say you did bump a 8 month old pup twice in a week and he decided now he wanted to eat every other dog that passed his kennel youd have to be happy with that
say you did bump a 8 month old pup twice in a week and he decided now he wanted to eat every other dog that passed his kennel youd have to be happy with that
allot of dogs act like they want to eat other dogs, so id say no.
Anytime a young dog show this type of quality, it's always a good feeling. At least you know they are started young and don't have to worry if they will ever crank up or end up being cold. I would hate to waste 2 years of feeding and find out the dog was cold. Just be careful how you manage a young started up dog. You could easily ruin a good acting pup.
I agree it is fun to have early starters, but I wouldn't call a dog that hasn't started by 2 "cold" ... just unstarted.
Chinaman, Dibo, etc., etc. weren't started by 2 (3, 4, 5 ...) but they weren't cold either.
Actually, it is a biological fact in wolves that, while they may reach SEXUAL maturity at 13 months, they do not reach SOCIAL maturity until 3-5 years of age In other words, just because they have semen and may hike their leg doesn't mean they're ready to challenge for the pack leader until they're much older.
An intelligent dogman will take this biological fact to heart and, while some of his young dogs may "start" young, this does NOT mean they're ready to get into deep water yet and/or go all the way against a mature adult
Jack
PS: Another liability with doing dogs too young, aside from ruining them, is their teeth aren't fully set in their jaws yet. I can think of a dog named Green Eyes who was ruined by his owner not paying attention to this biological fact either
my pups been catching big boars 1 out since he was 4 months old he is already missing a canine.
GreenEyes lost his tooth before he was schooled. He was a stupid dog who bit anything he could get a hold of..crates,kennel, screws, trees, anything. You knew that cause when I picked him up you told me he was trying to bite anything shining like bowls and pop cans. That stupid dog ended losing all his hangers. Also his schooling started at 17 months. I wouldn't call that started young.
Most will agree it takes all kins in this game, both good and bad, both smart and dumb. If you hang around long enough you will see a little of it all. I know a guy who "started' his dogs if they came out to the end of the chain when moving other dogs around. He went thru a ton to get the ones he has now. My guess is a lot of the culled would have made it if he had waited. Seen other guys with a tons of patience. Feeding dogs til they were three or better only to find out in the end that the dog was not worth keeping. It goes both ways. Recently I sold a male because he was slow to start. At 20 month he had zero interest in anything. His littermates were all cranked up ripping and raring to go. One bitch has yet to meet anything she would not bite in half, roots, rocks, barrels, axles, she works on anything. Game bitch but not a promising performance future. The male I kept was awesome as long as he was winning. He didn't care for competition. The slow guy did his thing in :46 first time out on a 1XW. He was a little over three. I can either take the credit for breeding the dog or I can take my lumps knowing I sent the better of the two away.
Last edited by EWO; 12-07-2012 at 05:53 AM. Reason: sp
8 months is way to young. An i would'nt judge a pup or muture dog by the way he acts on the chain or how hard he bits an shakes the hide. I went to a guys house one time an he had some pants on a fence for the dog to fight an tug on. He kept telling me look at the way she's ripping an bitting them pants an saying how bad she was. We put that bitch on a hog an she got her ass whooped an was a straight cur. So i would'nt rush an risk messing up your pup on how bad he or she act on the chain or kennel.