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Pups starting time.

I had an interesting conversation with my buddy and I would like to see everyone's thoughts on it. What do you expect a pup to be doing by certain ages? For me if a pup is not going hunting and showing that they at least want to tree a coon by 10 months-12 months they are of no use to me. I know some people who keep them until they are 2 or even longer. My thoughts on pups are that even if the dog who wasn't doing anything by the time it was 1 starts to do more than it originally was, It's still not going to satisfy me to be what i want it to be. I like putting time in one that i enjoy taking to the woods by itself and generally speaking don't go home mad every night. How long do you give your pups?

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I'm fortunate enough to have a place for my pups to run loose from 5 months old until I think they are ready. As for me and them getting to run loose I think by 8-10 months old if they are still laying on the porch they need to be someone else's pet. I usually have 3-4 running loose at a time and can tell pretty quick my pick or favorites out of them. More goes into it though as in brains, how gamey they are, and how good their mouths are. I am constantly watching my pups grow and mature while running around the yard.

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Several different factors involved. Is this pup out of an early starting strain and is the owner a puppy person? I've been called a liar as to the age some of my pups started. Yadkin River pups generally start early and if you can read pups and be careful with them and hold their interest and not burn them out it's not unusal to be hunting them and treeing coon at 7 months old. I bred to Tony Daviduks Wild Clover dog twice and he said his started at 9 months old and it proved to be true. He actually came down and hunted with me to see a 7 month old run and tree its own coon right by itself.
See if you can get oldsouth123 to respond to this post as he's one of the better puppy persons I've ever seen. He used to have pups treeing before the milk was dry on their mouths. Ok maybe a slight exaggeration.

If given a proper chance i want mine at least running and treeing solid with an old dog by 12 months old. I've had several I was hunting by themselves by then.

If you expect a pup to be running and treeing by 12 mos old, how long do you keep a dog? Do you then sell that dog by 2-3 yrs old or do you keep your dogs until they are 6-10 yrs old? How many coons will a dog tree in it's lifetime if it starts at 12 mos old and is hunted until it is 10-12 yrs old? If a pup starts at 12 mos old, when will it "peak"? If a pup starts at 12 mos old will it be through at 4 yrs old?

quote:

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Originally posted by Richard Lambert
If you expect a pup to be running and treeing by 12 mos old, how long do you keep a dog? Do you then sell that dog by 2-3 yrs old or do you keep your dogs until they are 6-10 yrs old? How many coons will a dog tree in it's lifetime if it starts at 12 mos old and is hunted until it is 10-12 yrs old? If a pup starts at 12 mos old, when will it "peak"? If a pup starts at 12 mos old will it be through at 4 yrs old?

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Most of my pups are also running and treeing at least with the old dog by a year old. Actually most will tree coon alone by that age.
A pup that won't hunt isn't much good. I haven't had 1 like that for over a decade. Knock on wood. I generally start a couple a year.
I don't keep many to there older years. I have 1 right now that is 4 years old. Yep they can tree a lot of coon before there 2 years old. Why wait that long. If ya put in a the time and there not getting it done by a year old I'm moving on to the next pup.