Hello Gus,
Thanks for taking the time to write. You have a short
question,
but its asking for a huge response..haha I will try and shorten it
up a bit rather than writing a 4000 word response..... :-)
1. What is the best way to start a puppy to bay a hog and whats the
best age?
Answer: To be honest, I dont think there is a universal "best
way"
to start a puppy or age. The reason I say this is because so many
hunters dont have access to bay pens of their own and some hunters
have to search long and hard just to find one hog on their properties
they hunt. Also, some hunters might train their dogs totally
opposite than I do, and their dogs turn out just fine for their type
of hunting. I can only answer it as the way I like to do it.
Hope
you understand my meaning.
I like to start puppies to barking at a hog when they are a couple
of months old by using their momma. I usually leave my pups on
there mom until she kicks them off rather than exactly at the 6 weeks
mark. As long as their teeth arent hurting her, I just let them stay
on. What I do is while the pups are in the pen, I will take their
momma over to the bay pen which ideally for me is within seeing
distance of the pups. When the momma dog is taken to the pen, the
pups naturally come to the fence to see where their mommas going.
The momma dog starts barking at the fence and the puppies do also and
try their best to get out and go over and see what mommas barking at.
I do this a time or two, until I finally let the puppies come along
to watch. I have a 48' round pen with hog pannels and the wire
graduates up in the width of the gaps. The gaps are small enough
that the pups can see in but cant get in or stick their heads in.
At this point, the pups are simply following their momma naturally.
When I get to the pen, I put there momma in the pen to bay the hog.
Almost every time, the pups will start barking from the outside of
the pen as their momma is barking at the hog. Alot of the time,
they will be trying to reach in and get them a bit or pull on his
hair when hes against the fence. If some of the pups dont bark the
first time, its usually just a matter of time before they do start by
using this method.
I guess this is kinda cheating, but they have such a strong
materinal attachment to their momma that its only natural for them to
learn from her at this point.
2. How long should the puppie training go on and how often?
Answer: I will bay the puppies a day or so a week as mentioned
above
for quite sometime or until I feel they will do it on their own. A
good way to tell if they are old enough to not use the momma dog, is
to let the litter follow me over to the pen, and they will get to
where they run to the pen each time you want to go. When the pup
gets some size on it, say around 5 or 6 months, I will let them go
into the pen to bay on a hog that has alot of action, but will not
hurt them. Its so important that they dont get roughed up by the
hog, this is where alot of them will quit you, or get sat back.
What it is to them is a big game, and if you make the game no fun,
they will quit.
3. What should be done next to get them to hunt?
Answer: I am different than others in answering this question. Some
people are already hunting their pups at 6 months. I dont usually do
this, I have done this however. I dont like to put a pup in
the
woods till they are nearly a year old. Their bones, teeth, attitude,
and confidence are still growing. I want them to get alittle age on
them and especially their confidence.
In starting them in the woods, I will send or take them to a bay
numerious times before I ever let them try to hunt on their own.
They are learning to go to a barking dog, they hopefully are learning
to run quiet, and they are learning how to run thru the woods not
giving in thought to the distance, only hog hog hog at the sound of
the dogs. After that, I will turn one pup only loose with a grown
dog to go hunt. I dont want more than one puppie on the ground,
because I have found if you do, the puppies will run together rather
than a puppie running with a older dog. And I dont want puppies
training puppies. I want a good hunting dog training my puppies.
Hope this helps. Theres alot more I could have added, but didnt want
to be to long winded...haha
Good luck with your dogs,
Jim