This is a good topic for this forum to kick around.....mainly because I don't think that there is a clear answer to the quandry of buying finished or training your own.
I've done the training thing and enjoyed it tremendously.....then I got a chance to get a very well started, or in some circles she could have been finished, 2 year old female cur dog....from a guy that I knew well and had hunted with....so I trusted him. She started barking a bit on track and he can't have that I reckon,....so she was up for sale. I traded him a male cur that I had that I was thinking of parting with. He came and hunted with us and brought her along, I liked her and we traded....best move I've ever made during over 30 years of hog hunting. Best hog dog I may ever have....I truly enjoy hunting with her. Had her 4 years and killed a lot of hogs with her and the rest of our pack.
About that same time I gave away a female Ridgeback/Campbell dog that I had raised from a pup that I was really disappointed in,....One of my best friends had a female Plott/Catahoula cross that he had gotten from someone in Fla. a few months earlier....so I had hunted with her and liked her a lot....bought her for $200 and never looked back, she's a great little dog that I've never had to get onto about anything....just a good hog dog that I can depend on. I've had both of these dogs for about 4 years now and I'm enjoying hunting with them more every year. They do exactly what I want a dog to do,....they find and bay or catch hogs.....and work like a team with my friends' hounds. They don't have that endless bottom that so many people want,.... had that and don't want any more of it. They hunt like I want them to and I like that.....we have fun at this and that's what I want....to enjoy my hog hunting time. I've cussed dogs waaaaay too much over the years that didn't do what I wanted them to......not anymore.
So,......I'm saying that you CAN find a dog that suits you, that's already doing good and you don't have to pay a $1000 for it. HOWEVER......and here's the sticker for most younger folks,......you cannot be in a hurry.....read that again please....be happy to get to hunt and wait until a dog that you like comes available....then buy it.
I know that my views are a lot different than they were 30 years ago....heck....I'm 60 yaers old....I don't really care to raise pups and find homes for the ones I don't keep....we don't have enough hogs here where I live to fool with puppies. If I lived where some of y'all live it might be different, but I don't and never will.
I want to hunt and enjoy my 'finished', if there is such a thing, dogs that I don't have a fortune in. Oh,.....and the other thing I wanted to comment on was this.....Why in the round world would any hunter with walking around sense pay for a dog that he hasn't hunted with? I cannot for the life of me even come anywhere near understanding that move..... That is the reason there are dog traders that prey on these people....stop buying dogs that you haven't hunted with and they'll go out of business and have to get a real job....
Such are my opinions.....
