When Selling Hog Dogs...

Goose87...I can't say this is the best way but it worked great for me...My goal was to produce the best dogs I possibly could...that meant dogs that started early, a good nose for trailing and not a real cold nose but a good nose...also to have an inclination to wind and have good range and hunt at a good lope...the dogs I had started with did have all of that but I felt I needed to improve on consistency meaning having a high percentage of pups of this type...I also wanted plenty of gritt and bottom...I bred about the best BMC at that time that I knew about...just one time to get a little more size and a little quieter on track...after that it was all mtn cur and no other breed...

to purify the bloodline...meaning improving the percentages of getting more of what I wanted per litter...I decided that I could only breed the best dog I have ever owned once because he was 1/2 BMC...I bred his son 5 or 6 times and the females I bred once and moved to the next generation for several times until I felt the dogs were/would producing consistently...I also selected for natural ability as much as possible...who took to water like a duck...who rolled out the first time in the woods...who consistently found the most chunks of meat as little pups...a lot of these things I looked for...it was a game I liked to play back then...

once I was where I needed to be I quit breeding regularly...so I wouldn't have to bring in new blood...you can breed the same dogs again to replenish what is needed...

another thing to do is breed a dog to someone else's dog and get a few pups...if you are lucky enough to have one that looks like yours and hunts like your dogs then breed one of those pups into your line...and then use a pup from there to breed back to another good dog in the line...this pup will carry a quarter of the new blood and it is a safe bet because the next generation will have 1/8...but, if the first outcross does not look right and you don't like it you will need to pass on those pups and look elsewhere...and don't use your outcross as the hub on account it could be carrying 50 percent unknown genes...just work it in cautiously...

the things to look for is good length of leg, good feet, straight legs as well as good conformation...use your imagination and develop tests and be observant of how the pups act...maybe you see a pup take a whipping from a hog and he gets right back up in his face...or you see a 4 or 5 month old pup work a track backward...and you get excited even though your buddy says...yea but he is taking it backwards...or your 6 month old pup has got a young coon treed and you get excited and the guy you are hunting talks noise that the pup is trashing...lol

I look for signs of what that pup might be bringing to the table...in my mind it is the greatest game to play...but I have other priorities at 60 years of age...