Early Starters vs Late Bloomers

I don't dictate anything to my young dogs , I let them tell me . I take them expose them to hogs early on and watch them study them and then when I think they are old nuff I put them with a very good dog that will find hogs. I don't call them early starters I call them dogs that want to, there are dogs that do and dogs that don't and the ones that do now they are fun to watch but it has been my experience and this tells the tale most the time and that is a lot of times they will hit a peak in there learning ability at the ages of 18 months to 30 months were they will just seem to stand still no better no worse this is the breaking point to see what you are going to have and it is this learning peak that tells me weather are not these dogs are going on to be great dogs are not, most the time you will know by 30 months maybe a little longer at the dogs that cannot get over this peak and they are the ones that will be just good old hog dogs never progress any more and this is probably what you see so much for sale on these boards so much
but the ones that do get over this learning peak at this time are the ones that usually goes on to make great hog dogs and can keep learning the rest of their lives some dogs can some dogs cant and that is the difference.

With the amount of hog exposure that I give my young dogs to hogs if they show no interest I send them down the road call it culling are call it smart . Have I made mistakes by doing this am sure I have but atlesst I got some dogs with learning curves that are just good ole hog dogs and not culls !

Sometimes I might keep a dog two years just to see others I aint got a gut feeling about I might send them on down the road at a year old you just never know. There is just a ton of different situtations.