Pen or Woods?

Its interesting to read other people's opinions on whether to use a pen to start pups or not. I used to never do that, but got a couple of young dogs wrecked right off the bat and it ruined a few of them. When you turn them loose with a grown dog in the woods, you can't choose the size hog he is going to get on. We got a buddy's 9 month old pup sired by my Monkey dog wrecked his first trip to the woods this winter. He was stapled in 4 places and cut & poked in several more. That was a 205 lb boar hog with a nasty attitude Monkey bayed 10 minutes out of the truck. The young dog had only seen smaller hogs in a pen that he could handle and was over-confident on this hog.
The past few years I have been starting young dogs either in a buddy's 5 acre pen or by hobbling a hog and turning it loose, then letting the young dog find it.
As my dogs are pretty rough a hobbled hog won't usually make them bay, they are going to catch it most of the time. On a less aggressive dog a hobbled hog works pretty good.
I just like the idea of being able to choose the size (and fight) of a hog that I put a young dog on the first few times.
After that, its Katy bar the door, as they are going to the woods!!!