# Bunny Boom?



## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

Has anyone else noticed a very large bunny population this year? My dogs ran 6 rabbits in under 2 hours this morning. Dogs are too fast , they brought me two with nary a shot fired. A couple other times they were too close to the bunny for me to shoot. So how do you train them to run them but not catch them?

Sent from my SM-T290 using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


----------



## Fordguy (Dec 18, 2017)

ESOX said:


> Has anyone else noticed a very large bunny population this year? My dogs ran 6 rabbits in under 2 hours this morning. Dogs are too fast , they brought me two with nary a shot fired. A couple other times they were too close to the bunny for me to shoot. So how do you train them to run them but not catch them?
> 
> Sent from my SM-T290 using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


I have been seeing a few more rabbits than usual. Not a good sign for my fruit trees this winter, but that's a good question. My rabbit dog years ago was- believe it or not a jack russel/ husky/coyote mix. Not very big, but very fast with a lot of hunting drive. She would catch rabbits every year, and once in a while she'd be so close while running them that I couldn't shoot.


----------



## shotgun12 (Jul 19, 2005)

over here back 50 years ago. you could fire a shot and hit 6 rabbits but not any more, and come home with a car boot full of rabbits.


----------



## Thirty pointer (Jan 1, 2015)

Always too many around here but good deer habitat is good rabbit habitat


----------



## 6Speed (Mar 8, 2013)

ESOX said:


> Has anyone else noticed a very large bunny population this year? My dogs ran 6 rabbits in under 2 hours this morning. Dogs are too fast , they brought me two with nary a shot fired. A couple other times they were too close to the bunny for me to shoot. So how do you train them to run them but not catch them?
> 
> Sent from my SM-T290 using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


You figure out the answer to that last sentence let me know. Only old age slows em down as near as I can tell. 

With age comes wisdom..."why run and get worked up, let me just turn him in circle and Pappa dawg will shoot him".


----------



## trucker3573 (Aug 29, 2010)

WhT kind of dog do you have? I never had to worry about my beagle catching any of them...Lol. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

trucker3573 said:


> WhT kind of dog do you have? I never had to worry about my beagle catching any of them...Lol.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


A large Munsterlander and a big pointer/hound mix.


----------



## reddog1 (Jan 24, 2009)

ESOX said:


> Has anyone else noticed a very large bunny population this year? My dogs ran 6 rabbits in under 2 hours this morning. Dogs are too fast , they brought me two with nary a shot fired. A couple other times they were too close to the bunny for me to shoot. So how do you train them to run them but not catch them?
> 
> Sent from my SM-T290 using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


Run to catch is a desired trait as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't own a hound that didn't run a rabbit but not try to catch it. I ran Hare everyday for the last 8 days and there's nothing like 10 hounds in pursuit of a Hare with the intent to catch it . 
But that's just my opinion


----------



## wpmisport (Feb 9, 2010)

They look a little more like bird dogs that rabbit dogs but if they are use to hunting rabbits that works. I have head of someone taking a dog out to a field and tying a brick onto them with a harness until they slow down. Not sure I would try that one.
Lot more rabbits in the yard this year.


----------



## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

wpmisport said:


> They look a little more like bird dogs that rabbit dogs but if they are use to hunting rabbits that works. I have head of someone taking a dog out to a field and tying a brick onto them with a harness until they slow down. Not sure I would try that one.
> Lot more rabbits in the yard this year.


The Munsterlander points birds and treed squirrels. She runs bunnies. The other one sometimes points, sometimes flushes, but this is only her second year. If she picks up pointing birds from the Munsterlander, all will be good.


----------



## FREEPOP (Apr 11, 2002)

Had a bunch until I started getting a bunch of pics like this


----------



## Martin Looker (Jul 16, 2015)

Of all the rabbit dogs I have had only one was a slow runner and she would circle them all day long. My boys loved hunting with her


----------



## kisherfisher (Apr 6, 2008)

It is in the breeding . My beagles will run the rabbit till I kill it . Usually medium speed, but can step it up on good scenting conditions, In a 40 acre enclosure , 1 1/2 -2 hrs is common.


----------



## fisheater (Nov 14, 2010)

reddog1 said:


> Run to catch is a desired trait as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't own a hound that didn't run a rabbit but not try to catch it. I ran Hare everyday for the last 8 days and there's nothing like 10 hounds in pursuit of a Hare with the intent to catch it .
> But that's just my opinion


Reddog, that isn’t just your opinion. It is also what is written in the AKC beagle judging standards book. It’s been quite a few years since I read the book, so I don’t have the name right. However that book sure states what a beagle is supposed to do.
Love those Patch Hounds!


----------



## reddog1 (Jan 24, 2009)

fisheater said:


> Reddog, that isn’t just your opinion. It is also what is written in the AKC beagle judging standards book. It’s been quite a few years since I read the book, so I don’t have the name right. However that book sure states what a beagle is supposed to do.
> Love those Patch Hounds!


Thanks fisheater. I agree, if a beagle is chasing a rabbit regardless of breeding or speed, it should be running to catch. Back when I used a few of my Patch Hounds to chase coyotes, they still would run to catch and at times they did and it didn't end well for the coyote. I don't run coyotes anymore but I do love to run Hare. This year Hare camp was just myself and my good friend from Wisconsin who also has Patch Hounds. It was a week and a half of good running with the hounds putting at least 15 miles on the Garmin daily.


----------



## fisheater (Nov 14, 2010)

reddog1 said:


> Thanks fisheater. I agree, if a beagle is chasing a rabbit regardless of breeding or speed, it should be running to catch. Back when I used a few of my Patch Hounds to chase coyotes, they still would run to catch and at times they did and it didn't end well for the coyote. I don't run coyotes anymore but I do love to run Hare. This year Hare camp was just myself and my good friend from Wisconsin who also has Patch Hounds. It was a week and a half of good running with the hounds putting at least 15 miles on the Garmin daily.



I had a dog that was a stud to a patch female a guy from around Green Bay owned. She was Lesage breeding. I got a male pup from that breeding. As he was approaching 2 he was maturing into a nice hound. However that was 2009. I spent the next 3 years working on the road, and no more beagles.


----------



## reddog1 (Jan 24, 2009)

fisheater said:


> I had a dog that was a stud to a patch female a guy from around Green Bay owned. She was Lesage breeding. I got a male pup from that breeding. As he was approaching 2 he was maturing into a nice hound. However that was 2009. I spent the next 3 years working on the road, and no more beagles.


Do you recall the guys name in Wisconsin? Or the name of the female?


----------



## Whitetail_hunter (Mar 14, 2012)

Wont ever stop those dogs from catching rabbits. There legs are too long making them too fast to hunt. There is a reason a beagle has to have legs of a certain length to be registered. Never had my beagles catch any rabbits that were full size, the smaller ones were in trouble though.

Nice dogs by the way.


----------



## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Not really a good indicator but saw 2 snowshoe up in Alcona Co this summer where we haven't seen so much as a track in years.


----------



## Martin Looker (Jul 16, 2015)

Snowshoes seem to come and go. When I was a kid we had to drive to find them but we had lots of cotton tails. Then one winter right after deer season on the first good snow there were jack tracks all over in the swamp. About ten years later they were gone. I haven't seen one around here in probably thirty years.


----------

