Choosing The Right Pup

[Logan-99]

I remember seeing this topic awhile ago, but I'm trying to choose a pup out of my buddies catahoula/cur litter. There's a lot to choose from and I'm interested in tips y'all have for finding potential in a puppy at a young age. Share whatever works best in your opinion please

[Justified]

Easiest way I've found, drag something out side the kennel, out of sight, and see which one picks it up. For dogs u want catchy, power tools, and lawn mowers show wonders. Do some work around them. Of they won't back up from or bark at a chainsaw or law mower, they normally won't back up from a pig lol.


Not full proof but have shown true a lot.

[Logan-99]

Easiest way I've found, drag something out side the kennel, out of sight, and see which one picks it up. For dogs u want catchy, power tools, and lawn mowers show wonders. Do some work around them. Of they won't back up from or bark at a chainsaw or law mower, they normally won't back up from a pig lol.


Not full proof but have shown true a lot.

Makes sense! Might have to try the dragging technique one time

[halfbreed]

  close your eyes reach down and pick one up . 

[jon]

  close your eyes reach down and pick one up . 

Ha I like that

[Justified]

Easiest way I've found, drag something out side the kennel, out of sight, and see which one picks it up. For dogs u want catchy, power tools, and lawn mowers show wonders. Do some work around them. Of they won't back up from or bark at a chainsaw or law mower, they normally won't back up from a pig lol.


Not full proof but have shown true a lot.

Makes sense! Might have to try the dragging technique one time

Won't guarantee the best but at least u know their nose works lol

[Reuben]

laid back and not hyper...turn them out and see which one is above playing with the littermates and goes off exploring...des not have to be far just moving around and sniffing, exploring...but if you raise the pups yourself you can test and observe them as you like...

[justincorbell]

I try to pick the loner when I can but to be honest 99% of the time i get my pups from 1 guy, when I am offered one i usually just tell himwhich sex id prefer and when he says they are reay i drive on over and he hands me one lol....pups are a crap shoot unless you can spend a decent amount of time to really watch em and see their individual mannerisms..... Like Mr Whitten said, close yer eyes and pick one out!

[Reuben]

I believe when we are looking for that new pup that we need to do all we can to pick the right one for us...I spend as much time as possible observing and/or thinking about all the qualities I see...sometimes we only have maybe an hour if we are buying a pup and that is usually not enough time but at least we can pick one that we take a liking to...but if the price is right take 2 or 3 pups and test and work with them for a few months...Sell them one at a time until one is left...

There once was a breeder of beagles that would advertise this way...Beagle pups for sale...pick the pup you like and I will keep the last one for me...

Reading between the lines, I don't know if he was saying that all his pups were exactly the same in quality or if he was bragging that he was a great beagle rabbit dog trainer...not saying anything bad about the man I just didn't agree with his way of selecting pups for himself...to the untrained eye the litter might look exactly alike but there are differences...


if that was how he picked his beagle pups for breeding then I would never buy a pup from that man if I were a beagler...

I believe in doing the absolute best within our power to select the very best for breeding purposes and for hunting as well...

[KevinN]

Reuben....I THINK that's a practice that is pretty common among old hound men. Their lines are bred so tight....Confirmation wise...they are ALL the same and they have so much confidence in their hunting ability that it just doesn't matter. I heard a story along the same lines about an old timer who could tell you exactly how a litter would turn out, how they would run/hunt....just by who the parents were.

Halfbreed with his older dogs use to work along those lines and I've seen quite a few runts and left over pups out of his yard make dogs.

Like you though....I myself am more apt to do some studying and make my choices, lol.

[Cajun]

I believe at that age there is just no way you can pick which pup has the best hunting potential or breeding potential  A dog has to prove his hunting potential first before he is considered breeding potential.jmo
  Like halfbreed says, just shut your eyes & pick one out. Other then picking out the physical traits that you personally like, there is just no way you can pick out the best pup. If they are bred right, the majority of the pups, should make good dogs. On another note there are some well bred pups, that do not get handled right, do not get the proper exposure to game or for one reason or another they do not get the chance. Then people blame the breeder when it is in fact owner error.
  Just to show you how you can take dogs from common ancestors & enviroment or different people breeding them how they can look totally different. My buddy & I were at Plott days & went to look at this guys plotts who were bred just like ours. I mean almost identical as far as great grandparents & back.His dogs were huge compared to ours & did not even look like they should be related. Now he lived in wisc. & we live down here in the south. I like a average size dog & bigger dogs seem to have a harder time getting thru our thickets. Did I change the size to smaller or did he breed his dogs bigger to get thru the snow. Selective breeding means alot.
  I picked a pup out of one of my litters a few years ago. She was smart as a whip, a escape artist who could figger out how to get out of anything. I culled her at 7 months. She had littermates who were running and baying & she was staying at my side. You never know.

[Wmwendler]

  close your eyes reach down and pick one up . 

This.......kick the shy ones out of the bunch.  If you are particular about the way a dog looks, kick out the ones you don't like the looks of.  Then close your eyes and randomly grab out of whats left.  There is no way to predict hunting traits before a pup is 4-5 months old in my opinion.

Waylon

[Judge peel]

I have had good luck with old trick my pe paw told me go play with them in there pen for twenty min and then leave the pen turn them lose which ever one comes to you first should be your first choice be cuz dogs live in the present and the bond is more important first at that age. For the most part I have had good luck doing that jmo most people cull there dog to early want if our wife's did the same we would be out of there thanks momma lol good luck to every one

[mike rogers]

it's all in the eye of the beholder. Sometimes one just catches your eye. Maybe it looks back and shows you a little since of  brains and personality.  See how the parents work. Rough, catchy, cold or hot nose, their build and if they were early or late starters.  No that all pups will grow up to look like their parents. Especially in cats and Leopard curs/hounds. Some will be different size and have different hunt'n styles.  It's not uncommon for some leopard cur pups to grow up to be 70 to 80#'s while some stay 45 to 50#. And thats out of the same litter.  It's nice when you can even look at sire and dam of the parents of the dog.   If the guy has been line breeding for a while then you can almost bet the pups will be more like their parents in every way. Size, nose, styles....  And if he's linebreeding for a long while, it's a good sign that he likes what he has and doesn't want to lose it.....

[Reuben]

Cajun...I know that there is no sure way of knowing what the pups will actually become...but I kept note of all the qualities from each pup...I knew who had the best nose for tracking and winding and who was more accurate at locating at a young age and who free casted alone and who didn't...I also knew who struck first and who was consistent as well as which pup made the long distance run to put a hog on the other end of the tracks...and I bred those that performed above and beyond their siblings...

and you are right about the smart pups sometimes don't make hunting dogs...but in my book the once in a lifetime dog is one that is a top hunting dog and has above average smarts to go with it...

and someone having almost the exact same line as you and have totally different dogs has a lot to do with preference and probably terrain as well out of necessity...a buddy of mine has a line of dogs that is almost exactly the same as what I had at one time...he bred for smaller dogs with longer hair and loose baying and all are a nice yellow color...

I like 55 -58 pound dogs (males) that are gritty and slick coated that hunt extra hard and I don't care about color as long as there isn't much white on the dog (and I don't like a big dog but don't care for the smaller dogs)...so we went in different directions on the same line of dogs but he has good dogs...one of my dogs is grandfather to some young dogs of his and I already have one and getting the other because they took the gritty traits...

getting back to testing early...the new dogs I have now have started well at 10 months but they have tested different as compared to the dogs I raised for 20 years...I am not going at it for getting and purifying a line of dogs because it takes money and time... just trying to breed a few good dogs and keeping them as long as they are useful for hunting...when I first started I turned the dogs over quickly to get 3 or 4 generations of top quality dogs behind my line and then I started hanging on to my dogs quite a bit longer...when you know your line of dogs you can know by a year old if they will make top dogs and for sure by 1.5 years of age....but if someone believes in keeping dogs and hoping that they turn on in 2 years then I suspect that testing them as pups won't work...and if they turn on and make good to outstanding dogs after 2 years then they will reproduce dogs that turn on in 2 years...that to me is unacceptable...

[Muddogkennels]

i choose the first to come to a hog squeal or grunt , then the last pup thats still wondering on where the sound came from.. works

[justincorbell]

Cajun...I know that there is no sure way of knowing what the pups will actually become...but I kept note of all the qualities from each pup...I knew who had the best nose for tracking and winding and who was more accurate at locating at a young age and who free casted alone and who didn't...I also knew who struck first and who was consistent as well as which pup made the long distance run to put a hog on the other end of the tracks...and I bred those that performed above and beyond their siblings...

and you are right about the smart pups sometimes don't make hunting dogs...but in my book the once in a lifetime dog is one that is a top hunting dog and has above average smarts to go with it...

and someone having almost the exact same line as you and have totally different dogs has a lot to do with preference and probably terrain as well out of necessity...a buddy of mine has a line of dogs that is almost exactly the same as what I had at one time...he bred for smaller dogs with longer hair and loose baying and all are a nice yellow color...

I like 55 -58 pound dogs (males) that are gritty and slick coated that hunt extra hard and I don't care about color as long as there isn't much white on the dog (and I don't like a big dog but don't care for the smaller dogs)...so we went in different directions on the same line of dogs but he has good dogs...one of my dogs is grandfather to some young dogs of his and I already have one and getting the other because they took the gritty traits...

getting back to testing early...the new dogs I have now have started well at 10 months but they have tested different as compared to the dogs I raised for 20 years...I am not going at it for getting and purifying a line of dogs because it takes money and time... just trying to breed a few good dogs and keeping them as long as they are useful for hunting...when I first started I turned the dogs over quickly to get 3 or 4 generations of top quality dogs behind my line and then I started hanging on to my dogs quite a bit longer...when you know your line of dogs you can know by a year old if they will make top dogs and for sure by 1.5 years of age....but if someone believes in keeping dogs and hoping that they turn on in 2 years then I suspect that testing them as pups won't work...and if they turn on and make good to outstanding dogs after 2 years then they will reproduce dogs that turn on in 2 years...that to me is unacceptable...

I agree with the hi-lighted portion 100%..... I know i've talked about her before but Daisy, my lab was the best OVERALL hunting dog i've ever owned and she was smart as A whip in all aspects, not just hunting. I swear that dog understood the majority of the english language. I believe that if you get lucky enough to find a truely intelligent dog then you CAN train it to do what ever you want it to...... daisy never saw a hog until she was over 3 yrs old and I had her baying/ catching/ release and finding a hog in a pen in under 30 minutes just playin around 1 day.....granted I never took her hog hunting in the woods because she was truely to important to me and my family to loose to a hog BUT I don't have a doubt in my mind that had I decided to make her a hog dog that she would have excelled at the sport in a very short amount of time.

[reatj81]

Good points everyone
Picking a pup is difficult to say the least.  I haven't had to picked a pup that wasn't from my yard sense 1999, so that has allowed me to really spend a lot of time choosing.  I have picked up a few young dogs, but no pups.  I like a pup that gets into everything, very independent, and will bay anything, even their own shadow.   I also like laid back not hyper.  I have had good luck but not as much as I would like.   The two 7 mo old pups I have now I am questing,  the next couple of months will tell the tell.  They are going to have the baying style I like, I am questing the hunt!   That is to blame on myself, I did this breeding on selection of baying style, and just hoping the hunt gene would still be there.   Big gamble time will tell if I hit jackpot or I wasted time on raising a litter of culls.   I am a strong believer of best to best within a line!  But this breeding I stayed within the line but used two dogs with the best baying style hoping they would maintain a decent amount of hunt, trying to stop the hogs from running when possible.   If they work out I can go back to their half brother & sister and maintain the hunt and capitalize on baying style!   If not, oh well I tried my loss!  Trying to capitalize on the stick dog instincts was the reason for the breeding.

[charles]

What bout a pup that wants to attack the weedeater? My catdo will run up behind me, brush my leg n latch hold of the shaft near the head n try to pull it outa my hands. If she comes from the front, she'll charge it, n as i swing it towards her, she'll roll right or left, spinning around n grab it the shaft. She is my house dog rite, just wonderin when should  i start workin her on a pig. She will bay my pigs through the fence, but aint put her in the pen bc of the piglets.

[reatj81]

Charles I bet she won't bay if you put her in the pen!

Strait catch