When do you call it quits?

I’m patient. I’ll give a dog until 2 or so considering they really don’t see their prime until 5 or 6 anyways.

My question would be what does he do when the dogs are baying hard or catch out? Does he get excited and help, ignore them or run away scared?

Had a late starter that was similar, but I wouldn’t say he acted scared. Walk right into a bay, almost touch noses with the damn thing and just turn around a walk out like cool as can be. Not long after the flip switched and acted like he’d been doing it his whole life.

I start all mine in the woods. Pretty sure I had one get rolled recently. No visible signs, but considering what was going on was very probable. Set her back for a few hunts and got right back in the saddle. Maybe same has happened to him without you knowing.

Not right or wrong, I see things a little different. I enjoy the challenges and feel like if a dog has the heart and the willingness to work for me I’ll do what I can to bring it out of him. Kind of like coaching I guess.

19 months is still pretty young in my book. Nice looking dog and to me the thing you have going for you is that he hunts. Hard to teach that.