The posts on using older dog are always good advice. I will also play the devils advocate and give another perspective. Go with your first instict and scrap the dog before you get to much money and feed into it. Again look for the naturals that have that immediate unrelentless drive that you can't train or put in em. My view has always been the same. Either it bays and stays or it won't and don't. Point is I think you should hold your expectations a little higher and keep looking for something that satisfy's you both in a pen and woods. Please don't settle for just barely dogs cause you will be short changing yourself in the end bro. Also don't fall victim to the dog peddlers that want to charge you three times the price for a help dog. When you buy demand to see the dog in a pen work and let him bay for 45 min or longer. This will let you know how much stay and heart he has. A good one will stay until he can't walk and is laying on the ground slobbering still baying. If you have the option get a trial in woods also. Good luck either way.
Couldn't have said it any better... go make friends with some true hog hunters...
