pup question

Bob,

First off, welcome to the site! I'm pretty new to the site also but sure like it here!

Personally, I don't usually put a pup IN the pen until about 7-8 months. We actually have two pens at my partners place...one which we work young dogs in and the other that just holds hogs. The holding pen doesn't have metal around the bottom edge so what I like to do is let the pup run around and bark from outside the pen. Sometimes at first you might need another dog to bark and get the pup fired up and going but it usually doesn't take long. If the pup doesn't show interest sometimes you can catch the hog and mess with it to get it squealing. That will usually do the trick, and if still no interest wait a while and try again. Some take to it faster than others. In my experience if you'll work them a few times on the outside, when it comes time that they actually get to "play" inside the pen they are more fired up and ready to go.

Two things I have always believed in strongly when first starting a pup in a pen.
#1 - Keep it very short. Try to get the pup out before he looses interest and stops barking. A couple of minutes is plenty.
#2 - Start with a small hog. The worst thing you can do is get the pup hurt or roughed up enough that it looses its confidence.