EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

Just wandering what ya'll think of pen dogs and hunting dogs? I know to me a dog that bays in a pen means absolutely nothing to me. I have saw all kinds of muts bay hogs in a pen but you would trip over them in the woods. I have saw dogs that would not even look at a hog in a pen and would find and bay hogs in the woods. I like to get young dogs started baying in a pen and that is about it. I know some folks that this is all they do is bay there dogs in a pen and they say they have hog dogs.
So I guess the question is do ya'll consider pen dogs to be hog dogs?

NO

I got a weiner dog and a chihuahua that will bay hair of a pig but they arent hog dogs. I would be willing to say alot more than you think  do both well,  but there are 2x that many that dont.


Disclaimer: THIS IS MY PERSONAL OPINION. NOT FACT, NOT SET IN STONE AND NOT MEANT TO HURT ANY FEELINGS. JUST MY VIEW ON THE SUBJECT.

In my book  Baying to catch and baying for points is 2 totally different things. If you have a dog around here that bays nose to nose you either eventually have a dead dog or I really dont think you will catch any big runners. Even if the hog stopped the dog just keeps pushing it and you will keep having the broken bays over and over.

The first time i ever put my catahoula gyp into a baypen she was about 2, put her in with about a 100 pound sow, she wouldnt even look at it then jumped the fence into the pen full of boar hogs.

putting a woods dog in a pen will ruin him if you do it much, and training them in a pen too much will have them not hunting in the woods in no time..

That was the first and last time i ever did it, i think the only way i would do it now is if i had a 5 acre pen to start puppies in.

A good sized pen thats several acres is good for young dogs cause they have to find them, a 60ft rount pen will make a short range dog quick ;D

no

I dont even have a pen i train my pups in a cow trailer ;D ;D ;D

Yea I take my pups to a bay pen just to let them know what I want them to do. Them they never see it again. We just leased a 150 acre pen to train pups I think this is a whole different situation though. They will have to get out and hunt to find a hog.

ya thats what i was meaning... I dont have a pen, i introduce them to a hog in a 28ft cow trailer... after that they hit the woods with the big dogs at around 5 mths, they learn the hard way, and without being pampered, I loose alot of good young dogs that way, but i wont work one in a small pen. If i had a 150 acre bay pen now that would be great... but i got a scrappy little boar hog about 125lb with a limb tied to one back leg and a 10 min head start instead ;D start them young, then back off for a few months and see which ones still have a burning desire and which ones lost interest... it makes the good ones want it that much more, and by 9 or 10 months they will be out finding hogs instead of barking at one in a corner of a pen ;)

I think that good dogs need to have pen experience too.

dogs that have the rust knocked off them in the summer instead of sitting on a chain from march to october will do better when the next season begins. just letting the dogs remember the smell of a big boar will keep it fresh on thier memory.

pen baying allows us to control the time frame our dogs are exposed to the heat. it also lets us control the hogs size we put a dog on.

in my opinion, it's a great way to train and give your dogs exercise when it's too hot to actually hunt.

sure, we can go bay a hog right now, but who's to say we're gonna have an easy bay with no problems.

it's not a good feeling when you can't stop a big boar and your dogs are fixin' to get into trouble with the hot morning sun. doesn't take long and it's 90 degrees. shoot, it's been 85 at 5am in the morning lately.

i can't speak for others, but my catch dog doesn't go in without a good vest on. 85 degrees with a dog vested and temps climbing is not a smart idea.

We each have our own opinions don't we!  :D

I dont know about that. Have you ever been in great shape like 12 minute 2-mile shape then try and run a 3/4 of a mile in a intense/stessful sitiation. You feel like your heart is going to explode.

 stress and excitement does nothing for muscle. I really think it wears them down faster.

Look at MMA fighter Wanderlia Silva. He is know now for his conditioning as much as he is know for his bully attitude. He credits his great conditioning to his training. Which consist of fighting everyday. He doesnt just punch a bag but on a day to day basis the guys at The Chute Box Academy try and knock each other out. His and other team members  bodies have become far superior to there past selves because of the training. There reasoning is if you train with the adreneline you body goes into this whole other relm of conditioning. In other words practice how you play type of things.  It also teaches them not to allow for the dump.

In a pen the dogs are cutting and jumping around barking almost like a circuit type workout especially in some of these guys bigger pens. Where a pig will run at the dogs break around the pen bay up run at the dogs again. That will tire them out pretty quick.

another point is you dont see Marathon runners only running 100 meters to train or Sprinters running marathons. Maybe he is contditioning his dogs to do what suits him or his enviroment which from what I can see is alot of thick reeds and water.
Maybe you get into alot of runners and need the distance.

Dont get me wrong I think that you could do either one and be good with it, but unless you are a Cariologist and have done extensive studies on the subject I just dont understand how you can make such a matter of fact stamement.

 I was waiting for that arguement. And yes, I run a low 4 ,40 still at the age of 28.
     Tell you what. To save me from having to do alot of typeing. Take a pen dog and a woods dogs to the woods(or pen) and dump them out this afternoon. Tell me what dogs drop out first.

No, not all pen dogs are hog dogs, but some are.

I prefer to keep my dogs in shape in a 5-6 acre pen.  This make them use their nose, stretch their legs a bit.

I also run 110meter sprints with my dogs every other night.  We do this on concrete with exactly 60 sec of rest inbetween.  I do this on concrete for the dogs pads.  And wouldn't you know it the only dog I can't run sprints with because he is too wild is the only dog with pad problems.  I try to run between 10-15 a night. THIS REALLY HELPS ON RECOVERY TIME, FOR THE DOG AND YOU!!  I also try to run the dogs about another mile or so through a field afterwards.



Savoy I know your lanky a$$ cant sprint  ;D ;D ;D

That's an easy answer... the pen dog will drop out first.

The key to running dogs in this heat is conditioning... lots of running which can't be done in a bay pen. ;)

    I only run for money, it hurts too much. Bring it.

I can tell you for sure that my best woods dog is not a dog at all in a pen. She's pretty embarrassing in the pen - a little catchy and the wench doesn't bark much. Most people that have hunted behind her though will vouch that she's a pretty ok dog in the woods with a mouth you can hear for miles. So I guess it goes both ways that pen dogs don't always make good woods dogs, and woods dogs don't always make good pen dogs.

Cheers
M

It'll hurt worse when you laying that cash in my hand >:D >:D >:D

I wasnt saying that there is a wrong and a right way. I was just saying what you were trying to pass as be fact was nothing more than your opinion. You were comparing the way he prefers to exercise his dogs to yours and you said your way was far better as a blanket statement.

Its getting thick in here now. Some people may not understand how fast this is, but only 3 of the top 25 2009 NFL rookie prospects Runningbacks  Ran faster than a 4.45 at Pro day.

 I wasnt tring to come across like that. The way i do most things are the wrong way in fact. ;D


     anything under a 4.55  40 is lows 4 to me and prolly most other people.

 And to clear something up. Over 25 WR in the 2009 draft ran a 40 under 4.5.

  I dont like to put dogs in a pen to train or to "get into shape". If that whats works for you then great, more power to you.

yall sound like a bunch of old ladys jus go hunt 7 days a week an they will be in good shape

i would have to say that putting a puppy in a pen to introduce it to pigs but what a grown dog does in a pen has no bearing on what he will do in the woods. I dont think they learn a thing. best way to keep them in shape is to keep hunting them.