Message #544984

[Reuben]

breeding better dogs in my opinion has to do with paying attention even to the smallest of details....doing our best to get in the puppies minds to decide which is the keeper etc...we need to have that burning desire to have the very best...spend many hours reading about dogs and spend enough time with the pups to see how they work and play...

in breeding the best within a family of dogs...the cream will rise to the top...

Remember...if you have to feed many tracks to make a dog you can expect the same thing with the offspring...you might get lucky a few times but you are headed in the wrong direction...there is one time when I will do that...If I were out of dogs in my family of dogs to breed then I would look past that not so good dog from within that said family and look more at the family and breed him or her and pick from the offspring very carefully...and I will consider myself very fortunate to of had that stepping stone...like that wise king that once said to his son...it is better to marry a fair maiden from a long line of great warriors, kings, and beautiful and intelligent women than to marry a beautiful maiden from questionable stock...

a short story below...

one very hot summer day the cur dogs went right over a hog track they could not smell...a 4 month puppy took the track and was working it backwards for about 100 yards before he lost it and I got very excited about it...the guy I was hunting with says...man why are you so upbeat about it when he was working the track backwards...some folks just don't get it...about 2 or 3 weeks  before when I first took this pup out  I set him down when I turned the dogs out and my brother and I took off walking and we walked about 100 yards or so and I looked for the pup and he wasn't with us...I told my brother to wait that I needed to go to the truck because I needed to get the pup and for a moment I was disappointed...about that time I heard some crashing water and I shined my light and that pup done made a round and was busting through that slew like he had done it all his life looking from side to side...needless to say I was on cloud 9...at that age on a track he sounded like a bawl mouthed hound...he was born a star...I thank the almighty for giving me the wisdom to know it and appreciate it...after thinking on it I realized he was special...I have had quite a few good to great dogs since him but never one which could reason like him...in my mind the difference between a once in a lifetime dog and a great dog is brain power...a good dog might take a while to find that one hog and sometimes not...a great dog can find one fairly quick...but a once in a lifetime dog will make it look easy...and over a period of time will learn after quick checks to know if there is a hog there or not...they say a dog can not reason...but that dog makes me question that...

having said that about that dog I instinctively knew he was not going to be the reproducer because of his back ground...I bred him once and then used one of his sons to reproduce quite a few excellent dogs for me...I bred his son only to his dams side of the family which were mt curs...and if I only liked totally silent dogs I would have culled 9 out of ten pups...

in those years I spent months trying to decide which female gets kept and bred...the pups and dogs were tested for speed and stamina at the beach...tested for taking to water naturally and how well they swam...I like a dog that all you see is the head out of the water and moving forward kind of like a gator would and only making a smooth wake...and these dogs are usually built a certain way and when swimming after a hog these dogs are powerful swimmers that you can see them porpoising like 2/3rds of their bodies coming up out of the water...also tested for wind and finding, breaking to gun and the smell of gun powder...testing for those that took to the woods to make a round etc...etc...always breeding the best to the best within a family...what is the use of trying to breed better dogs if we don't do everything within our power to identify and keep the right pups that fit in the hunting and breeding program...

I don't have the places to do what I used to do...even the remote beach I used is now public...and testing in the canals behind my house are now off limits...

with the knowledge we have access today...most anyone who has that burning desire can produce a high percentage of good dogs...you just need to take off your rose colored glasses and we must be able to see the truth...there are reasons why dogs do what they do...just be logical about it and don't make excuses for the dog...the words "reasons" and "excuses" do not mean the same thing...