I've only been hunting for a little over a year, so I don't have a lot of experience to go on, but here is my best dog so far. Red was a stray last summer, still growing when he showed up so I figure he was about 8 or 10 months old. The neighbors corn fields were just ripening when he showed up and he bayed his first hog the first trip out in the corn and hasn't quit since. Almost every hog I have caught since he came along has been his doing. I've hunted with better dogs, but I don't own them. There have been few times that he didn't strike first. He hunts out to about 300 to 400 yd. but will wind or take a track and really get gone.
He winded this one from about 500 yd. where he was rooting up my pasture and bayed him in a pool. I got wet that night!
I jumped this one in the road ditch on my way home from a dry run about a quarter mile from my house.
The first time I showed him a hog.