Squirrel Dogs

Any of you guys run squirrel dogs? I got a young Treeing Feist pup a couple months back. Plenty of experience with coonhounds, but not much experience with squirrel dogs.

This pup I have seems really smart. He goes crazy over a caged squirrel, and seems really gamey. It was a breeze house breaking him. Can't wait to put him in the woods this fall.

Why wait? give him some woods and weed time to get the butterfly chasing/gopher digging out of the way.

I have a little fiest/mnt cur. Just came natural to him, he could stick a tree and tree better but he gets the job done. However with the fiest in him when the squirrel timbers out he goes nuts.... It's a lot of fun

Some of the best squirrel dog men in the country here.. https://www.sqdog.com/

Used to use a yellow English dog

I've been thinking about getting one. Sounds like a lot of fun to me

got a mountain feist last year. He was just getting good when the season ended. Now he is all about treeing bushy tails. He still aint stickin a tree well enough to suit me, but I have got him real close.

Only thing about him I don't like is he is a coward. LOL A squirrel up a tree or any critter in a cage and he is ferocious. Open the cage or knock a squirrel out and he aint gettin to close at all. I think I have the only chicken poop feist ever. lol

Got a Mountain Curr squirrel or coon either one she is on em.

Most Feists are naturals. All you really need to do is take them to the woods. Give lots of encouragement when they do good and don’t be too heavy handed when correcting them. One thing you want to watch out for when getting them started is to make sure they show you the squirrel before you shoot it out. If you start shooting squirrels out without them settling on the tree they will start watching you look up at trees and start treeing where you are looking. It’s very tempting to shoot squirrels you spot but the dog hasn’t treed. You can get away with that on seasoned dogs but not on young dogs.

Mine also!

I could see that being a problem with a young Feist. Mine is very alert and really seems to really use his eyes and ears when he is out exploring. Definitely different than hounds.

This!!! One million times over. I’ve had several, have a good one now and am waiting on a pup when the guy calls me that the litter is born. Love those dogs.

Check out a west siberian laika. Great for squirrels and just about anything else.

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See if this works but this is my little duke, not a real hard tree dog get a few barks never strays to far so you can't get to him, always looking up to watch the squirrel to bail out

Yes differnt then hounds almost bugs me!! However I got use to it, mine is coming around to using his nose however I know he has missed squirrels in trees because he uses his ears and eyes more. Like stated before get him. In the woods and start popping out squirrels when he does tree

That’s just how these dogs are. Especially when they’re younger. I’ve had feists that didn’t trust their nose until they were 4-5 y/o. Still very good dogs but just didn’t trust all their senses. Others have been so strong in the nose they’d have given a good hound a run for his money. Regardless the hunting style, I’d rather have one of these dogs around vs another hound. Their size is less intimidating for my wife and girls and they’ll flat tree some squirrels.

I grew up with coon hounds and running hounds. It would aggregate me seeing squirrels put up and he can smell them but wouldn't tree because he didn't see them move. No trust in his nose. That is it no trust. However he is 2 now and that is getting better.last squirrel he treed we weren't hunting as I was doing yard work, he treed i didn't go to him for a minute so he left to come check when I decided I better check it out to pet him up if need be.going to tree he met me half way and tracked the back to the tree. So it's coming around wish I had more time to get him out. He would be 10x better if he was out more but that's my fault. Fall time looks better with work and getting people trained.

I get off at 5 wife and kids are gone to the river, all this has me wanting to get out and go lol.