saltydog... I agree with you on selling the culls to hunters who do not care to breed dogs...when I bred mtn curs for almost 20 years my culls were pretty good hog dogs...but the cream rises to the top and when line breeding and inbreeding the line tends to purify pretty quick when selecting correctly...Breeding the right dogs is half of it and the other half is selecting the best pups for hunting and breeding...there can be compromising at the beginning...and there shouldn't be much or any compromising once you are in the second generation and for sure not in the third generation...I never really cared what color as long as it wasn't white or too much white trim...I did place high importance on nose, hunt, intelligence, conformation, stopping ability, sticking to the track and putting a hog on the other end of those tracks... and I placed a high importance in the ability to find a hog...and another thing...when someone asked me what type of dog I bred I didn't have to think about it because it was burned in my brain...don't get me wrong...I would spend months and months on trying to decide who I was going to breed and why...
the pups were on a point system as to their progression and this point system was a major contributor on my decision making...and it was very important to me to know at what age all this happened...because I wanted hog dogs that at a year of age were hunting with my best dogs...they didn't have to be finished just hunting hard and finding hogs...
it is near impossible in getting consistency even with line breeding because some of the dogs in the pedigree will not be related and like you mentioned earlier...there is quite a bit of variance within some of our hunting breeds...so some of these inconsistencies will tend to show up...but one must breed the pups that carry the traits that we are striving for...I will compromise a little on color and size but not on the other traits...
THE CREAM RISES TO THE TOP...
apparently your program is working for you... so keep on keeping on...
Welcome aboard...
Much wisdom, Reuben. Happy hunting, Sir.
