Registered: May 2016
Location: Palatka, FL
Posts: 5106

Like many of you out there, I generally start my own pups. Seems like when they are small and your taking all those cute pictures of them. There are a lot of dreams taking place on the pups future. What factor or factors takes place for you to realize you might have a keeper and what factors take place for you to feel that keeper. Might live up to some of the dreams you had about it.

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Registered: Jan 2014
Location: Ohio
Posts: 69

When that pup treeing it's own coon consistantly and seeing the coon, Isnt running trash ( at least not regularly, I dont expect a dog to never run off game once in a blue moon). Also it has to have a good handle on it. Up until that point all bets are off. It may be 2-3years old before I decide it's a keeper. By that age it should be a well started dog close to being finished. If I cant take it to the woods and be confident it will show me a coon when I turn it loose by 2-3years old it's not one I'm going to keep.

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Registered: Jan 2017
Location: Miami, Ok
Posts: 384

I like pups to show several different characteristics that im looking for,

1). They must fly around the woods well
2). Have heart and do whatever they are doing at the best of their ability 100% of the time.
3). Want to please and have some brains about themselves.

If they show me these things I can help mold them. You cant put hunt, try, or brains into a dog but you can always take it out with electric. You just have to know where to put all that energy and put it towards a positive ending!

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Registered: Feb 2012
Location: airville,pa
Posts: 2072

I don't really think of any of them as keepers. I will keep hunting them as long as I have them. I will most likely sell them at some point unless I don't feel they are something worth while then I just cull um. I don't need a pet.

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Registered: Jan 2007
Location: monroeville OH
Posts: 2685

6-8 mts old I know if they are keepers or not... and they don't get sold if not keepers... But they also get hunted .

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Registered: Feb 2015
Location: NW Arkansas
Posts: 1110

All my life I have dogs that were keepers till I found something better that I could afford, lol.

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Tom Wood

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: Freeport,TX
Posts: 1911

The pups are on a progressive curve...at 10 weeks I keep the 4 I like best...at 4 months I am down to three pups...at 6 months I am down to 2 pups...at ten months I am sure if I am keeping one or both...at 18 months I will know if one is worthy of breeding in the future or not...

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Registered: Oct 2004
Location: Clarksville, AR
Posts: 1074

I hate to admit it, but by the time a pup is 6-8 months old I've gotten so aggrevated with them, that it's hard for them to ever outshine and overcome my temper. I've had to put up with half a year of pen barking, poop stomping, and bowl chewing, and I'm looking for an excuse, sometimes any excuse, to do something different. I really think I need to find a partner that has patience and enjoys puppies, who will send them to me when they're ready to roll.

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Registered: Jun 2014
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 3370

I don't think I'm as picky as some on here. When a pup can tree coons on a regular basis he's a keeper. But he's got to stay treed. And he's got to be accurate. And he's got to go hunting. And he's got to be able to move a track. Maybe I'm a little pickier than I thought.

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Donald Bergeron

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Registered: Sep 2009
Location: Monticello, Wi
Posts: 744

To be a keeper they have to be equal or better than my best dog and must be something that I'd want to raise a pup out of in the future.

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: north ala.
Posts: 902

quote:

---

Originally posted by shadinc
I don't think I'm as picky as some on here. When a pup can tree coons on a regular basis he's a keeper. But he's got to stay treed. And he's got to be accurate. And he's got to go hunting. And he's got to be able to move a track. Maybe I'm a little pickier than I thought.

---

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Registered: Dec 2003
Location: Mercer PA
Posts: 4821

I am not that picky.....I can't afford to be. I think for me its easier to find things that make it NOT a keeper.

If a dog is good in the kennel, doesn't bark, will go hunting a decent bit BY ITSELF and get treed, I am pretty happy. You would be stunned how hard it is for me to find these things.

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: north ala.
Posts: 902

Not nearly as stunned as you might think!! Lol

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Registered: Jul 2003
Location: Lockridge Iowa
Posts: 2844

Once there started they aren't keepers anymore.

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Registered: Jan 2018
Location: South Carolina
Posts: 47

A dog I like, a dog I have fun hunting, a dog I am proud to own, and a dog that makes me happy. It takes very special dogs to accomplish these things, I'm fortunate to have owned a few. That's my keepers.

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: Freeport,TX
Posts: 1911

quote:

---

Originally posted by DMW
A dog I like, a dog I have fun hunting, a dog I am proud to own, and a dog that makes me happy. It takes very special dogs to accomplish these things, I'm fortunate to have owned a few. That's my keepers.

---

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Registered: Jan 2006
Location: WV
Posts: 821

I'm sure we all have different criteria to determine what a keeper is and at what age do we decide if it is. In my old age I have gotten much more picky. At one time, I wasn't nearly so hard to please. You can tell a whole lot about a pup/dog while in the kennel. Does it bark all the time, does it crap everywhere and slip and slide in it, does it pace all the time, is it ill towards the other dogs in the kennel, is it shy??? That's just a few things. These things alone doesn't mean it won't be a keeper but it's a pretty good guideline to go by. Just because a dog has good kennel manors still doesn't mean it will make the grade. I usually have a good idea to whether I want to keep one by a year old. If you have given it ample hunting time it should have shown you something to this point. Some take a little longer but usually they will have shown some interest and have some manors. Know what to look for and it makes your job easier. Course there's always that one that no one wants and turns out to be a real wiz bang, LOL! That's usually the exception and not the rule though.

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Registered: Aug 2008
Location: SE Ohio, Glouster
Posts: 2244

Is a dog that somewhere between 12 and 18 months of age it starts showing me exceptional ability in some of, (if not all) these areas.

Nose, ability to strike a track, not much junk, track speed, hunt, quickness to locate, and accuracy.

If I see a dog with many (if not all) the above mentioned abilities, It is probably a keeper.

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Registered: Nov 2004
Location: tennessee
Posts: 856

I would say they become keepers whenever you are satisfied with there actions. Everyone is different on what they expect a pup to do at different ages. What I consider acceptable actions at 9 months old you may not.

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: north ala.
Posts: 902

When I have to force myself to take a pup hunting instead of looking forward to taking it ... I'm done with it no matter what it's doing!

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Registered: May 2009
Location: Glenwood, Ark
Posts: 207

I don't expect perfection over night. They are dogs and they all progress differently. As long as I can see progression each time we go to the woods then I know I have something to work with. And as I watch the progression unfold, then I wait on the switches to start clicking. If you know dogs very well at all then you know what I'm talking about. And last but not least, we need to click. For example, I can walk up to a tree with my old dog and if it's slick, all I need to do is tell him. "It's slick, I can't find it" and he will go on. And be able to call him of a tree across water. The dog needs to understand me and I need to be able to understand some of what he or she does. I don't like those stubborn, rattle headed, glazed eyed kind, although I have been beat by many of them, I like to hunt with my buddy. They are not just tools to me.

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Registered: Jan 2018
Location: n/w ohio
Posts: 312

Bruce I'm bored. Was rereading old posts and came across this. So here is what I am looking at. My 2nd pup in 42 years. So you know I'm a pro at training.LoL! I have read all pro's and con's does and don'ts on this board. Normally throw out 75% and keep the other 25% as a asset of knowledge for training. What I have come up with is intelligence. Remember that! I know nothing about bloodlines pedigrees champions or any of that stuff. I hunt with culls. Read that definition of a cull on here. LoL!

When we went to look at 4 month old pup that I found in the classifieds I saw intelligence. Owner has pup in a dog box in truck. Gives me a sales pitch shows me the puppy papers. More sales pitch and shows me pup will lead. Water puddles everywhere. Owner starts slopping through them with pup on the lead. Pup stayed out of every puddle. When they return pup is dry owner is wet to knees. In my mind at that time. I knew this pup is trainable.
I have left her be a pup she kennels with my 8 yr old redbone female. In a 25 by 50 pen. Pen has ropes hinging from tree old shoes rubber livestock feed pans. 2 times a day she does the livestock chores with me. Caught on to the routine. Knows not to bother the cats until they are done eating. Then they all belong on top of the skidsteer loader.
Oh yea from the start she ran track with the old dogs. At 4.5 mouths started a track that her and the old dogs finished. Has helped track and tree several coon during our kill season. I haven't pushed her hard on hunting but to most I don't hunt hard. She is a pup with a lot of want to learn in her. She will be a year old at sweetcorn time. We will have a lot of fun training then. I plant $200 to $300 dollars worth of sweetcorn throughout my corn fields. This makes for some real fun. And the neighbors like it also.
Sorry little off topic. But without the intelligence I don't think she would be a keeper.
Randi

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Registered: Dec 2013
Location: ky
Posts: 2263

When the wife sees it!! So then I have no choice but to make something out of it no matter how much I hate it lol

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