Message #542263

[Goose87]

I like for my pups to be around a year old before I start feeding them tracks heavy, by then they're old enough to keep up with older dogs and they know how to work a hog, now there's a lot of precursors that go into it, I don't just take them to the woods and bam they are striking hogs, I'm fortunate enough to be able to let my pups run loose, I always let mine start out baying cows on their own, once they bay cows good I'll put then in a small baypen, this is usually around 6-8 months, after that I'll put them on a chain, ill put then in the baypen once or twice a month until I'm hunting them,i'll haul them 5 or 6 times in the box when I go hunting but don't turn them loose, just getting them used to everything, if a race gets up and going and we're waiting on them to bay I'll usually take the pups out and leash them to the tailgate, just to familiarize them with everything, I have access to several small wooded pens whenever I need them, once they are doing good in there I'll start casting them with two older dogs or dumping them into hot races, with these particular dogs I have all this usually culminates around 10-14 months old and they are well on their way to be making hog dogs, if for some reason they don't cast out if they come back to me I tie them up to something so that they can't sit down or get comfortable at all and leave them for an hour or two, after a few sessions of that if they still don't cast, then I start considering if they are worth my time and effort. All of this is just my opinion, take it for what it's worth.