Message #542232

[justincorbell]

This will be a highly opinionated topic as everyone does things their own way. This is my way, not saying its right or wrong but it is how I do it and it has worked well for me.

At 4-5mths old I will take all of my pups to the woods with my jack russell to a place with ZERO hogs and just let them be puppies, I let them ride in the bed of the buggy (in a big metal crate) and experience EVERYTHING that they would on a hunt EXCEPT the hog. They run around and play and follow my jack russell just soaking it all in. The next time I bring them to the woods (5-6mths) I do the exact same thing again except this time I bring a small hog roughly their size to the woods and tie it up 40-50yds off a trail in the most open spot I can find and then bring them along with my jack russell back to the woods and drop em all roughly 100yds from the hog, my jack russell will find the hog usually in under 10 minutes and so far every time the pups have followed her lead and gone in to the woods with her, from that point on it is monkey see monkey do and they fall in with her baying. I will sit back, find a good seat and watch them bay until I can tell they are losing interest then I will catch the hog back up and round them back up and bring em to the house.

After I show them that first hog I don't mess with em much until I think they are ready to go to the woods with the big dogs, some pups i've started as early as 6mths old and some ive waited til 10mths old or older depending on the individual dogs demeanor. I have noticed that some of the dogs I mess with go through a weird stage between 8-11mths of age where they almost tend to shut down, they seem to act real insecure and cower alot and overall lack confidence. If I haven't started one in the big woods before they hit this stage I will wait until I think it has passed and they get to acting better.......... I don't have any honest assumption as to what it is that triggers that stage or why it happens but I do know that some of my pups absolutely do go through it and trying to start them and work them in the big woods is a waste of time until they grow out of it.

Perfect example, I have pups out of 2 seperate litters of related dogs that were born a week apart. I place a couple pups and culled down to a male out of one litter and a female out of the other. The male pup @ 10 mths old has already seen over a dozen hogs and knows what is gong on in the woods.........he is still a puppy and has ALOT to learn but he is out there gettin after it all the same, the female out of the other litter is not mentally mature enough yet, she is a nevous wreck from the time she gets put in the truck until she gets home. At the house the female is perfect but the woods and all the commotion of the other dogs and the buggies is just too much for her right now so I will leave her at the house for a couple more months and let her mature. This is a perfect example of how each dog matures at a different time and no 1 way is right every time, you simply have to watch and study your dogs the best you can and make the appropriate call.


No matter what we have to remember that all of this is supposed to be fun for us AND the dogs, that's why we do it. The hardest thing I had to get thru my own head was to remember that statement and not get frustrated when something didn't work out right, once I stepped back and really forced myself to realize this EVERYTHING came much easier to both me and the dogs....... Best of luck with your youngsters!