EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

How many have yall started over from scratch since you started till you got it right as far as dogs u where looking for?

Ive started over completely once and almost completely another time.
 1st time i started over i ended up better than i left off.
I am still recovering the 2nd time around.

This one can get tricky cuz lot of guys sell or cull start over and never get what they want to many dogs to fast. Now if a man takes his time and slowly builds up a pac of dogs that are similar or diverse and puts the time and effort in to build some dogs he can be proud of there will be no need to start over. This ain't no Johnny come lately approach take dedication and time you will have ups and down but can be rewarding   


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We had to thin down and stop hunting for about 2 years bcuz life happened...finished school, bought a house with some land and planned a wedding.  Now that's finally over and life has slowed we are rebuilding our pack of dogs.  Gets frustrating but I believe this is a "pay your dues" type of sport.  Sure you can buy a couple random dogs and throw them together but to raise and build, basically manufacture a hog dog is far more rewarding in the long run and creates such a better handling pack of dogs.

Ive had to thin down on and off over the last few years. But when i started over the first time it was due to run of bad luck losing dogs years ago.

The second time having to start over was a bad run of losing all my gyps. Which significantly stalled my breeding program. Which led me to getting a few males collected for the future.

Ive never truely got out of hog hunting as its to hard to completely start over with a line of dogs. I will always keep my lines going no matter what.

I pretty much started over this year after loosing 6 good dogs over the past year and a half... 4 of them all in one month. It made me sick and I thought about hanging it up. But I had 3 line bred pups that are 4 generations into my breeding and a brood gyp I set aside just in case. A few good friends sent me some dogs also to help get these pups rolling... which I appreciate more than they know.

I've leaned way down in the past year... We all like to keep new blood coming in to keep our eyes open and bloodlines fresh... I like having different prospects to watch and compare to each other. Idk if I am ever going to just start fresh again like I did when I first started. There is almost no need when you have decent breeding prospects, IMO. Once you get some pups doing good and following the big dogs doing work it becomes a lot easier to have a litter each year and find the best of the best out of the litter... We are lucky and seem to always have pups to train, pups to leg up, and big dogs to run em behind. I like it like that, and it seems to be working out alright.

This will be my third time in 15 yrs, I've never been with out dogs but things have always happened to my "pack" I guess you could say, being killed off, dying with pups, unknown deaths you name it. This time around I'm about 3 1/2 to 4 yrs in and instead of putting together a pack I'm breeding some up off some line bred proven stock with a little bit of the blood from when first started. I have a few pups that are 4th generation stock that I started with blended with some stock I guess you can say I married into. What I've found is that it's getting to be no training involved, all that is required is exposure, the cream is rising to the top more and more in each litter I raise, I'm set on that's going to be my way of doing it. I've found it to be a lot easier and a lot less stressful when you start off with dogs that are bred for the game your after, with each litter I'm seeing improvements over the parents. Of course the dogs need guidance from other dogs, I'm not saying I'm raising dogs that are catching game from the first time their hunted but instead of having to train dogs im letting them train themselves along with learning from seasoned dogs. The ability to learn and the natural ability to do it are two of the key things I'm looking for in my pups if that makes any sense. Would love to hear others opinions.