When running hog dogs or blood trailing wounded game either one it is important that
your dogs be "trash" broken.
The last thing you want while on a ranch running hogs is for your Dogs to chase or bay
deer or cattle or exotics.
Most of the ranches we hunt have cattle. ALL of our Dogs have been trash broken.
You would think that if you raised a pup around live stock that they wouldn't feel the urge
to give chase or bark BUT when you are raising dogs that have a natural instinct to herd...
well it is a different story!
Then there is the whole question of how do you break them off of deer & exotics without
hurting their blood trailing.
Breaking them is fairly easy. We use an e-collar. Now I know not everyone is a fan BUT
it works and it works quick.
We place the collar on the dog long before they encounter live stock, then if they go for
something besides a hog...we zap them once. No warning, they do not associate the discomfort
with the handler but rather with the animal. You would be amazed at how fast they turn their attention
back to their job. In the case of the Lacy Dog we have found it really only takes one time.
After that they are not interested at all in chasing cows or deer or anything other than a hog.
We do this when they are younger, and that trip is for the sole purpose of trash breaking.
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