find dog

[hogdoggintexas]

any tips on how to start a good find dog

[Flatbroke]

behind another good find dog.

[jml]

Hunt him aside a good find dog or send him to a trainer. I've sent 2 dogs to Mr. Mason and have been real happy the way they turned out especially my Bud dog. I took them to him because everybody I asked said to keep them in the woods as much as possible when you decide to start them and I had neither the time or a place to hunt close enough to the house to be able to go a couple times a week.

[Flatbroke]

jml,  thats a good option to have.  it takes alot of time to train a green dog

[duece24]

i'll vouch for mr.mason also..he started my sye dog. happy with where he was when i got him back, he is lagging behind now cause like jml stated earlier, my time is limited and i don't have any places to hunt.

put him next to a good find dog and he/she will learn all the tricks to the trade. the more exposure the better they get.

[Bryant]

I have also sent a couple of dogs down to Mr. Mason and thats money well spent.  The dogs I sent down were already started (and by saying that I mean baying, would honor a bay, and somewhat hunting) but I knew he could put more hogs in front of them in a months time that I probably could in six.  His opinion of your dog is valuable as well...he'll let you know if he thinks potential is there.

I have started all mine in a baypen, but not for long.  As soon as they bay hard, know the smell and get really worked up doing it, it's on to the woods and I'm done with the pen.

The guy I hunt with most of the time did things a little different.  A few years back when he was first getting started he did like most people and spent a lot of time and money going through some crappy dogs.  Finally he got fed up and got rid of everything he had, went to south Texas and bought five 8 week old litter mate pups from a guy with a history of good dogs.   He kept a hog in a pen close by there kennels and every evening when he went to feed, he would take a straw broom and rub it over the fence on the hog.  He then would go up and down the kennels letting the pups bite, smell and bark at the broom saying "get that hog...who's gonna get that hog" and that type thing.  When they were about 6-7 months old he started tying out a hog in the woods and letting them go find it...then onto letting a small hog out and letting them go, each time driving further and waiting longer to turn them out.  At nine months old these pups were consistantly finding hogs in the woods and still today are some of the best I have hunted around.  I don't know if it was the method or the bloodline but there all rangy as heck though.  These dogs learned that every time out of the box there was a hog waiting in the woods and you should see them when they are turned out...they never stop to pee or poop...it's an all out race straight to the nearest thicket.  He spent a lot of time with them, and gave up about almost a years worth of having his own dogs to hunt with but ended up with a top-notch pack.  Just another way of doing it...