Greg Goodin
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Jan 2006
Location: Sapulpa, OK
Posts: 10 |
Dog Age vs Ability
I love the comparison of the dog and a baseball player. I played alot of baseball growing up and I think of it this way.
First: 1 year in dog = 7 years human
so
at 12 months old, when alot of guys are pushing and pushing these young dogs, that corresponds to taking a 7 year old boy and making him play baseball every single night.
Yeah, some of the pups are exceptional and turn out to be superstars.
But its like this, if you have a 6 month old pup, and that equals a 3.5 year old kid. So, if your 3.5 year old goes and picks up a beer can, do you think it is best to just whip the piss out of him and break him right then and there so hard that he will never drink when he grows up?
My theory, altough unproven, is to start with one, work until they are 2-3 or say 14-21 in human, where they should show some significant signs of ability and you will know if they are gonna amount to anything, then start again. Always keeping a young one coming up behind them, that you can be excited about and replace them with if you have to cull them.
At 14-18 years old, most humans know if they have exceptional or even decent athletic ability, or if they are best suited to cut hair. Sure, you can work and work a kid who really aint that gifted, and eventually he may squeak into the big leagues.
In my limited experience, I have heard alot of guys give up on a young dog when they dont go out and perform the first or second or tenth time. Now, yes itd be nice to have one that did the very first time to the woods, anyone can make somethin out of that, but until I get my hands on one like that, ill just keep usin the toroise strategy.
I also really believe, its all about time and patience. Consistency is also a key ingredient. There are thousands of methods to achieve things, but I will say this. If you start a pup at 6 weeks old, and everytime he hears you whistle he gets a little bite of jerky when he gets to you, it dont take long before he comes everytime you whistle.
I personally think you get a mediocre dog that has been trained properly, they are more enjoyable to hunt than a superstar professional athlete that race horses in there and dont even tell you thanks for the ride to the woods.
Now, I dont wanna have to train one to tree, or show it how to trail, and i also dont wanna spend 2 hours every nite hollerin for it, chasin it down, beating its brains out or anything else.
I am looking for lines of dogs that trail naturally, tree naturally, and are dogs everywhere else. I think once this is found, then taking them to places where coon are, they will get faster and faster about goin to find a coon, then faster and faster about tracking one, then better and better at checking trees and getting it right.
May take the rest of my life but I hope someday i find it.
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