Postby blueticker78 » Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:59 pm
I got some food for thought, so to speak. I got a five year old english bluetick once from a guy here in my area, the dog was heavy hard time, but not that has anything to do with my story, that dog was owned by three different people here in upstate ny prior to my self first was the breeder who kept him till he was six months old, this breeder is a competition hunter and he campaighns one or two dogs at a time and when hes hunting his older hounds he takes the pups out and lets them run, this is not how you train a hound. The second guy who owned him is a older guy a hunter not so much a breeder he hunts what ever is for sale during the summer and what works already he keeps and what doesnt he sells, from there this dog went to a really old gentleman who probally was under the impression the dog was broke or well trained, this guy was up there in the years and couldnt get around well so the dog didnt get much hunting time or any proper training for about three years, I took the dog because he was going to put him down and he was giving him away so I figured I would atleast give the dog a shot. That dog was excuse my language f...... stupid the first time I took him to the woods an absolute night mare, but he wanted to hunt, I have never seen more determination or desire to please in all my life, so I started from scratch with him and with in two weeks he was striking tracking in the right direction and the most solid tree dog I have ever seen. I believe even the naturals need training and guidence and need to be broke from trash no dog will 100% train himself or herself, I think with the proper guidence and training in the begining this dog would have been what we considered a natural, this hound that I brought home that couldnt back track him self to the truck 100 meters into the woods or figure out wich way game went, two months down the road stayed treed for three days under a bob till I found him and get to him on an island in a huge swamp in october in northern ny. He was finally properly trained and had a man put time and effort into him, and he was not leaving that tree untill that cat came down and he finished it and I put him on a leash and took him home, I had to have dec get me in there on a air boat to get him. for a dog to keep a bobcat up for three days and nights means that hound was doing his job and he didnt sleep. some points that I want to make is hounds need to be properly trained in order to perform how you want them too, some are slow in maturing but once they are trained then you can judge there proper worth but you cant say that because a dog isnt tracking and treeing that it isnt a natural or wont turn out to be one of the better hunting dogs you have owned I think that because of this we have excluded alot of great hounds in the bluetick breed in our breeding program, some dogs do not start at an early age but this should not be a factor for acessing a dogs worth, and the best dogs arent always the ones that start at 6-8 months. We also have a tendecy as we get older and have more time with hunting that we lose our drive and motivation and some of our pups suffer from this because now that pup is a hinder in you hunting season and hes not getting the time he or she needs, I know some of you out there will realize what I am saying, I know I have been guilty of this A time or two. just some food for thought. Blueticker78
Josh Walter
