Dear Travis,
Thanks for writing. Your question is "What age should you
start
training your dog to catch?" and "What do I put him on first?"
Well, as I've said many times before, I don't claim to be a bull
dog man by any means, there's alot more folks out there that deal
with them more than I do. But heres what I do. Currently, I
have a
litter of bull dog pups on the ground, this is what I'm going to do
with the one I keep.
First, I will baby the tar out of him, keep him in pens with other
dogs, let him run around with the other dogs, let my friends pet and
mess with him, will get him leash broke, will haul him around in the
back of my pickup chained up to my dog chain, haul him with other
dogs here and there. I do allllll this to get him aclamized to me,
my dogs, and to minding and becoming a friendly dog. If he ever
growls or acts up in a agressive manner while I did all this, I will
spank his butt.
When he gets about 6-8 months old, I will take him to a bay pen and
let him watch me bay a few dogs from time to time. He should be
wanting to get a part of the hog as it comes near him. After I see
him showing interest, I will choose a hog that wont beat him up. I
will lead him in the pen, have someone move the hog, get as close as
I can, then turn him loose. If he doesn't catch on the ear, I will
immediately go over and take him off the leg, butt, or what ever he's
on and put him on the ear. I will take him loose and do this
another time or two till he gets it right hopefully.
When I find out he will catch. I will put him back up at my kennels,
continue the same methods of aclamizing him to people, dogs and
manners until his permanent teeth come in. This is usually at about
the age of 1 or so.
Usually at that time, i will have him use to a vest, and go back to
the pen or use him as a backup dog on a regular hunt till i find out
what he''s going to do, or how good he's going to get.
A pit will catch a hog at a real young age, but most of the time, if
you open the mouth of a pit that was started at 4-8 months old and
has been on a few hogs, you will find that his teeth are broke out.
Baby teeth don't have roots as you know. permanent teeth do.
A
person has to let the permanent teeth grown and grow big and strong.
Its a shame to have a great catch dog with no canine teeth to hold
on with. At that time, if that happens he's a "use to be a good
one"
dog.
Hope this helps.
Jim