Catch dog help needed.

One other thing I thought worth mentioning...

You can use your pen to really get him catching, but the other side of that is him knowing what the barking dogs off in the woods mean. When your sure he'll catch (and hold...very important!), and your confident enough to hit the woods with him for the first few bays you may have to take more time and be quiet slipping into seeing distance for him to see whats going down. Some dogs almost figure out a bay in the distance instinctively and will go, others need to be shown a few times.

This is all assuming he's showing you something you like in the pen, and your going to give him a shot solo. With an inexperienced catchdog, I would also always have a backup plan.

I haven't been hunting with catchdogs but for about a year and a half. Prior to that for many years I bayed and shot. I haven't personally messed with any young ones, but this is what I have seen first hand others do and it seemed to work well.