I know this has probably been discussed on numerous occasions .we had a lil debate on this matter this morn at the fire station .do y'all think range-hunt is bred in a dog or can be trained in ? I say long range dogs produce long range and short range produce short range .I think you can't take a family of line bred short range dogs and train them to be long range dogs .what are y'all OPINION on this matter please no arguing we all have our own opinions ! Thanks ,Mark
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I would have to agree with you for the most part, HOWEVER I do believe that if you were to take a pup out of a line of short ranged dogs and raise it up in a yard full of longer ranged dogs and played your cards right you could pull more range out of that pup, not so much by "training" it per say (i can't come up with any training scenarios in my head that would extend the range of a dog honestly) but more so by conditioning it with your dogs and raising it along side longer ranged pups so that it bonds with them from an early age and is more inclined to stay with them in the woods. you may get lucky and have a shorter ranged pup extend his range that way, I don't know if its right or wrong BUT if I were going to attempt it thats how I would go about it.
Another thing that I believe is imperitive to your success/failure when diving into something like this is that I think you should seriously look into the backgrounds of the parents to the shorter ranged pup, especially if the original breeders have been striving for shorter ranged dogs over generations............ I'll use a scenario I came upon a year or so ago to help better explain my ramblings....
Mr. Bennett, an active member of this site, got to be huntin buddies with a friend of mine named Josh while he was living up that way. Josh told me about Mr. Bennetts super rough yella dogs and got my attention due to the fact that I like a dog on the rougher side of the line. After talking to Josh and then Mr. Bennet I decided that while his currs were great at what they do they just wouldn't work for me, Josh and Mr. Bennett both told me that these dogs were pretty much all bite no bark and short ranged........... I was looking to add one to my pack and eventually over time if the dog worked out breed it into the dogs I keep........ Well the more I thought about it the easier it was to decide against tryin to get one, My dogs on average range 4-800yds but will leave out given the chance and will usually catch a smaller hog solo but they know when to back up, I would have been asking for a slaughter on the first bad hog we came across had I bought and raised one of his pups with mine and succeeded in extending that dogs range.
Just something to think about before you go trying to change things like range in a line of dogs that has been established over the years as a short ranged or long ranged dog..........odd's are there are reasons that those dogs are either long or short ranged and before you jump into a new one you need to be fully aware of those reasons.
I know I said "you" in there quite a few times, I don't mean you in particular, I mean anyone looking into trying these type things.
