New pup and dog Airedales, how to hunt them?

[Doggitter]

Caught napping in class I guess. I distinctly remember reading in my Coyote learning about a certain time of year when Coyotes are extra aggresive towards other Coyotes and, of interest to me, dogs. Seems it's just after the first of the year. I call when Coyote hunting, and figue to use the dogs as tolling/taking help.
As you people know I got a 3 year old Airedale and a pup two days apart a few weeks back. I'd like to take Rufus(3yr.) out and test him some this summer. That means he'll be fending for himself with the youngun just not big enough yet to do any good and on leash. Gameplan thoughts? Is it going to be too early to take Sage(pup) out this fall? These questions are really concerning the dogs safety, not abilities. I gotta admit, the horror stories worry me a bit. Several options for these two rambling through my noggin.

[Doggitter]

More thoughts..
" Is it going to be too early to take Sage(pup) out this fall? "
This is considering that the fall coyotes may be less aggressive..??
Just did some checking in the synopsis and found no mention of dogs and racoons. Racoons are listed as furbearers here so I'll have to dig out the rulebook for that now. I'd like to show Rufus a couple to see how his attitude gets lined up.

[Maverick]

Wolfer knows more about decoying coyotes with dogs than anyone I know. I think your main problem would be to get Rufus to suck them in, rather than running off chasing them. Coyotes are always territorial, but particularly so when mating or raising pups in late winter and early spring. I don't remember how big Rufus is, but a single western coyote should be no match, and he should be able to hold his own with a pair. There are at least some risks involved taking any dog hunting.

[Wolfer]

Loren,
I cant believe I missed this thread. I Know you have read what JH has to say on his board . the part with the tone collar is pretty much dead nuts it works well. Ok so ya dont have a tone collar your SOL, not really my first 2 Decoy dogs were both trained without tone collars. Recall is the most important command you can teach Both of your dogs cause if they wont recall youll have problems both in the feild and at home.

Ok the Long Line is what I used for along time 100ft of 1/4inch line this gives the dog freedom of movment while on stand but also keeps him under your control. Kill a couple coyotes over him using a LL he'll get the idea. the hardest part about using a LL is finding a place where he wont get tangled up all the time.

As for when can ya start taking your pup. you have rufus as a power dog start taking him NOW for short Jaunts. I have Known alot of guys that refuse to take a pup with them till at least a year old. The Key is to Let the dog get excited but Keep him safely back everydog is different on turnout time. But I have always been a believer in starting traing as early as possible. once the critter is dispatched let the pup get in and wool him.all this will speed up the time when he is ready to do it himself Icant say it enough when ever you are working your pup on game that can fight Back watch it closley if your pup shows any signs of fear what so ever pull him out if he gets caught by some Ivory and starts to shy Pull him out you can ruin a dog real fast .

Coyotes and Time .... usally febuary thru late June coyotes are extremely aggressive they are breeding and denning and become extremely territorial. This is the best time to start a decoy dog. early fall into winter and the coyotes become leary although in some areas they do stay in family groups and and a dog can be real beneficial. But for the most part a larger dog will do more harm than good.. this is the main reason I went from Mtn curs down to Jagd terriers is because the smaller size is less intimidating.

[Doggitter]

Thanks Pete. hey, Rufus is 3yr. old and last time we weighed him he was 60 lbs. and 25". He's a very agile dog far as I can tell. Looks light on his feet. We just spent 3 hours chasing a rat from under a brush pile and then he gave us the slip. Rufie was loving it with no sign of giving up even though his tongue is draggin dirt! I KNOW he would love some bigger game.

Hi Kyle, I was waiting patiently for you... :>)
You know, reading you lurcher type's posts gets me to thinking about sending them out to do some dispatch. But as I sat down here and started replying I remembered( I get sidetracked VERY easy) that my plan for the dogs before I had them was to use them as decoys in close. Just something to get the coyotes attention so they hold for the shot. I got to try this pretty much one weekend only before Hunter went away and it worked great. He helped with my first and second ever doubles, same day. And, my best take number that day too. So, if they want to do a bit of chasing/dispatch it'd be ok, but it's not the goal.
That said, I have a used training collar located and am wanting to get it pending value vs. a new/upgraded one. I do plan on having one on at least one of the dogs when I can.

I do have a couple places in mind I can use a line so for starters it'll work.

As far as getting them out right away the only problem there is the lack of chances I get to go. I may make a hunt once a month if I'm lucky. Hopefully I can bump that up a bit with the better reason to go now! I'll put Rufus on a LL and Sage on a shorty. Sage will probably do a lot of "calling" under those rules. :>(

My wondering about the denning/aggressive time of year is wether they will be more willing to fight the dogs to do harm than just chasing them off. Thoughts there, or is it even a factor?

Another thing to consider is that I may be able to prod Ken out of Redmond to bring his two 'Dales and join the fun. You listening Ken??

Loren.

[Wolfer]

Loren If you are close to a Den they Will stand and fight or try to push draw your dogs off. the closer to the den the harder they will Push

[Doggitter]

Gotcha Kyle. The places I know that are pretty open(for the long line) are open enough to see trouble coming anyway probably.

[Maverick]

Loren - Are you hunting west side or east side?

[Doggitter]

Definitely east. I have dabbled a bit here but crap it's a waist of time. You do any calling?

[Doggitter]

Took the Rufie east of the hills this weekend. Left late yesterday morning and made a gamble going into an area my brother and I came out of a couple months back. Bad gamble. Couldn't find the same route and got into a real rough, slow going, brushy 2track. Scraped the sides of the Jeep up but it looks like they'll polish out. Had one coyote answer me from a couple ridges away, that's the closest I got to a response. No other answers or shows. Saw some good looking country though. Rufus was loving it though. At every stand he'd just cruise the area and be draggin tongue by the time I was ready to head for the next one. All told he must have put in about 5000 miles of "hunting"! Last night after dark I go out of there and headed for my good area. The road in was spotted with Jack's, as usual. THAT got Rufus' attention. Geez was he a happy camper, hanging out the window, barking to beat hell, while I followed a good number of them when they decided to run the road. All the time his tail was going like hell. It was like his barking confused the rabbits so much they could only manage to run down the gravel road. I could have run over several as they would only go about 20mph. When one particularly confused wascal decided to stop in the ditch I almost went by trying to stop. It was too much for Rufie when the thing was right outside his window. I had the window open about the height of his chest and out the guy flew! Of course before he even hit the ground the rabbit was lost to the darkness and Rufus kept searching where he saw it go in the sage.
The disturbing part about this is I may have a tree-huggin Airedale. We were on the way back to the truck and I got a shot at a rabbit and crippled it bad as it was running off. I put Rufus on it and he wouldn't finish it off. I don't know what to think about it. Pretty depressing. A bit of redemption is that he was all hyped about the chase.
Hope my rambling is readable this time. Loren.

[hicntry]

Not knowing how to kill is no big deal Loren. They will learn if they have it in them. Wait till something like a cat bites him. That's when you will know.