Short vs long range, Humor me

The way I breed and hunt my dogs is due to the type of terrain I hunt. Mostly large blocks of woods with not much in the way of accessibility. When I cast a dog out I expect them to work the whole block and them some without me going along. I don't walk...and I don't move my dogs around when they're hunting by way of ATV. Quite often they bay out of hearing range...the Garmin and being able to tell when they are stopped completely revolutionized the way I hunt. In cold sign if I cast them freely, I can expect a +/- mile loop and often times they won't check in at all. Just my preference.

Lots of folks who claim to want longer range hunting dogs haven't hunted with any....there are plenty of times they can be frustrating as heck when you're ready to go home. I often read people also assuming that just because a dog will go deep that he/she will miss hogs along the way. In my opinion, that's just a sorry dog. On the first couple hundred yards there should be no difference in the dogs...the big difference is when the other dogs turn and start moving back in the rangier dogs are still rolling out.

As far as the dogs themselves, 99% is genetic and 1% the way you hunt them. Nine times out of ten my dogs that will roll when they are adults will move out on their own the first time in the woods just the same. Perhaps some of the shorter range young ones would learn in time to hunt deeper, but they usually don't get that chance.