Thread: First hunting dog

Originally Posted by kawhia

we own a kennel full here, they are all different, have different strengths, temps and weaknesses but they are all still here.
all get as much work and training as we can get into them, some more than others purely on the above differences.
and yet they all do the job they were intended to do.
this advice to shoot the rubbish shouldn't even be in this thread as wirehunt says it has nothing to do with a pigdog or a rabbit mutt.
for a gundog / hunting dog get the cross or purebred that rocks ya boat and put the work in, if ya can't put the work in do the potential pup a favour and let someone else take it instead........ ya always hear the expceptions about how a pup was half trained and seemed to be doing it all at 10 mths old, but the reality is that's not the norm and you seldom get a free lunch no matter wot you pay..... expect to actually do some training and sometimes a lot more.
I hear more positives from guys who's best dog was there first one, and i have no issue selling a pup to a keen young competant hunter after his first pup and is keen as hell to put the time in. 90% of my pup buyers are hunters after a replacement but I enjoy getting the progress reports from the first timers.
you seldom get a complete cock up, a mismatch maybe but most can be trained to a usable standard with a little time and some advise.

Good to read of the confidence you have in your dogs. What about a different question then. Lets say the dog is good and it's the trainer's fault, he/she has given it so many bad habits and made a mess of it. Would you consider putting down a good dog that has be "ruined" by a bad trainer? In other terms, is there a point of no return, for an otherwise good dog, where it is either not possible or not practical to make right the mistakes of the trainer? I can't really see this happening with anyone who is a serious hunter and wants the best for their dog, and you might say you would never give a dog to someone who won't at least be an okay handler, but just hypothetically speaking, that is all.