Chris , here is what has worked for me on my line of BMC.
im gona start at the begining so this might get kinda long, anyway,,,,
since i raise my own pups i will keep a whole litter. once they are about 12 weeks old i will get a shoat in a gage and let the gyp bay it, after a few times most all of the pups are baying to some extent, after the pups are about 4 mo. old i will put them in my round pen and let them bay the shoat loose, just a few pups at a time. by this time they have just seen a hog 5 or 6 times.
and since the begining my kids have been hauling these pups around on 4 wheelers go carts wagons, and running all over the place.
my dogs get alot of social interaction when they see you ,they come running. i want my dogs to like people.
by the time my pups are 4 to 5 mo old (or sooner) ,they are baying horses , cows (when they come up around the house),frogs,and anything else they are courious about. now i start telling them to "get out."(not rough just make them get back and go on) by this time i have to put them on a chain or pen them up.
i turn one or two pups loose at a time and take off on a 4 wheeler and drive down thru the cows, i will have a older dog running loose
too, if the pups want to bay at a cow i just say "get out" and keep driving they will come on with the older dog. if they dont i circle back and drive in between them and the cows and tell them "get out",, after a couple times they just go right on past the cows.
at about 6 mo. old i will take my more advanced pups to the woods on a short hunt, i will have a shock collar on them , if they bust off on a deer i will tell them to "get out" and if they dont respond i will tell them again and give them a little shock really light.
to me this is a fine line, you have to use some common sense and not over due the shock collar , just a little bump is all it takes especially if your other dogs are'nt going with the pup. they will come back really quick.
pretty soon they figure out thats not what you are after.
i will rarely shock a pup on its first trip to the woods,if he runs a deer on his first trip it usually not very far.
Just a mental note: all of the pups i have raised that wanted to run a deer pretty hard have always made my longest range dogs after they were older and broke from deer.
as far as shocking a dog i will make darn shure i see what he is running before i shock him. so they may get to run a few before i get my chance to bump them off.
i will only take one pup on a hunt at a time(along with my old dogs) , and always have a tracking collar and shock collar on, i may not use the shock collar for 3 or 4 hunts but i dont want them to get collar smart .
by the time they are a year old they are going out really good and i have picked me one or two, and sold or give away the rest.
its not they are ruined or anything i just pick off the top end to keep.
my dogs will wear a shock collar until i feel like they dont need it anymore...
i have some long range dogs and i have raised them all this way and i feel if a dog has enough confidence in himself he will stay hooked. i have a gyp that is 10 mo. old now and when she was 6mo. old she went over 2 mi. with the older dogs and stayed till we caught the hog.she has went out 500 yrd and more hunting on her own.
this has worked for me on my dogs and has consistantly produced dogs i was happy with.
i hope there is something you can use in all of that.
pups baying at 4 mo.
