how many dogs do u need/have the work for?

[Middleton]

I seen some old posts of people feeding 14 plus dogs on their yard an was woundering how manny u actually need? an how many pigs/days a week u need to get young dogs going? when i lived in texas with the land i had to hunt an the time i had to spare i was only catching 100 to 140 pigs a year, which averaged out to around 2 a week, i would usually only hunt twice a week. Only going that much an catching that manny pigs i didnt want too leave a pup/young dog behind anytime i went! an alot of the time had a friend going with me with a dog or two. so realisticly i belive 3 curs max an a catchdog to be fair to my dogs an to give them enough work to be handy. I know running bay dogs u can get away with having a few more on the ground at once but u prob wouldnt want more then 6? an 2 catchdogs? is their anyother ways u get your young dogs going? an what do u expect a dog to be doing in reliation with age?
Now since ive moved home to aus i am living an working on a big place with alot of pigs an not much to do with my spare time so i hunt alot, last year i caught 378 pigs with my dogs an that averages about 7 pigs a week an i usualy hunt 3 days a week sometimes more sometimes less. at the start of the year i had a 10 month old gyp an a old hard dog with no nose as back up to run an towards the end of the year i started runing a few pups. so that one young dog is now nearly 2 an been on most of those pigs an is now my lead dog an i would be confident in her holding her own most places i take her to hunt, Only now am i ok with leaving her behind on a hunt sometimes. I have 5 dogs i an hunting or about to start this winter an i feel that is the max i want with my situation since ill hunt no nore then 3 dogs at a time with the style of dog i am hunting (finding an holding dogs) an feel happy that they will get enough work to prove their keep. At the moment i expect my dogs to be able to do it themselves by a year an a half or they will not be hanging around my place. I dont walk hunt much, most of the work is done with the dogs finding off the ute or 4wheeler so that saves their legs alot plus prob 30% of the pigs i catch r sight work with the other 70% done at night off the dogs nose.
Anyways i was bored what i was getting at is in your opion how many dogs can u run an be happy u have put enough pigs/hours into to make good dogs an prove themselves? an what do u expect your young dogs to be doing in relation with age?

[Bowhunter1994]

Young dog in my opinion is started by 1 Heavy started at 1.5 years and finished by two.


Sonny

[TNT bmc hogdogs]

I try to hunt at least 2 or 3 times a week it is hard for us up here to get on a bunch of pigs we have so many deep canyons and such! I have a 2 yr old bmc male that out strikes my 6 yr old finished dog 99% of the time he is very much trash broke! He struck his first boar off the hood at 11 months old over my old finished dogs this pup has no quit in him he gets on a track he will either shut it down or u will have to go pick him up I run 2 bay dogs and 2 bulldogs sometimes I wish I had more on the nasty runners in the thick canyons!

[wildchild]

I just rotate my younge dogs in that way they all have an evenn amount of time in the woods i dnt really stress on how they hunt cuz they are younge and having to learn and every pup is different some will stay at your feet some like to range out but to me a dog isn't finish til it 3 or 4

[muleskinner]

I like to have two packs so that I can hunt till lunch and then have fresh dogs to hunt the rest of the day. If I travel somewhere I want two more packs so I have new dogs the next day. Then there is a slim chance that that one hog can shut one whole pack down for awhile. Been there and done that and the hog wasn't really even that big. Then there's my old dogs that are slowing down and I will never get rid of them because they did their part. Then there's puppies getting trained.  But that's just me and what I enjoy.

[justincorbell]

I stay at or near 12 dogs at my house pretty much year round. At any given time I have 4-5 grown dogs, 2-4 started dogs and 4 or so pups. I try to keep as many as I can out of each litter so that I can pick the best / my favorite over time and eventually whittle down to just the best out of each litter. its a constant revolving door. For instance, my smoke x bonnie pups (just turned 7mths) hit the ground last august, I kept all 4 until my accident, got rid of all but one due to my accident but had it not happened I would have kept all of them. Got all 3 males back after the wreck and picked my favorite...... gave the close 2nd runner up to a good buddy and the 3rd to a young guy right down the road from me. Fast forward to the 4 taz x lucy females I picked up a little while back, (just turned 5 mths of age) I kept 4 and have worked them on mock hunts and in the pen a 1/2 dozen times (enough times for me to see who the best is overall) I am keeping my pick out of the 4 and am passing the others along. I have 2 pups coming shortly and 2 more directly behind those as well as a whole litter on the way. I will continue to do what I have been and keep as many young dogs as I feel I can handle and work in order to pick the best of the best out of each group and whittle down the rest, some that I feel will make dogs will go to friends and the rest.......well I don't think I need to elaborate on the rest.

As far as answering your question directly, I don't NEED any of them, I work in a refinery for a living and do not require dogs to help me earn my living so I really don't NEED any but I feel like I can Successfully work 6-8 grown dogs, the kicker is that I am always trying to improve my dogs therefore I try to keep a revolving door rotation with pups, weeding out the weakest links and keeping the absolute best I can. Hope that makes sense lol.

[halfbreed]

  just depends on how much you hunt . like mule said some of us hunt till lunch and go get different dogs and hunt the evenings 7 days a week [ when I was at it hard ]  when I had only a hand full of finished dogs I met that hog that put me out of it for a couple months  lol  and if you hunt more than just them nasty ol hogs well ya gotta have dogs for that too , plus a few ol cow dogs and guard dogs for the roosters . and I could go on and on   lol

[Bo Pugh]

I think I got 21 head of dogs right now. 5 of them are puppy's about 3 months old and I got 4 more real young dogs that will be ready to start after turkey season and I hope all 4 make the cut I got 1 more young dog that's a niece to my best dog I'm not even going to hunt her I'm going to breed her back to her uncle later on after I see how these other pups turn out and I got 2 grown bulldogs and one 7 week old pup  And the rest are dogs I can take hunting now and catch hogs with whether I turn out 1 or all of them some are far better than others but none are culls to me or I would cull them. I really have to many but I'm really sitting pretty good now, I got several puppy's and young dogs that should make something to the style of dog I like. I always look at what I will have for the next year and try to keep enough dogs to hunt. But I'm still trying to get all mine a certain way it will probably take me 2 or so more years but I think after I get to that point I won't have quiet that many hopefully no more than 10 or so.

[Fixitlouie]

Right now I can't seen to have enuff "good" dogs..

fixitlouie via tapatalk via droid

[Shotgun wg]

I currently have 7. 1 cd 1rcd 4 bay 1 puppy. Today 2 bays and RCD are layed up. That leaves 1 bay 1 bay in heat 1 cd and a 4 month old pup. Saturday when the 3 got hurt I wished I had 20. Most days I figure I have plenty. If I hunt all day so do they. I usually hunt all day Saturday and Sunday. Or Friday and Saturday night. I don't have high numbers where I hunt so it's lots of hunting for 1 or 2 pigs. I don't figure I will ever have finished dogs at the rate I'm going. Lol


Shotgun
Arkansas

[HairyHolder]

Usually hunt three to four days a week 10-12 hours a night. A normal hunt starts before dark and ends around day light. I hunt two grown dogs or two pups and a grown dog to back the pups up but the grown dog usually stays in the box. I try never to have more than two dogs on a pig, and three is a cluster. We strive for dogs that catch their own pig out of a group and then run on for more. My dogs are finder/ holder type with zero bark. A normal week is 15 to 20 pigs and a bad week is 5-6.

[Middleton]

Good points made, i agree that a 2 year old dog is not going to be as good as that same dog in a couple years when they r 4 or 5 they have just been around the block an experinced more stuff while hunting, but by 2 i expect to be able to take them on their own an not have to worry if my dog can find an catch pigs. An i also agree that u cant have too manny good dogs cant ever say ive hear of anyone saying that they have that problem. It is hard not to get out of hand with dog numbers when u r looking to improve all the time. Its a good way to get numbers of dogs going if u swaped out halfway throw the day to new dogs but i like too see a hunting/working dog laying down an quite after work im a believer in a dog doing alot of miles an being tested, especially a young dog. Had on older man tell me the dogs u want r the ones that stand at the frount of the cage wagging their tail an wanting to go when they have had day after day of work or r hurting. Hairyholder i never hear of many people hunting that style of dogs when i was their, an i seen some pics of your plates they look good ,well made.   

[HairyHolder]

Thanks I learn from Australia's box trade hunters.

[hatchet10]

I run 8 RCD's. I have at least 2 every week get banged up. So, I normally run 6. Sometimes I wish I had more because hogs where I'm at squirt all over the place when you get on them. They all take different directions unless its a sow with pigs. A lot of times I'll have 2 dogs on 1 big hog and my other dogs on other hogs. They can't hold some of the bigger ones so they end up converging down on a single hog. I split them sometimes when I want to hunt longer like you other guys do. If I had the money, I get 40 bulldogs and run them through the brush killing everything in there path like a bunch of 4 legged piranhas.