Actually, you can never know just how much your training methods influenced your pup’s basic heredity. I like the school of thought that says heredity sets the limits as to how and how well your pup will run and that the better the training the closer to these limits your pup will achieve.

Most brace beaglers do not like to start pups with older dogs, thinking they may pick up bad habits trying to keep up with the more experienced dog. Instead, they prefer to start their pups in small starting pens with littermates or other unstarted pups. This often is on tame rabbits as they are easier to obtain and leave a stronger scent for the pups. Most beaglers like to take the pups out of the starting pen as soon as they are opening up and transfere them to cottontail. I find that two or more pups are easier to get transferred than one as they seem to give each other more confidence in adjusting to the new ground.

After it is started, you will want to solo your pup a few times so it gets the idea of how to progress a line. If it falls off the line, try putting it on a short jumping rabbit or even on a tame rabbit for a few sessions. A light tap with your tally ho stick will help direct it back if it continues to fall off the line. Usually experience will teach the pup that the line is straight ahead most of the time.

Some beaglers like to solo pups for much of the early training; however, I prefer to brace the pup occasionally so it doesn’t forget what it is like to run the covered line. If you have a second pup of about the same ability, you can brace them. If you don’t have a second pup, you can use an older dog. With the older dog, you will want to not let it do all the front and check work. This can be handled by not letting the older dog get too far ahead and by pulling it off the line occasionally and making it run behind the pup. You can keep the older dog on a long lead to make sure it runs where you want it to run. As the training advances, you can pull the training dog off the line and let the pup work on through. Pups do need to learn how to run a rabbit on their own but they are brace beagles and will also need to run and cooperate with a bracemate.

Young pups have short attention spans so their training sessions should not be for extended periods of time. Depending on the temperature and the pups age, fifteen to thirty minutes should be about right for a good training session. However, if the pup seems to loose its concentration before this or is just having a bad day, I would end the session. I think more damage is done by over running young pups than is likely to be gained by trying to run them through their problems. However, if the pup is improving during the training session, I will occasionally take it out later in the day for a second session. In my experience, the pup that improves during the training session and continues to improve in the second session will likely continue to improve with additional work. Conversely, if the pup starts out decent but continually breaks down during training, you could try shorter and less frequent training periods. However, it has been my experience that pups that break down during training will probably end up being culled from the breeding program.

One training session a week will keep your pup started but will not advance it much. Two sessions a week is a good routine for steady advancement. Some prefer to work their pups even harder, then put them up for a few days. Anytime a pup seems to not be benefiting from the training, especially if it is getting high or charged up, put it up immediately and let it calm down and think things over for a week or two.

As your pup advances, you will want to expose it to different running areas and to different bracemates. In preparing for its first derby trial, you should practice getting it off on a line from both the front and behind a bracemate. Also, you could take it to a local sanctioned trial just to kennel and walk it around some. This would be helpful in getting it used to the field trial atmosphere.

Your pup has been bred for many generations to run rabbits and will probably do so if you just expose it to game. However, in order to get the most from its potential, you must make sure the training continually enhances its ability to track a rabbit in a controlled, accurate manner both solo and braced. Different strains as well as each individual pup should be considered unique and could well respond to the same training situation differently. So, to accomplish your goal of maximizing your pups potential through training, you must continually keep evaluating your training methods for each pup and make adjustments as needed.