>>618884Well, I moved from the city to the woods a few years ago, when we moved we had about 4 squirrels in our yard that would fuck with our bird feeder, the dog would be out on the front porch freaking the fuck out every time one was eating from the feeder so I would yell squirrel! everytime he was barking at them, eventually I started doing it out in the yard when they were on the ground and he would perk up, and start chasing them and standing at the bottom of trees, I started reinforcing this behavior and doing it when I took him out for walks in the woods, he learned it really fast within 2-3 weeks.
For rabbits I had a buddy who used his dog to hunt, so eventually I brought my dog along when I joined him on his hunts, he pretty much learned by example; following the dog and being rewarded to do so, this took a few outings to reinforce and eventually by the next season he was able to do it without the other dog. He isn't as proficient as he was with squirrels, but he really started doing well this year. The cat thing was something we did with him when he was a puppy, him and the cat were pretty much inseparable. It's cool walking with him in the woods though he goes ape shit over small animals and sometimes starts tracking them without me even giving him a command.
He makes an amazing guard dog too, the breed is considered Group 2 in FCI classification, being in the same guard class as the Boxer, Doberman, Mastiff, Rottweiler, and Great Dane, which is hilarious because of his size, but his ability to alert and assert himself is strong. the dog was originally bred to hunt vermin, which is extremely easy to reinforce in training. They go absolutely ape shit for small animals and are fearless when tracking quarry bigger than they are.
It's pretty easy to train the dog to chase anything small, the hard part is training them to stop the pursuit. I'll make a few videos sometime and post them here, you can find videos of it happening though.
