Cast Hunting

I totally agree with BigO...a hunting dog is born...that is true but we can guide them to do better...more of or less of depending on how we want to mold/hunt our dogs...

to get a dog to range further spend more time in one spot and the dog will get wider because he wants game...after the first loop stay put and they will loop wider and the next loop...shorter range move when he comes through after the first loop...

colder tracks...wait on the dog to get it going or to give it up...even help him to try and work it out...

if you want the dog to run hotter tracks don't wait on the dog...he will learn to leave the colder tracks alone...A well bred dog that is a good representative of the strain/breed is a pleasure to work with...

I once had a yard full of dogs of this type...bred them myself but I started out with some good dogs...so the credit does not come to me...I just purified it a little more and raised the percentage of good pups produced...

OCONEE...I do not see you as being contradictive to me other than you are having a slight difference in our beliefs which is what makes the world go round and round and that is a good thing...I do offer solutions to me beliefs because that is how I have done it...you can go back to my original posts here and you will see that my training and breeding practices have never changed since day one...so it is fixed deep in my brain and it will take quite a bit to change what I believe...lol

but just a very simple example as to what I mean which I do not think you will disagree with...I call it training and conditioning and you probably see it as an expectation and does not qualify as training in your book....and I see it as an important detail and as training...and that is...socializing the pup...because if the pup does not receive the PROPER socialization then it will fear humans and that will be a big hindrance to you and your hunting dog...so that will not bring out the best from within your dog...

once upon a time as a youngster I trained to sit, stay, and heal as well as for other things...after a while I realized it was not that important to me...how I mostly train now does not look like training...I am a believer in efficiency...just doing the right things at the right time as often as possible and with good dogs it is very doable...we do agree on the fact that we can't train a dog that does not want to hunt to hunt...