Well, your dog could very well turn out a squirrel dog. Trytrapping a squirrel(if legal in your state) andsee if the doghasany interest. If so, hoist it ina tree and see if the dog still has interest. Mighteven drag a hide once or twice but don't overdue it. Then itis justwoods time,but I will offer this advice since you asked. You can teach a lot of dogs to bark up a tree at a squirrel, but drive is a different story. A well-bred treedog not only barks its head off under a tree, but it also goes looking, hard, for a squirrel in whatever country you turn it lose in, using ears, eyes, nose and brains. This is harder to come by than a dog that will bark at a squirrel or track one in the yard.

The big thing needed for a dog to squirrel hunt is brains. If you think about it, pinpointing the exact tree that a squirrel is in is quite a task. We have all seen the way a squirrel will bounce off trees, run around and follow an unpredictable path. A dog that can pinpoint the squirrel flat out has brains.Seems I've heard that a lot of dogs will slick tree (or lie about where the game is) nowadays because the desire to tree overpowers the dog's ability to track a squirrel or use it's brain and eyes and ears to locate the squirrel instead of just its nose. I know my male dog has brains because you can often catch him just looking up in trees in the yard or wherever. He did this naturally atyoung age, but all the more since he's figured out that squirrels climb trees. It takes a smart dog to realize that and actually look for one up in trees even when they can't smell one. My female pup has not had the chance to figure this out yet.

The curs and feists are a great place to start if you want a squirrel dog. A cur will also make a great coon dog and combo dog (coon and squirrel), and some fiests probably would, too. A hound may tree squirrels fine, but they have a lot of nose and people I know of have said they are stubborn. I don't think anybody would disagree and some people like that about them.A lot of mountain cur hunters were once hound hunters but found they liked the ease of handling that comes with a cur. Doesn't mean a hound is bad at all, but I don't want one for the reasons stated. I would rather be able to watch my dog. A cur or feist is all the nose and dog you need for Mr. Bushytail.

Good luck to you.