[deadon4]

Does anyone have a plan to train hounds to avoid porcupines. I have a Plott hound who is costing me money for vets way to often. When he tangles with a porky it is impossible to pull the quills with him. He is to strong and aggressive to handle. Last weekend 5 guys could not handle him so it cost me $ 161.50 for a vet that was the cheapest visit the most expensive one was $257.15 because they had to open his neck to get into the rear of his throat then 4 stitches in his neck, and he spent the night..

I have been thinking about picking a fresh road kill up and use the e-collar. Any suggestions.

The last 7 times running we tangled with Porkies 5 times. They are everywhere

 

[BRDOGS]

I was thinking of the same thing. Maybe trapping a live one and turning up the e-collar. I know it's not legal but maybe a necessary risk. Maybe a road kill would work too.

first day of grouse last year both my dogs got into one and it cost me a trip to the vet and $650.

 

[Sailor]

I have thought about this too, maybe one of the guys who does snake avoidance can do a similar type training with porkys. Can they be live trapped for a seminar and then released back at the same spots, for training purposes in the PGC's eyes.

 

[Sailor]

Kuvats,

Can this get cross posted in the parent forum I am sure those guys would want in for this training too?

 

[mtncurhunter]

One thing I have never liked about plotts is they never back off. Some folks like this in them, but in a scenario such as yours it is not good. I have talked to people that have used e-collars and roadkills with some success, but some dogs are unbreakable. It is too easy of a target for them and some dogs once they get hurt it just makes them madder. Good luck, I have been thru it before and I feel for ya.

 

[John-PA]

Let me know if someone finds a way to break them, my beagles seem to find every porky in the mountains when we go hare hunting. I've gotten to be quite good at removing quills over the past 10 years.

 

[deadon4]

If I could remove them it would not be so bad but this hound refuses to allow me to do that. The Vet gave him a sedative but that was not enough he had to put him completely out with general anesthesia. Any suggestions on how to immobilize him and his teeth?

I went to the kennel this evening to do my evening feeding and dogie dodo cleaning and found his face and side of his head swollen and puffy. The vet missed 3 quills I was able to pull one before he realized what I was doing I tried for the other two and was met with a mouth full of teeth.

I hope to catch him off guard tomorrow evening and pull another.

 

[John-PA]

I've got a coyote hunting video called Doggin Coyotes...the guy shows how he removes quills by using a 1" peice of PVC pipe in the dogs mouth, and ties the mouth closed with a shoelace, basically works like a muzzle. He puts the PVC across the dogs mouth all the way to the back of the mouth, thus stopping the dog from being able to close his mouth. Not sure how well it works, as the beagles aren't too hard to pull quills out of, I never had to use his method.

 

[mtncurhunter]

It took 3 guys to hold my cur still with a stick in her mouth while I pulled her quills. She is one of the gentlest dogs I know. After I pulled a couple she flipped. When a dog gets that aggressive I don't think there is much you can do.

On a real bad case it is not uncommon for a few quills to get overlooked. Usually they work themselves out but sometimes they cause more issues. A friend of mine lost his cur a year ago about a month after getting quilled real bad. Do your best to break them and hope they eventually realize it is not worth the aggrevation.

 

[deadon4]

Hunted the hounds today. Started at 3am, in 15 minuets they had a yote jumped and the chase was hot and on. We had 12 hounds out and by 6am we had 6 quilled up spent the next 2 hours pulling quills. Porcupines are everywhere, out of the last 8 weekends we got quilled 6 times anywhere from 2 dogs to 7. There has to be a solution.

 

[deadon4]

Are there others here than are experiencing more incidents with Porcupines?



I have been researching this online and many articles call for white vinegar to be used. Claims it softens the quills and they come out much easier. "Wives tale or truth" any opinions. At this point when I have a hound with quills every weekend we hunt I am ready to try anything.

My Vet said the one about cutting the quill to release pressure is a wives tail in fact it will make the quill more likely to fracture and break off. I plan to talk with my Vet this week and ask if he can give me a prescription for a sedative as I have been told on other hound forums many use Rompun and Ace to sedate the dog.

 

[Amos & Buster]

I run bluetick coonhounds and have gotten into porkys over a dozen times. Several times with my older dog and other times with some friends dogs. I try to work with my dogs when they are pups and physicaly over power them and hold them down untill they submit. I try to make them understand that I'm the boss and they must relax until I let them up. I do this with them often enough so that they know what the deal is. This may not work with every dog but has worked so far for me. I hold the dog down and have a friend pull the quills with his leatherman. I need to add a good set of tweezers to carry along because we had quills break off inside the roof of the dogs mouth that couldn't be pulled with the leatherman. The other method that worked was using a strong stick put into the back of the dogs mouth between the jaws (for dogs that were less than coopoerative). We had two guys to hold the dog (basically a headlock /choke hold)and the stick, while the third guy pulled quills. Maybe you could wrap the dogs jaws with several wraps of electrical tape to hold its jaws if you were by yourself. As for cutting the quills, every time our dogs got quilled the quills were already broken off short so I can't see where cutting them would have helped any. The worst cases for us usually occured when more than one dog had the porky bayed or pinned up in rocks or brush. I use the e-collar on my young dog now and use the tritronics trash breaker on full power. The last time we got into one I had my young dog on the lead and I cut her loose after we got all the other dogs tied up and quills removed. The porky was dead and the young dog was fired up. I had the porky moved out into the open and when the dog made a beline for it I lit her up just before she got on top of it. Not saying this is the best method but porkys just weren't that prevalent in our area and weren't an issue until i started hunting in Sullivan and Bradford counties with friends. Now we even have fippin porkies to deal with in the coal region.