Dear Pecos,
I surely appreciate you taking the time to write. STARTING PUPPIES.
I've written other articles about my suggestions on starting puppies
and how I have done it thru trial and error. I wish my computer
wouldn't have crashed back on April 26th from that Chernobyl Virus or I
would just send you copies of what I have written before.
Each and every hog hunter that has raised a young pup and trained him
to be a hog dog has his own way of training pups that works for
him/her. My way might not be the right way for you, but I have had good
luck with it. Its been a rocky road getting to that point, and I
still
try other things as time goes by. But so far its basically the same.
I'm a big believer in letting the puppies I raise run loose around they
yard for as long as possible. This shows them and gives them a sort of
learning experience for freedom to run. I know it can't always be done
due to the various places people leave, But I try to leave them in the
yard for a good while where they can go into the pasture, get a little
adventurous ect... Next, If you owned the momma (Annie) which
I know
Chris now owns I would suggest using her to help in the training, but I
know that's not the case. You just have one of the pups and need to get
going. My first question would be this. Have you ever trained a pup
before? If you have, and had good luck, go ahead and train him the
same way. If not, my suggestion would be for the pup to be about 5
months old. If you have him in a pen, put another pup or dog that works
good in the pen with him or at least next to him. What hopefully happens
is they become buddies. If you have access to a bay pen, have a
"not
bad" hog for them to work. young hogs that will run when you approach
them are pretty good to start with. Put your pups "buddy"
in the pen
to work, maybe even another one. I like to let my pup run around the
outside of the pen since mines only a 48 foot round pen. If the pup
wont stay, you might leash him up to the fence and let him watch
awhile. Some pups you don't have to go to all this trouble, they
will
just get the hang of it with the buddy system alone, others may take
awhile. Its been my experience that dogs of the various cur breeds seem
to start younger than hounds. That is not a hard and fast rule, but
some times it does happen. Your pups momma "Annie and all her litter
mates" started baying hogs when she was 3 or 4 months old with use of
the momma dog in training, and your pups sire started baying hogs about
the same age on the buddy system with a good yellow gyp I use to have.
After I get a pup interested, I don't practice them all the time.
Maybe once a week if that often. Then I put them up till they are close
to a year old before they hit the woods. I've said before.
In the
beginning, its all a game to the pups, the barking, and baying and even
catching. If you over do it the game gets old and boring. This is
why
some people have pups who start baying or even hunting like a ball of
fire and just quit or just are not the same when they get older.
I've
found if you over do it when they are pups, it becomes more of a job to
them than fun. Guess that's why they don't let us humans start to
work
in the factories for safety, stability, and common sense till we are
about 18 yrs old instead of 7 or 8. haha
Well, Hope this helps a bit. Good luck with your pup. If
there's
one word of advice I wish I could give to people raising pups to be
hunting dogs is to ask the Lord to grant you some patience. Guess that
goes hand in hand with our children also.
Good hunting,
Jim