Message #573318

[Birdslayer86]

I whole heartedly believe the bite ole Florida curs were so well known for has slowly been bred away from for a bay dog because that’s what everyone wanted. Now everyone has a good bay dog but can’t manage to catch a hog without a big catch dog they lead in on a leash Or 6 to 8 head of piranhas on the ground. I’m slowly getting back in myself as I got out for awhile. I’ve never hunted more then 2 dogs and I can never remember any old timer I was raised around or any you saw around town on a regular basis have more then 1 or 2 dogs with them. Yes they may of had half a dozen pens full at home but never left with more then 2. Yes your going to loose some good dogs along the way but the great ones get smarter and live longer. I also believe people in general have become softer and the tool of “culling” is extremely under utilized because they can come up with half a dozen excuses why the dog/animal failed to meet a said expectation. I’ve had some great dogs over the days but don’t have a damn thing now but one pup. I don’t like hunting more then one pup at a time and normal solo. I don’t want them running around playing grab ass. We are here to do a job and I expect you to start figuring that out. We will normally start pups a couple at a time with a pig they can man handle and a tie rope around a back leg. If they show the interest we are after my sister and brother in law have a horse shoe shaped pond and it’s fantastic for turning a pig loose in the mouth of it and having a fake hunt so to say. I’ve always made sure the first few hogs they see the pup can man handle them and not the hog man handling the pup. I normally spend the first 8 to 12 months putting a handle on dogs and hauling them around making them mind there manners in the box and just used to every day life before I put much hunt to them. I usually expect a female to start earlier then a male. Just my thoughts. Now for breeding and raising my own pups I keep the entire little. By 6 months I’ll thin to half the litter and around a year I’ll cut it in half again. By a year and a half there probably won’t be but a couple or few left I want to continue on with. If I’ve got dogs I’m hoping to reproduce from I normally breed them 3 times and like above keeping the whole litter and seeing if they reproduce true and to the standard. Very very few if any will make it to the public and the only reason they did is because they went to someone I fully trusted to put them to work and give me there honest opinions even if it’s I culled it. I don’t claim to know it all or be able to make a dog out of any dog and I’ve been called cold hearted more then once but I personally have a standard some say it’s to high but I know what I want and expect out of a dog and I’ll cull one and move one way before I make an excuse as to what and why.