Early Starters vs Late Bloomers

We'd rather them start early vs late.. I understand it varies though some lines produce digs at a later age while some start with fireballs around 8 or 9 months.. It's hard to feed a 2 year old that's still trying to come into his own when you have 3 or 4 year old dogs that are as good or better. Luckily the line I get to hunt starts very early.

The best dog I've ever seen though was a slow developer! At a year old she didn't really care to bay hog but loved to hunt and was extremely fast. I told E to cull her one day! A couple weeks later her and some other pups ran a deer past the house and she was 200 yards in from of the other dogs, literally grabbing tail on the deer. He decided to keep her a while longer bc she was so fast. By age 3 she was big e's best dog, tragically she came up missing last year

I don't agree that the dogs that start so young 'burn out' as some ppl like to say. I believe it is more that ppl set too high of expectations when the dog is doing so well at a young age, that unless they turn into a super hog dog they don't live up to their above average start