For what it is worth, this is my puppy rule book.
1) Show hog at the house and make sure the pup will bark at hog and is not scared
2) Cut puppy loose to dogs that are already bayed on hog 2-6 times from the mule
3) Hunt pup only during day light with a shock collar behind no BS kind of dogs ONLY
4) Do what I can early on to catch the hog the pup is bayed as quick as possible on for the next several hogs
5) Get to bay and depending on weather let the pup bay for a while and make sure he is going to stay bayed for a good while
6) Eventually take his help away and put them in situations where they HAVE to perform or hog will not be found
This is the ideal way I like to start a young dog.....I like to think they get trash broke by wanting to bay hogs only...
MG
I use this method with some modification.
1) Show hog at the house enough that the dog wants to bay a hog, knows that its supposed to, and has fun doing it (3 to 6 times maybe)
2) Hunt one pup at a time behind one or two NO BS kind of dogs ONLY (the kind that you want the pup to turn out like). On a property that is lenient about pups barking at cows.
3) If the pup bays on cows, I catch it and redirect its focus back to the older dogs and hunting (push it along).
4) The pup should learn to hunt hogs and leave cows alone over time, through repetition.
5) IF the pup gets to the point that it hunts hogs but will still trash on a cow, and I think it should be past that, THEN I break out the shock collar.
6) Eventually take his help away and put them in situations where they HAVE to perform.
I don't turn pups out to a bay (especially not with the catch dogs) because I have turned a cur into a catch dog that way and because I like to walk when training pups.
I do not use an E-collar on a pup that does not yet know to hunt because I want to minimize the potential of tempering its drive.
Steve
