Message #420783

[jagdtank]

I think it very important to hunt with dogs you like. If a dog irritates you I would get rid of it doesn't really matter why you dont like it.It's a very senseless frustrating cycle,trying to get the best dog in the country.I think the thing to do is start with the best genetics you can get your hands on.(no point in handicapping yourself by buying unproven lines)Or afford. Again it is not what dog hunting is about, to spend thousands on overpriced dogs. so get the best you can afford. Make sure you like the dogs you hunt. To me thats most important.Not them being the best dog out there just that we get the job done and work like a pack with me the alpha. I would love to have the best dogs but to much focus on that, Screws up the whole thing in my opinion.I enjoy hunting my dogs period.I don't live vicariously through me dogs. how much i payed for a dog neither adds nor subtracts from who i am.You get hogs with a 2500.00 dollar dog. Guess what? I get hogs with mine as well and I love every dog I hunt. they arent the best but we are a team and mostly learned to hunt hogs together.I enjoy hunting as much as anyone out there.If you don't like the dog it will never do what you want it to. If it had potential you likley wouldn't notice. Dogs have personality's the proper mixture of males and females can effect them. along with your attitude toward them or another dogs attitude toward them. I've noticed dogs not accepting a dog on a track. I had two dogs that always hunted together. I put another female in and it busted them up and she don't hunt as good now.dogs get peer pressured bullied and befriended by other pack members. I may not be articulating my point well but the point is If the dog don't fit you or your team it likley never will regardless of age or experience. It's senseless to spend a fortune on a dog never hunted unless you are buying it's genetics for breeding purposes. I have learned alot from the jagd terrier forum. they fight constantly but there is a reason you dont hear very many buying a jagd terrier that wont get out and hunt or is half hearted.they have been natural instinct tested as pups generation after generation.In europe they don't breed any that havent been certified to have all the genetic traits a jagd terrier is supposed to have. I'de like to get a bmc breeders club started that did  just that. It would in a few years clean up all this hit and miss stuff. It's taken to much work on the part of the dog men of the past to transform the grey wolf into modern working dogs to let it get screwed up by paper breeding for money.sorry I didn't mean to hijack your thread. If it where me and I was stuck with the dog. I wouldnt cull it yet. I would take the dog where i knew hogs were and let it find some pigs by itself no dogs around and make it easy.one on one no mistaking what you want it to do. My best dog was started that way and he hunts regardless of what dogs are around my feet. It just dont matter he knows what i expect of him and he does it no matter what.I think every potential strike dog should have some time hunting by itself. I know two different hog hunter that hunt nothing but other peoples culls and get the job done great! They watch their dogs and take time to bond with them and are real good handlers that take what they can get and develope it to its full potential instead of  trying to pay their way forward.