When I was hunting I rather have a dog that stayed busy in the headlights or just a tad further and find hogs on a regular basis then one that took off like its tail was on fire before it started hunting. I have seen it many times where the dogs that took off several hundred yards or more before they started hunting were out struck by the dogs that hunted in closer but stayed busy. There was many a time the "long range dog" was bayed up over a mile away once he found and bayed up a hog and we caught hogs with the "short range" dogs going to them. There were even times we had to track to the long range dog because we could not hear it baying and caught hogs going to it as well. IMHO shorter range busy dogs will produce more hogs then long range get out of the country type dogs, however if the hogs are scarce in your area I can see the need for a go yonder type dog as well.
A wide hunting dog that passes up hogs is just as sorry a dog as a short range dog that doesn't find anything at all. Only difference between the two should be that when a shorter type dog has made a round and returns back, that the longer dog is still hunting deeper. It shouldn't have anything to do with which can find hogs that are close. I'll cull a dog that leaves the box and runs a 1/2 mile before it starts hunting just as quick as I'll cull one that won't leave the box at all.
I'll never say that one type or the other is a better dog, just a personal preference of what you choose to hunt.
