I have an old half australian shepherd that I encouraged to start treeing squirrels when he was young. Eventually he got really good at it, even retreiving them for me. He has provided me with many memorable and wonderful days in the woods as well as the makings of a lot of delicious meals. Are there any other squirrel hunters on the forum and if there is what kind of dog do you use?

-- Don (hihilldon@yahoo.com), September 14, 2000

Answers

Well I guess It 's o.k. if the dog can do most of the work .I do have a question , how many #$@% squirels does it take to feed a family of 6 ?

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), September 15, 2000.

Our collie mix is so good at getting the squirrels that we haven't seen any in years- except for one stray one last year, but it didn't last long!

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), September 15, 2000.

I have sold a number of rat terrier puppies to people who planned to train them to be squirrel dogs, but we have never trained any to hunt ourselves. Rat terriers (feist) are the most popular squirrel dogs in this area (North East Texas).

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), September 15, 2000.

My father squirrel hunted with Norwegian Elkhounds.

-- Marci (ajourend@libby.org), September 15, 2000.

While I don't hunt squirrel, my son's dog is 1/2 feist, and I haven't seen a live squirrel in 18 months!

-- Eric in TN (ems@nac.net), September 15, 2000.

Don, I have waited for some other folks to respond to this post. As a child of 9-10years old, a bunch of us kids were swimming in our farm pond one day when a pitiful little dog cam SWIMMING out to us. Feet were battered and covered with tar. We knew all of the dogs in a 5 mile radius. We didn't know her. Sam ended up being a house dog where no house dogs were allowed. Come that fall, we learned what she could do. Loved to chase squirels!!! Dad would take us to the lake on the boat and Sam would be man overboard to chase a squirrel. It opened up a whole new world to me. Dad swears she was a feist cross. He should know, had pure feist for 20 years. We had Sam for 14 years and she wasn't a young dog when we "got" her. Now dad has a Jack Russel Terier that had been employed at The Grenbrier Hotel to flush rabbits for the Falconry Academy but he caught the rabbits. A good dog, but gets sidetracked to easily. We breed Basset Hounds and we live in the national forest. One of the bitches loves to run squirrels, the other thinks she is a bear dog. Both tree, squirrel or bear. A funny sight to look up the tree expecting a squirrel and finding a BEAR!!!!

-- Terri Perry (stuperry@stargate.net), September 15, 2000.

We have a 1/2 Jack Russell,1/2 German Shephard Mix(I know,that's sounds odd but it happens!)that is not only an excellent squirrel dog but a rabbit dog too.We don't hunt either but this dog is so good that our friends borrow him all the time to hunt with.

-- nobrabbit (conlane@prodigy.net), September 16, 2000.