Developing a dog

Reuben I agree that no matter the age they have to posses a certain degree of toughness or hog dog gameness. When I say not mentally able to deal with adversity I’m not talking about slapped or a skin cut or two, I’m talking about sure enough hammered. Hammered happens with puppies or real young dogs because they are naive which allows the physically awkward animal to get caught because they put themselves in harms way without realizing it and then aren’t coordinated enough to get out of their own way much less a hogs. I had a pup named shorty once. He was the runt of the litter and he was baying before his eyes were open. He had that “it” factor about him. He looked like an old dog from the first mock hunt and athletic. I just knew he was going to be the great one, that once in a lifetime type. So I decided at about 8 months old I couldn’t wait anymore and loaded him with the old dogs one morning. We found a nasty boar that morning and he cut shorty to the point that his front leg was barely on. He never bayed another hog. Every one of his litter mates turned out and I personally saw some of them take some real punishment and never missed a beat. They didn’t quit that day and when they were healed were the same dog they were before being cut. The difference in them and shorty wasn’t the severity of the cutting, it was the age they were when it happened to them. The others were mentally mature when it happened and shorty wasn’t. So we have to be rational in our judgement. I realize Dean started this talking about the big breed RCD’s but it absolutely applies to ALL hog dogs in my opinion.

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