Bryant, I agree in theory and often wish I had the time/room/funds to keep a whole litter and raise them. But life gets in the way sometimes. I rarely even see my dogs in the daytime, due to work, and its too expensive to keep a whole litter if you don't have the time to mess with them and observe them. I have (2) 15 month old Monkey daughters that have never really been hunted . I took one to a lease once and one to a permit hunt once but never got them on a hog. I bet I haven't even shown them a hog but 2-3 times in their life. And thats just two of them. If there were 10 pups in that litter and if I had kept all 10, thats a lot of feed for dogs that I don't have time to mess with.
When I lived on the ranch it was a different story. But now that I work "in town" and drive 50 miles round trip every day, it limits the amount of time I have to spend with the dogs. I am just being realistic about the whole thing (the pic above aside....
).
So I keep 1-2 pups a litter and hope for the best. Of course, littermates to these two pups are doing a whole lot more in the woods. They just need opportunity and exposure, that mine haven't gotten. Plus, my hunting spots are from 1 hour away to 3 hours away. With fuel almost $4/gallon you can't just run there to mess with a pup one afternoon for a few minutes.........
Anyway, just made the post to see what was out there and see what type of responses I got. I like my Fla dogs or I wouldn't have kept them 30 years, but always looking and wondering what else may be out there. At times I wish for a little more range and bottom and at times that would get me in trouble too.
But I have a secret weapon in the making.....ask the guys that have been to my house, its about to become the age of the Weader dog!!
