Getting a dog to get out there.

[ED BARNES]

That anwser depends on where you hunt. I hunt a lot in northern Oklahoma so I want a dog hussling and covering a lot of ground. If there were more hogs where I hunted I would prefer a shorter range dog, long range dogs are kind of a pain! It's easy to get centered but different circumstances take different dogs

[Reuben]

Here is a ? To the on going debate. How many of y'all would say longer range dogs find more than say a medium range dog. And far as big bottom north of ten miles 8 hrs where can you hunt those dogs

JudgePeel

I don't care for long range dogs but I want a dog that will have plenty of stick once it jumps the hog...a good medium range dog that circles to my left leaving out towards 11:30 and circling left and back and checking in from the 6:30 side and then looping to the right side, exactly the opposite from the left loop...and covering about 3 or 4 hundred yards to my left and the same to my right...keeps covering that way as long as I am moving at a moderate pace...these dogs hunt with me...if I stop they will hunt/loop further out and that is ok with me but is one reason I try not to stop...if I don't see them for a while they are either bayed somewhere or running a hog...

I can't see me giving up bottom to keep my dogs from going far...but I would rather breed catchier type dogs that will stop one at the first opportunity rather than keep running a hog...I don't care for loose bay dogs even if it were proven that they produce more pork...I like gritty dogs that are not afraid to put some teeth on a big boar...

I remember my stomach tightening up in knots and wondering if I would get my dogs back, get them run over on the road or shot because of their long bottom, get eaten by an alligator or stolen etc...etc...the range was right but once they winded one or picked up a colder track it was on...and that was the part that worried me...the distance they might travel...I still like that type of dog but with a little more stopping power...my dogs right know have some pitbull bred in...and the female pup I gave now for breeding if she makes the grade is 1/2 parker cur 1/2 APBT...

[Judge peel]

I gotcha Reuben I like short medium range don't give a heck dogs that will catch or try to catch I got one big bottom dog it works good for me cuz if the rough dogs don't stop em they will fall back after a mile or so and it lets him bay up then we show up with the land sharks to make em pay. That's why I bred Jordan into my dogs to put little more bottom but keep the grit I don't like the pit crossed into curs in my opion those are unstable crosses although I have seen some good ones I just prefer rough curs just breed the roughest you can and they will do the job most of mine are very rough

[Mike]

Here is a ? To the on going debate. How many of y'all would say longer range dogs find more than say a medium range dog. And far as big bottom north of ten miles 8 hrs where can you hunt those dogs

I prefer a medium range dog myself that loops, covers the country around you, checks in and goes back out or load and move on.

Bottom is what I want in a dog. You don't necessarily have to have big country to hunt dogs with a lot of bottom. I've run hogs for hours on end a smaller places more times then I can remember... round and round and round. But, I've also had them blow through big places and leave the country... that's where training them with the tone on the shock collars comes in handy.

[jpuckett]

What an awesome thread. Haven't had a more practical thread posted in a while. Read it completely through a few thoughts

First- I've screwed up my share of dogs trying to learn how they learn

Two- unless you know how that particular dog learns you can't teach em anything. You haveta stop thinking like a human and try it from the dogs perspective

Third- the reason I hunt dogs with lines I'm familiar with, is so that I can get dogs that for the most part handle similarly. There's some personality types that I just can't seem to break through. I've not culled a few different dogs just to try and figure out why it wasn't working. It was a problem I wanted to solve. It drove me nuts that this dog wasn't getting what I was trying to teach it. So I fall somewhere in the middle on this debate. Even dogs bred similarly have different styles and learning habits and moods. But if I'm starting with the same lines I feel like I can get more familiar with it so I can then learn how to communicate what I want to that dog.

But if the dog don't have the tools, it just don't. I cannot run a 4.4 40 yard dash...

[Shotgun wg]

All this breeding and trying to create or recreate the perfect dog with blood lines and whatknot is hard on my simple mind. I take what I can get. I work with it and get everything I can out of it. I don't run long range dogs. Medium at best for me. Now if long range was what I wanted i would put the dogs that weren't ranging close with those that do and try to find a pair that would buddy up. I would let the long range dog teach the other to keep going. If the shorter ranged dog didn't pick it up I move on or hunt the dog in the fashion it hunts. I can't afford to go thru dogs so I try hard to perfect my eye when sizing up a dog. It also don't hurt to have low standards.


Shotgun
Arkansas

[Judge peel]

Shotgun wg good stuff bubba