Puppy range?

[oklahoma hogger]

Hey guys just wondering how far you guys expect your young pups(5 to 8 mos) to range out?
Or does it matter when there that young?

[Circle C]

I don't have any "expectations" per se, but I do hope that they will hook up with a grown dog on the hunt and run with them. Preferably the grown dog that I want them to hunt like.

My opinion may not count though, as I don't really have a 5-8 month old in the woods. I am more inclined to start taking them along between 9-12 months.

If I was taking just a pup out, and they were hunting out at any distance investigating and attempting to work tracks then I would be pleased.

[scout1]

I agree, I get excited when my pups just head out with the strike dogs.  Once they get a bit more independent, then you can get an idea on their range.

[catchinpigs]

I don't have any "expectations" per se, but I do hope that they will hook up with a grown dog on the hunt and run with them. Preferably the grown dog that I want them to hunt like.

My opinion may not count though, as I don't really have a 5-8 month old in the woods. I am more inclined to start taking them along between 9-12 months.

If I was taking just a pup out, and they were hunting out at any distance investigating and attempting to work tracks then I would be pleased.

X2

[T-Bob Parker]

my new yellow pup routinely gets out to 5 or 600 yards in open terrain, but he's usually just chasing his own boogers so it don't mean squat, YET.

[Austin]

X2  I am just happy if they make it to the bay at first. The rest will come....hopefully.

[make-em-squeel]

I think alot depends on what terrain, night or day, mine look good on the garmin in the day in open cedars and grass but at night in the thicket...not so much. None the less pups are not consistant unless you have the exception! I agree with circle c and wait until 9-12 mo. My personal .02 is only bring one pup with the good dogs.

[maverick10]

i think its better to wait i have a 11mnt old cat pup and hes running with the strike dogs

[ktchemwcurs]

I have a yeller puppy out of Rockin P & my Nacho dog and he was 7 mons old and would leave the big dogs by his self on his own hog. A lot of it, IMO, depends on the genetics. When you find a match that throws puppies that you take them to the woods at 6 months and show them a hog for the first time and start baying and at 7 mons go find their own pigs, then you got a good combo. But always remember one thing, a puppy won't learn taking them hunting 1 time a week. We try to put our dogs(pups) in the woods at least two to three times a week. They won't learn in the kennel. Hope I don't affend anyone, this is just my opinion.
Rick

[Bryant]

What I look for in my really young pups is not so much range, but signs of independance.  I like a pup that's not afraid to get away from you and look around (with another dog is good, alone is even better).  I have a litter of 8 month old pups now that I've been hunting since they were about six months.  This is earlier than I've started pups in the past, but this is also a new cross and I was anxious.  My intent on starting these pups this early was not even so much to expose them to hogs, but to observe the hunting drive that I bred for.  I even purposely took them a couple times to some property where I knew there weren't hogs just to observe them and see if they would move out.  The entire litter had shown interest in a penned hog at nine weeks old, so I really didn't feel that would be an issue.  What I was more interested in was seeing a genetically driven, rangy hunting drive.

[hogslayer6]

i hunt my pups at the age of mention, all of them. what i like to see is a dog not nessecarily leave you behind (although if he does for the right reasons im not complaining) but to show signs of interest in whats going on. more importantly i want him to go to the bay or bark depending on if the old dog is open. im a firm believer that not all dogs are strike dogs some will just not ever put those pieces together but, a pup that will go to the bay will eventually pick it up and be a jam uo help dog. once he figures what a hog smells like in the woods and is acustom to the new sights and smells take him by his or her self in a spot you know will have hogs and let them do there thing cross your fingers and see what happens.

[Noah]

What I look for is a pup, as early as possible...., to show they ain't scared to trail one down.... I had Shiner and Chub out at 3.5 mnths working shoats.   Let 'em bay a 50#er for a bit, then cross hobbled the bugger and let him roll out into some swamp bottom at night... Let each dog do this by itself once the hog got a good 500yds out.  Shine trailed in and caught the shoat at around 1500yds out, Chub trailed in and came back after a few hundred yds....

Both today at 2yo are handy dogs, but the difference in hunt is still the same.  I look for those dogs that, at a young age, ain't afraid to go off by themself and get after one....  but there's always the dog that turns on later than sooner.... so who really knows