Hello Louis, Thanks for writing.
Your question is “is a 6 month old pit to young to train and
what are some good training techniques for training a catch dog?” This
is a good question. First off, I want you to understand that there are a lot
better folks out there at training pits to catch than me, and know a heck of
a lot more about the breed than I do. With that said, all I can do is tell you
how I have done it over the years. Your first question is asking if a 6 month
old pit is to early to start. The answer is No. I have seen and know a number
of folks that have pits already in the woods catching with the big boys at 6
months. Do I do this? No. I have done it, but don’t any longer. The reason I
don’t is at 6 months, the dogs still have their baby teeth and they seem to
quickly pull out. After they are pulled out, the permanent teeth start to come
in and aren’t seated yet. Its been my experience with the ones over the years
that I started using to early that they had teeth problems or ended up having
no teeth at all to amount to anything pretty early in their life. I do believe
in starting a young dog on a small hog in a controlled environment at about
6 months just to check their interest. I usually wait till ones is over a year
old before I start hunting with them. Hope that makes sense on the teeth. I
also don’t want to start them as a pup to give them time to grow out of a pup
to a young dog. I don’t want him getting his courage taken away from him while
hes just a baby. Hope you get my meaning. In reguards to “HOW” to train one---there
are a lot better methods than mine I assure you. But what I do is try and find
someone who has a round or small bay pen. I bring the catch dog to the fence
and tie him on the outside. Then I bay the hog with some other dogs. The bull
dog should after a short bit, WANT TO GET IN THE PEN. I usually try and do this
on 2 or three different outings. Usually about the third outing or so, the pit
is so fired up and has fire in his eyes. At that time, I will lead him in the
pen on a leash. Lead him near a hog and turn him to the hog. If he doesn’t go,
or cant catch the hog, I start all over again or maybe put him back outside
to the pen to get even more fired up. I’ve found the next step very important.
If your dog does catch the hog, MAKE SURE HE CAUGHT WHERE YOU WANT HIM TO
CATCH. Most folks want a pit on the ear, some on the jaw. I want mine
on the ear. IF THE DOG DOESN’T CATCH THE EAR. I IMMEDIATELY BREAK HIM LOOSE
AND PUT HIM ON THE EAR. The dog must learn to catch where I want him
to catch. Most pits naturally catch the ear, but not all. I think for most
dog the ear is easier and more comfortable for them to catch. I also have the
dog place his body along side of the hog when hes caught. I don’t know weither
he learns that from this lesson or not. But I hope they do. If their body is
out front, I feel they get into a habit of pulling out front. When hunting and
catching hogs, this is where you get the dogs all cut up or gutted. I hope my
catch dogs catch by the ear, and have their bodies along side the hogs body
out away from the danger zone of the tusk. That’s basically how I do it. If
I don’t have access to a bay penned hog. I will leg or have someone leg a hog
up and put the pit on the ear. To get him started. Either way works pretty well
for me. I like the ear hold, other folks swear by the jaw hold. Some pits are
snout holders, but those don’t seem to last very long. My nephew has a retired
ole carver bred pit named Bull Gator. He was as awesome a catch dog as a man
could want. But he was a snout catcher. I cant remember how many times he got
his throat cut. But I know he retired him since there wasn’t much left but scar
tissue. He has used him for a stud dog since retirement and has sired some really
good catch dogs. And I would figure some of his pups would also be snout dogs,
but to my knowledge, none have been or were. Good luck with your dog. Theres
some really good web sites out there for people with catch dogs. You might try
and find some on the web and visit with some sure nuff bull dog people and get
Ideas of how they train. Best of luck and thanks for the question again, Jim