How honest are you about your dog and his or her faults.

Robert W. Mccoy Jr · Post by **Robert W. Mccoy Jr** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 7:33 pm

How honest are you about your dog and his or her faults and strong points?
I have had this disscusion alot lately.

Usually when someone askes me about one of my dogs.
I tell them about the dog all of his good and bad points.
Most are shocked to hear me say a dog I own has a fault.

I can except a fault in a dog as long as it's not what I call a major fault.

I tell them all dogs have faults. Every single living breathing hunting dog has some fault. If not then they would be perfict.
And like humans there is no perfict dog. There are just some that are simply better than others.

Whether you reconize it or decide to ignore it is up to you.

Which is fine if you do not intend to breed your dog.

But once you cross that line you have to admit all of your dogs short comming and see if he or she throws those trats.

You Must not breed dogs with major faults which are tottally un exceptable.

I find it strange how very few people are critical of there dogs performance. Often times they are ofended by comments made by knowledgeable people.

I feal it is a great tool to have someone who really knows there stuff judge your dog. If you plan on useing it in a breeding program.

So how do you all feal about it?

How would you feal about someone showing you a major fault in your dog? If they knew there stuff and they were simply trying to help you.

Big Dog · Post by **Big Dog** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 8:48 pm

I am the worst critic of my own dogs. I am brutally honest on all of them and I probably over-analyze their strengths and weaknesses. I am pretty hard to please when it comes to dogs and my patience can be short. I give all young dogs up to a year to show me something, if they don't do anything to impress me by the time they are 1 I sell them. I run young dogs a lot and don't expect them to be experts they just have to show me some potential.

Big Dog

bluehound1 · Post by **bluehound1** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 10:47 pm

I will tell you what? I have only been raising beagles for 2 years. the first year me and my brother bought 3 dogs. Ran the crap out of them for about a year and none of them turn out to be worth a dang thing. Culled everyone of them. We curently have three 6 month old pups and a older female. The female is slow but works good for helping the pups out. She don't have alot of hunt in her but she will run a rabbit. Once we get are pups running good she will probably hit the road.
As for people telling me faults in my dogs it wouldn't bother me a bit. As long as they don't think there dogs are perfect. There are alot of people out there who will rag your dog and never say a thing about there own even if they have the same faults. Like you said every dog has some kind of fault but if anybody has a perfect rabbit dog I would invite you to come run with me sometime.
All I know is when I start raising litters of pups, which probaby wont be until a couple years down the road, I will be honest in everything about my dogs. I want people to be able to take me for my word. I have got burned before when I first got into it and man it really peaed me off. One of the major things me and my brother talked about when we got our pups is when we get them running and raising litters is to be honest with people. Hey thats the way I would want to be treated. Treat others as you would want to be treated.

Jeremy

Beagleman973 · Post by **Beagleman973** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 10:23 am

I like to think I've extra critical on judging my dogs. Whether it's too much mouth in the check area, maybe getting too wide in the check area too quick, being too competitive on the line, not competitive enough.

One thing I learned a long time ago, never talk about a man's wife or his dogs!! I'm usually very hesitant to give any opinions on another's dogs, and never do unless asked. And even when asked, I just answer the question they asked, did you think my dog was hooking, was he cheating the line, how do you think he searched. The reason I never offer more than asked is for several reasons. One, I might be seeing that dog on a bad day. He may look like a champion 9 times out of 10, but for whatever reason, today he was off. The other reason is, it's not my dog, I don't feed it, and I'm not going to point out something that they haven't asked. All of us get kennel blind some times, and for a lot of people, pointing that out is a great way to make an enemy!

B.Trull · Post by **B.Trull** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 10:24 am

I am critical of my hounds and continue to try and be objective with them. I think people have a hard time with this as they see the hound as a extension of themselves, much like their children. I look at my kennel of hounds as employees and they get reviews often and better do well or they get " FIRED" !!! Good luck

Brad
LonePine Kennels
Bowling Green, IN

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 3:46 pm

I commend everybody here who can be critical of their dogs and HONEST about it! We need mroe like you!

Grey Bruce · Post by **Grey Bruce** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 9:07 pm

If I want to see dogs do poorly all I have to do is brag on them and take some one out with me. I try to tell the truth about them faults and all but I'am not good at culling I have a female that should go but ( little to mouthy) but dam she's pretty and always happy and a good keeper.

Bopeye · Post by **Bopeye** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 12:33 am

I've only been back at this game for a little over a year now and still consider myself and old beginner. I ran dogs with a guy about 15 years ago and he had taught me a lot, but I didn't realize how much I had forgotten or never knew.

In the year I've been back into it, I've already owned somewhere in the neighborhood of 13 dogs or so and now just have 4 on the place. I sold most of them either because I didn't like something about them, needed the space or traded for another dog that I wanted.

I have gotten rid of 3 dogs that I wish I would have kept, but I didn't give them the time to prove themself. Made a mistake there.

I culled one permanently because in my opinion wouldn't ever make a good hunting dog. That was last year and have regretted it ever since. I judged him too soon I now believe.

This first year I believe I have been TOO hard on my dogs. I wasn't allowing for age, time spent in the field, my having to relearn some things or learn them, and not giving them a long enough evaluation time. I made some regrettable mistakes, but I guess that goes with anything when your trying to learn how to do it again.

I will now give a pup a minimum of 10 months to a year to show me their potential. If I acquire another older dog I will give them more than just a run or two before passing judgement on them.

I found that the one thing that I lacked was patience. Kids are born with the potential to be anything they want to be, but someone has to teach them a few things first before they can start doing brain surgery.
I now believe to a lesser extent that a pup is the same way. Although they are bred to run rabbits, we still have to give them the field time, exposure to rabbits and time in the yard to help them reach their full potential.

Sorry I got so windy and kind of off topic, but just had to share my thoughts. Sometimes the problem doesn't lie with the dog, but the man that owns him. I've learned a lot this year and I guess will continue to do so for as long as I play this game.

Bopeye · Post by **Bopeye** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 12:35 am

I've only been back at this game for a little over a year now and still consider myself and old beginner. I ran dogs with a guy about 15 years ago and he had taught me a lot, but I didn't realize how much I had forgotten or never knew.

In the year I've been back into it, I've already owned somewhere in the neighborhood of 13 dogs or so and now just have 4 on the place. I sold most of them either because I didn't like something about them, needed the space or traded for another dog that I wanted.

I have gotten rid of 3 dogs that I wish I would have kept, but I didn't give them the time to prove themself. Made a mistake there.

I culled one permanently because in my opinion wouldn't ever make a good hunting dog. That was last year and have regretted it ever since. I judged him too soon I now believe.

This first year I believe I have been TOO hard on my dogs. I wasn't allowing for age, time spent in the field, my having to relearn some things or learn them, and not giving them a long enough evaluation time. I made some regrettable mistakes, but I guess that goes with anything when your trying to learn how to do it again.

I will now give a pup a minimum of 10 months to a year to show me their potential. If I acquire another older dog I will give them more than just a run or two before passing judgement on them.

I found that the one thing that I lacked was patience. Kids are born with the potential to be anything they want to be, but someone has to teach them a few things first before they can start doing brain surgery.
I now believe to a lesser extent that a pup is the same way. Although they are bred to run rabbits, we still have to give them the field time, exposure to rabbits and time in the yard to help them reach their full potential.

Sorry I got so windy and kind of off topic, but just had to share my thoughts. Sometimes the problem doesn't lie with the dog, but the man that owns him. I've learned a lot this year and I guess will continue to do so for as long as I play this game.

steve · Post by **steve** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 9:57 am

I keep a log or diary of all my dogs from how old they are when they start to every fault good or bad I'm hard on my dogs and expect pups to start by 6mths old or there gone and I show this to anyone who wants to see,I also point out these things when hunting.You have to be honest with yourself or your gonna get kennel blinds.Set goals and go for them 1 at a time.

DRamey · Post by **DRamey** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 11:33 am

Good to be back! Thanks, Bev, for fixing me. To reply, I'm too honest with the faults of my hounds. I approached this question a little differently, from the aspect of someone who is selling a hound. I have bought hounds from people and when they turned out to have major faults, the seller replied "Well, you didn't ask me that!" My problem, and that is why I could never get much out of hounds I was culling from my pack (which is down to one running hound and one 4-month old pup) is that I must be too honest. I put one hound up for sale once and the guy that tried him liked him. When I couldn't stand it any more, I melted down. I shouted, "AINTCHA GONNA ASK ME IF'N HE RUNS DEER, COYOTES, SQUIRRELS, FOXES OR TURKEYS????!!!" He said, "well, does he?" I said, "YEAH, ALL OF 'EM, SOMETIMES MORE THAN ONE AT A TIME.!" Needless to say, the price went down some. Anyway, I guess I'm asking if a potential buyer needs to ask the right questions or if a reputable seller should volunteer all the info. There seems to be an unwritten rule among some that if I don't ask the right questions, it's my fault if I get a cull. What do you think about this?

Steve C. · Post by **Steve C.** » Sun Mar 28, 2004 10:57 am

If you're not honest with yourself when judging your own dogs then the only one you're hurting is yourself. It takes a lot of experience to recognize faults in a hound and it's always a problem knowing for sure when a dog has had enough time to reach his potential. Unless a hound in my kennel has a serious fault; mouthy, trashy, quit, etc, I don't like to give up on them before their second hunting season. I have one now that's about 2 1/2 years old; he was a nice dog but not very tough and occasionally barked dog if they did not get a run going for half an hour or so. In the last month he's suddenly become one of my top 4 or 5 hounds. Just took him longer than most to develop but he's now one that I can brag on a little. Most of my pups will start by 6 or 7 months old, but if they don't, that doesn't bother me at all. It's been my experience that age at starting has no bearing whatsoever on the outcome of that particular dog. Often a dog reaches the age he should start during the dead of winter when the old dogs struggle- he's not going to start under those circumstances. Patience often pays off and I've seen some awfully good hounds come from people who got impatient with their pups. As for giving an opinion on someone else's hounds, I usually withhold comment unless asked. Then I'll tell them the truth. I judge quite a few trials so I've gotten used to giving handlers the bad news about their dog's faults. Most don't accept the truth but some respect an unbiased opinion.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Mar 29, 2004 9:25 am

I dont think there is a tougher critic of his own dog than I am. I run my dogs 20 hours a week or more. usually four to five times a week and I know what they do well and what they dont do well. Every living breathing dog has a fault of some kind. If you have a fault free dog bring him over and I will watch him for two weeks and I bet I can pick up something. It might be very very very minor but each dog has a fault and I will never believe there is a perfect dog. If someone asked me what I thought of my hound I would be the first to tell them the good and the bad.