to me a started dog is a dog that is just that started. they have started to hunt but they aren't consistant, ie they have a lot of puppy still in them. when you let them go they play around not really hunting, then after some walking and such they get to hunting. sometimes they find a hog sometimes they don't. that is started to me a young dog that doesn't really "get it" just yet.
a finished dog to me is a dog that when you drop them you find pork, period the end. how they do will classify them as a good, great, or once in a lifetime dog. finished to me is simply a dog that has seen many hogs and when you go to the woods you can count that you'll hear a bay going with that dog. finished to me is just a term for a dog that "get's it" and is beyond just a started dog.
IMO the caliber of dog you have doesn't denote if it is finished or not. i also believe that the caliber of dog denotes if it is still learning or not. you can have a dog that "gets it" but isn't as a good a dog has the next man's, that doesn't mean your dog is any less finished it just isn't as good as another mans. some finished dogs aren't as fast as others some don't stop runners as well as others, etc. i also believe that this word causes a lot of problems because people think the word finished denotes the caliber of dog you are looking at. just like anything else beauty is in the eye of the beholder. one mans trash is another mans treasure.
for example i have two young dogs i would call both of them well started dogs. they "get it" but they haven't been behind enough hogs for me to claim they are finished dogs. some people would call them finished, you dop the tailgate they go find you a hog. everytime i have taken them to the woods here recently they have found a hog, but i would not call them finished in my eyes they haven't seen enough hogs for me to say that.
as a side note the caliber of dog is based off of the way you hunt and where you hunt. my dogs may not suite another man, and that is fine. they may not be as good a dogs as i think they are..i do think they would make an hunter happy though.
dogs taht you take anywhere and they find hogs are abover avg dogs and waht we are all looking for. dogs that can't are n less finished to me, just not GREAT dogs.
***i posted this on another dog hunting board to see what people that hunt another type of game feel about this question. i'll report what they say.***
