Message #195710

[Maver!ck]

Now on to another issue you mentioned.  For the competition, you MOST DEFINITELY want to work the hogs with dogs a few times before you use them in competition, with one exception if you so desire and that would be for tie-breaker type hogs.  
The last thing you want to do is have hogs that are so wild in the pen that they run the entire time trying to figure a way out and have no pen savvy or dog savvy about them.  Again, just my opinion, but trust me, i have been to competitions all over and seen both ends of the spectrum.  More people will appreciate the hogs that have some pen savvy and dog savvy and know the chutes etc.. than hogs that will be running and trying to jump out of the pen and can't get them to run out the exit gates, and so on.
Furthermore, it's not fair to the people who run first few rounds on these hogs, as by the end of the event, those hogs will have settled down and had some 'break in time' and the dogs will have an easier time working them later in the event.
Fine if you want trapped hogs that haven't had dogs hanging on them to catch them initially, but i would suggest getting those hogs in the pen and running them throught he chute system several times to teach them how to get in and out.  And, i would run dogs on them a few times to 'break them in' so to speak.  This will even the playing field for the competitors.  This will also give you an idea of what kind of hogs you have.  You might think that just because a hog is 300#s he would make a good 2-dog hog, but i've seen several that had no heart and would just sit down an get caught by some non-gritty dogs.  And vice versa, you might have a 150# hog that is a bad to the bone 2-dog hog that you thought would only work for a 1-dog event.  You can sort your hogs into event classes and save your rougher/wilder hogs for tie-breaker situations.

Maver!ck