Message #573304

[t-dog]

That's a hard question in a way. You have to have a standard anytime you have dogs. Puppies are no exception. If you see things that are on your absolutely not list then you cull that pup right then. All it will do by keeping it is take time and food from a good pup. Hopefully you won't have much of that no breeding is full proof no matter what the parents are or how good they are. I know why I make certain matings and if the pups aren't going to produce what I bred them to do then they are useless to me. They may work fine and be exactly what someone else wants but I cut my losses and move them and go.back to the drawing board. That happens less the deeper you get into a family of dogs I think, but at first there is a lot of trial and error and having standards and sticking to them is the shortest way to your end result. Over time, you won't have to worry nearly as much about picking a good pup or be worries nearly as much about how the are going to work style wise if you stick to your standards because you will start to isolate the genes you prefer. I like to see my pups potential early but I don't usually start hunting them until they are 1 year old. I do mess with them and they think they are hog dogs when I start hunting them. Everyone doesn't do it like this. Over the last couple years I have done less of this and just started them in the woods. But it has cost me a couple of young dogs that might have been worthy of breeding one day. I feel like if had educated them ahead of time they might not have gotten dead before they got smart. The mock hunts allow me to see a lot more from.the pups too. I get to see and pay closer attention to them that way than I would in a live hunt situation. It allows me to see what separates pups if I have more than one. I get to see who the work horses are, who's riding shirt tails or if it's an all out let's see who's first every trip out. To me that is pretty fun.

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