Bryant- Dont you drag hogs for your pups? Or let them bay at one in a pen?
Yep..and thats sometimes my way of providing them a expedited way to naturally develop. If I could guarantee my pups a hog right out of the box each hunt, then I would have no need to run mock hunts. I like quick action and don't like young pups getting bored.
The pen is only used to check interest and very sparingly used at that. A (woods) dog can develop bad habits by being overworked in a pen, and especially a small wooded type pen where the dog knows there's a hog and will start trying to hunt by sight.