How important is training a pup/young dog

[southtexasff]

How important is it to start a pup in a bay pen, run mock hunts and any other type of training you can do.  If you get a pup from good hunting stock, you have seen parents hunt and know they hunt hard and dont put any kind of training into him just get him in the woods with great dogs and he shows he has the drive when you hunt him, will he reach the same potential as if you would have started him in the bay pen, on mock hunts and so on?  I know it is a good idea so you can cull if you need to, but if you have faith in the bloodline will it work out? 

I ask this because when me and my hunting partner started out we had two catahoulas and a bulldog.  We ran the cats with an other dog that would find hogs.  About a month later one of the cats started striking and she was only about 10 or 11 months old.  So we just hunted the two cats alone.  They turned out to be the best dogs I hunted with when they were in there prime.  We didnt have the luxury or time for mock hunts but were able to hunt about three or four times a week and get em on alot of hogs. 

The next catahoula we started we started the same way running him with these two dogs, he turned out to be a hell of a strike dog also.  He was a natural, first time ever being turned out he, never seen a hog, he was 10 months old.  Drove in the field and saw a group of hogs.  Turned out the dogs and they bayed the group and caught one.  When we got there he was sniffing the other dogs.  Got them off the hog and they rolled out, caught up to the pack again, when we get there the new cat was caught on the ear. 

[tnhillbilly]

I think you answered your own question. Everybody has their own way of training and such, but it if they have it in them it will show. I used to spend a lot of time "training". I have better bred dogs now, and do just like you said...just take them to the woods about 9-10 months old and they just do it on their own.
    Tho any exposure is good.

[justincorbell]

I personally like to work with my pups some. I think its as much interactin/socializin with em as it is trainin em that I like. I will set up 2 maybe 3 mock trails for em, this is usually just to get an idea of who is progressing the fastest. I bring em to my lease at around 4-5mths just to let em run and explore.....also helps me to figure out which will naturally leave out and who is a straggler. As far as pens go, i keep a hog at the house 24/7 and i will show it to them a couple times and let em watch my #1 dog bay it for a few minutes from an early age, if they decide to bay with him then great, if not i put em up for a while then try again in a month or so. i don't really consider it training them as much as I consider it conditioning them to my expectations.


"the sun is shining somewhere in texas" -Jason Boland

[Lacy man]

I personally like to work with my pups some. I think its as much interactin/socializin with em as it is trainin em that I like. I will set up 2 maybe 3 mock trails for em, this is usually just to get an idea of who is progressing the fastest. I bring em to my lease at around 4-5mths just to let em run and explore.....also helps me to figure out which will naturally leave out and who is a straggler. As far as pens go, i keep a hog at the house 24/7 and i will show it to them a couple times and let em watch my #1 dog bay it for a few minutes from an early age, if they decide to bay with him then great, if not i put em up for a while then try again in a month or so. i don't really consider it training them as much as I consider it conditioning them to my expectations.


"the sun is shining somewhere in texas" -Jason Boland

X2 I do the same thing for my blood trailing dog, and my now hog dog, my blood trailer gets some moc trails even though his parents were both great at tracking. The more you work with your dog and interact the more you as the owner will know what to expect and what is their weak areas and strong areas.

[Sneaky Creek Kennel]

I will show pups hogs in a pen and soon as I find out that they are interested and will bay a hog they will only get hunted after that. I think over doing it in a bay pen will take the hunt completely out of a hunting dog.

[T-Bob Parker]

If Anybody cares what I think...

When a dog reaches the Right age, they've been to the woods a few times and have been turned into several bays, I like to turn a hog loose and let it take off then let the pup go. Make the pup huntem down and see what they've got. Even then I don't worry real hard if they didn't find that one hog, I've seen my grown dogs not find hogs tat I saw with my own eyes before.