He do you go about picking a pup?

[lawdawgharris]

This has been asked and discussed a million times. I still want to hear from everyone about how y’all go about picking a pup?


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[dwalton]

The best way to pick a pup is to go hunt with the parents. take to the breeder to see why he bred these two and how many generations has he been breeding his dogs. them ask yourself that is this the type of dog you want for what you hunt, do you want a hard charging dog or more settled dog that stick to the scent trail makes les or no looses. there is a lot to picking a pup that should start a long time before the litter is here. dewey

[lawdawgharris]

Dewey I agree with your approach. How do you go about picking a pup out of a litter? Say it was your litter and you are only keeping one or two, how would you choose?


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[macedonia mule man]

I’ve picked more that didn’t make it than did. It’s just luck, I picked pups that had good strong sire and dam that didn’t turn out to suit me.

[Emqhmq]

It's the luck of the draw from what I've experienced I've tried a lot of different tactics that old timers have told me ( first out of the box, solid colored head, one that's most active etc. ) so to be honest I think it's just luck just my opinion when actually picking one out of a litter.


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[dwalton]

to pick a pup one needs to lookout what you want in a pup are you a bobcat hunter from the north west or South Texas bobcat hunter do you prefer to cold trail or run a good track quick.A bear hunter or lion hunter or coon hunter. I have been trying to breed bobcats for several years six generations of dogs born here with only two out crosses. If I want a good cold trailing dog that can work out a cold track i would pick a pup that is laid back and thinks before he acts. IF I looking for a drive dog to push a cat hard trying to catch it on the ground it would be a quicker move pup bold and active. the thing of it is that here it takes both i have own a lot of dogs there is no perfect dog it takes a teem working together honoring each other no barking off track. A dog should have great conformation that is hard to see as a pup so look at parents. A dog should bark only when it smell cat preferable a clean cat track again look at parents. If it is running a jumped cat scent funnel it can open or be running for the lead. I do not like a hard running pup that can not be still it will be an ADS pup to busy to work a track. I want a pup that starts early 5 to 8 months does not open on track with or behind orders dogs until he is about a year to a year and a half old. I have owned so great bobcat dogs, some good ones some that could catch a cat sometimes and some that looked really good that could not catch a cat. In February it will be 60 years since I treed my first bobcat with my dogs by my shelf. Good luck picking a pup. Dewey

[lawdawgharris]

That’s interesting guys. Dewey that’s a neat thought process. I hope I get 60 years out of these hog hunting dogs of mine. I have about 30 years in trying to breed a family of dogs. I’m not as far along as a lot folks would be simply because I haven’t been in a big hurry. I make my breeding selections according to what I feel needs improving with my dogs. Both parents will be good dogs or I won’t use them and both parents will be out of a litter that was a high percentage litter or I won’t use them. I try to breed to excessive a lot of times as well. What I mean is say I had a female that was a really good dog, but when I grade her, she doesn’t put enough teeth on a running hog or bays too loose. I will breed her to a male that grades out well but has too much bite. In my experience, if I breed to that dog that is closer to my ideal wants, my pups are usually still going to come up short where I was trying to improve them because the gyp is likely going to water the sires amount of bite down. If she waters the excessive dogs gene down I USUALLY hit closer to my mark. That one characteristic needs to be the biggest and hopefully the only difference in the breeding pair as well. No matter if it’s a line breeding or an outcross, I want the pair to be as similar as possible with the exception of that one characteristic. I’ve been told and heard it said a lot that when you go to pick a pup you should be able to reach in blind and grab one and come out with a good one. I agree, but the one factor I usually end up using to pick is chemistry. There almost always seems to be a particular pup or two I’m just drawn to and for whatever reason it seems like a mutual thing. That’s the one I’m going to keep most often. I had a litter once that I was excited about, but I didn’t have connection with not one puppy in the litter. There was nothing wrong with them and they almost every one made nice dogs but not for me. I didn’t keep a one of them because of the chemistry thing. I did end up getting one of them back at about a year old because the fella couldn’t keep him. He turned out nice and I even bred him once. He out produced himself because the litter he sired had several way above average dogs, competing for the lead dog role at a year to year and a half old. So I grade my pups on traits that I know run in my dogs when they are little and then hopefully the pup I have the chemistry with has graded out well enough that I’m comfortable picking it. It can sometimes get knit picky and come down to picking a pup on color or markings, but only as a tie breaker lol.


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[oneguy828]

I agree with Dewey in that picking the litter is the most important part of the equation.

That being said, when I look at a litter of pups I want the best looking dog. I am picking pups that are hopefully going to be bred down the road, looks and color are only a small part of what makes a dog, but why gamble on a dog that is not put together right, or look the way you want them too.

Breeding dogs for size, looks, mouth, speed, toughness should be the easiest because those are tangible traits and you should have the most success in breeding for them.

I have had the runt and biggest in the litter and that doesn’t necessarily indicate their size at maturity. I know people have a soft spot for the runt, but typically I see the biggest pups turn out pretty good on average.

All this being said knowing multiple dogs as far back in the pedigree as possible to determine the track style, tree style, demeanor and how that is expressed phenotypically is the best determining factor in what your going to get, and that still isn’t foolproof!

Spending 1500 dollars to go hunt with a bunch of dogs out of a particular line to get a feel for it is much better money spent than a 1500 dollar pup.

[lawdawgharris]

Nothing is full proof for sure. I was just having a conversation earlier with a real good dog man. I have a young dog, about 11 months old, that is a 1/4 outside blood. She’s pretty dang impressive for her age and the things she’s already doing in only her third hunt. So far all signs point to the possibility that she could be top shelf as a hog dog. Like my buddy said though, I have to deal with them a whole lot more around home than I actually hunt them. That being said, I need them to be a certain way around the house in order for me to be able to get along with them. This is where the chemistry thing comes in a lot. It’s no different than seeing my wife for the first time and thinking, man she’s a looker. There were other relatively nice looking gals around, but either they just wanted me for my body or my money. My wife though, bless her poor cursed little self, was just about me the person. Her obsession with my body and my money came later. So now she’s stuck with me much the same way I’m usually stuck with that pup I have natural chemistry with.


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[dwalton]

If one does not like the pup or see traits that you like that pup will probably not work out for you years ago i tried a pup from well know breeders about every year those did not work for me not saying that they did not make good dogs that worked for others they just did have in them what i was looking for. I have owned some top bobcat does that make it look easy and some that could tree bobcats but there is a difference. i want a easy handling dog that hunts with me works a cold track moves it with no barking off track or coming back to the same bush to smell it again that locates and trees in our big tree country Dewey

[oneguy828]

A good, motivated dog trainer can turn almost any pup into adequate game catchers.

It’s about finding a pup that really makes you excited to go hunting with, whether it makes sense to anybody else or not!

[macedonia mule man]

One guy, I think you are dead on right. Reading pedigrees, studying blood lines and talking up a certain line of dogs is ok but put a pup in the right man’s dog box is the key.

[lawdawgharris]

I totally think a good dog man can make a decent dog out of about any pup. Give that dog man a pup out of just anything vs a pup that has purpose and intent behind his breeding and there is a dramatic difference 9 1/2 out of ten times in the way that they get it done. If a dog that is just good enough to be able to say it gets the job done is satisfactory for the person feeding it then by all means that’s fine. It isn’t for me though. I’ve been fortunate enough to hunt behind dogs that really raise the bar. Seeing the difference between those dogs and the ones that do just enough makes me want the top tier types. It’s no different than a job. I don’t ever want to be second best. It doesn’t mean I’m am #1, but it does mean that #1 can’t go to slacking because I’m always trying to improve. I want my team to have faith in me. That mind set is contagious a lot of times too. When the whole team wants to be the best then they are hard to beat. My dad always taught us kids that you’re only as god as the people you surround yourself with. That rule applied to home life, work, sports, etc. etc. I don’t feel like it’s any different in hunting. I want to turn loose the best dogs I can. I want to do my part for the dogs to the best of my ability. If I do and the dog doesn’t prove to give the same effort then I don’t feel bad about parting ways with it. I also think being a good dog man is like being a good leader. What makes one dog tick or causes things to click in their brain may not be the same as the next dog. You may have to use a different approach with each one. People are no different. You may tell one teammate hey, this guy is doing this and if make this adjustment you’ll beat him. The next one you may have to say hey, do you enjoy getting your butt handed to you , because he’s out hustling and out wanting you? The next one may need to hear hey if he whips your butt like that again I’m gonna whip your butt! Now get in there and handle your business!! One dog may need soft handling where another might need something more stern where the next may just need a hint. I hunt dogs for the opportunity to watch them work. There are a lot of things that my dogs have to be able to do to be good successful hog dogs. It isn’t Ike a greyhound that basically just had to be the fastest. Being able to perform all these tasks and doing to a standard is poetry in motion as they say. Some of things just make you wonder how I’m the heck they did it or even thought fast enough to do it. I remember watching my Ava gyp go through the brush one day. She was moving so fast and so snakey that it didn’t even look like she was hardly touching the brush as she went through it and it was thick, low lying brush. It was a a real treat and I just admired how she maneuvered without jabbing a stick in her eye or anything. So yes I agree most dogs can be made into a hunting did but they can’t all be the same caliber.


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[dwalton]

I breed and for bobcats i want a top cat dog. The only way to get it is by knowing the breeding. i have pups here 7 months that only have one out cross in six generations. You can not put something in a dog that is not born with it. training can make a big difference but will not make that top dog if it is not there to bring out. There are a lot of good cat hunters in the northwest today. everybody has there own standards and a few can get the best out of what they have. How many cat hunter have treed 4 or 5 cats a day. How many tree 50 cats a year. those are the hunters with good dogs and know how to get the best out of them. I breed and pick pups the are smart, that are easy to handle and trainI never brake a dog off trash because they never run anything but bobcats and a lion ever so often When hunt bear hard in the 70' we had to trash break those dum hard headed dog they would run everything. If a dog is raised right it should never run trash. if you show it what you want you don't have a trash problem. I had 15 pups out of two of female that have 5 and 6 generations every dog in there breeding but one has been born here. I keep[ 6 pups for me and most of the rest went to people that have hunted my dogs or ones that have had in the past. Those pups are 7 months old now when I get days not hunting[ raining] I will tell you how that's working out. why i picked those that i keep Dewey
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[oneguy828]

In my experience, dogs with good breeding want to run tree game more than anything else. Like a Cowdog likes cows, and a bird dogs like birds.

With today’s Technology and breeding from good breeders trash breaking is fairly easy even with a stubborn dog. Just takes a handler that knows, not thinks, what he is seeing and hearing.