Working with young'unz

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Hardcore Kennel
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Jul 02, 2016 2:23 pm

Working with young'unz

Post by Hardcore Kennel »

I'm interested in how other people might handle very young dogs. When I raise a litter I raise them off the ground for the fist couple months. After I give them their 8 week old shot I start putting them on the ground every day weather permitting. Once I've let them play around at the house and roam around, building coordination and muscle, getting confident with exploration I start taking them to the woods at about 12-16 weeks old. They don't do much in the woods except fight explore that new environment, maybe smell some new smells. I do this until they start.

It's hard to say what I'm going to say next because I know it's not true in all cases and I know there are exeptions I've raised a few myself; but it seems to me if a dog wants to do it, by "it" I mean what it was breed to do, it's going to do it on its own. It doesn't need me to push it into it, and those are the dogs that I WANT to work with. I'll work with others that may need more encouragement but I'm looking for the ones that don't. I understand that just because a dog starts fast doesn't mean its going to be a good dog either I had a dog I called Smoke who was a world beater until about 18 months old and he quit hunting, he would still pack but didn't want to hunt for a rabbit after starting off great. So I guess my point is I only have so much time ever week to work with dogs and I'd rather put that time into dogs that have a natural drive or desire to do what I'm asking it to do. Right now I have 3 older dogs who I'm happy with where they are and I'm waiting to breed, until then I'm happy to prank with a young dog I got from a friend even though normally he's not the kind of dog I would keep.

This is the starting point I take with my approach. I would love to hear everyone elses thoughts on those early months of puppy development and how ya'll handle this time in their lives.

billpapas
Posts: 92
Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2012 6:44 pm
Location: schoharie ny

Re: Working with young'unz

Post by billpapas »

I start mine soon as they open there eyes handling them daily, at about 8 weeks I put them on tame rabbits in the yard I let them work them for a few outing. then on the wild they go with a slow old down to get them on rabbits until they can jump and half ass circle one ,and then there on there own. It work for me the pup I’m working now at just 5 month is gettin the job done as fare as jumping and running the rabbit. I’m very impressed wid here progressing daily!!

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