When I can take a dog hunting and he is leading the pack and when its time to go home and I can say well there were no hogs there today and say it with confedence and know in my heart we did not miss any then I know are you should k now that dog is for me. If you cant leave that place and say with out a doubt in your mind that you left no hogs on it then you should be feeling pretty dang good about your dogs.
I have several dogs like this one goes down the other takes over. I can take a set of dogs Horn , Blu, Penny and Bell and when we leave if there is no pork in the truck I can tell you there was no hogs there on that proptery. If there is hogs there we find it I have no doubts this is how I know when my dogs are finished and are my kind of dogs .
Horn goes down Bell takes over Blu goes down Horn takes over Bell goes down both Horn and Blu take over the Penny dog is almost there with them as far as finished goes and this little young Ranger dog I have is only 14 months are so and by the end of this year he is gonna be real real close he is the out hunting'est dog I ever seen for his age and only been in the woods five six times foound two by hiself and dont need nobody with him he goes . I would bet the farm he has it I can just tell.
The main thing I look for the first few times out with a young dog is will he get out on his on , how far will he go by himself , how far will he go with the pack . If my dogs show me this the first few times in the woods the rest is there and then it is just the matter of time and hunted to bring the rest out , feed these dogs hogs when they are young they will crap hogs when they are older !.
Great post!