picking puppies

little bit · Post by **little bit** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:17 am

what do you guys look for in a pup, besides breeder's, and sire and bitch. i have a litter so the breeder and the parents will be my faul. just want to know what you guys think, i usually let them pick me by selling them all untill i have one left.

Mike Leonard · Post by **Mike Leonard** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 10:19 pm

The secret to a huge part of it is in the first sentence of your post.

Know the breeder, then know the sire and dam, and it is also very critical to know their ancestors or if they were just one out of a litter that sombody thought was good enough to breed to another dog that is pretty good so let's cross them. I got to tell you if you really don't have some understanding of the line, the crosses the performing characterisitics of several generations then you might as well let you wife or girlfriend pick the pup because they will have just as high a percentage of success and failure as you without that knowledge. Also as I have stated before buy pups from hunters who raise pups for their own use and have to sell some of the extra ones. Buing them from folks that just raise dogs to sell is mighty risky business. Also make sure the pups have been properly fed, wormed, vaccinated, and socialized to people, sights sounds and such.

Tall order? Yep sure is but in the end it doesn't cost any more to feed a good prospect as it does to feed a likely failure that you will likely get tired of messing with and have to dump and start over.

Good luck with the pups.

little bit · Post by **little bit** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 11:45 pm

thanks mike. i have run hounds for 15 years, the frist hound i got , got meaning free, is the best hound iv hunted behind. i have bought alot of pups after that none of them toed the mark but one. my frist hound was a male the other a female so before my male was gone i bred, got some good pups 1 cull 2 exceptional pups. i have bred three times since crossing some relatives, and other dogs i thought highly of. all my litters are mostly solid dogs some exceptional dogs, few culls. just wondered what you looked for in a line your happy with. i was missing feet and a little grit at frist, but now i have good cat footed dogs with plenty of grit for the most part. just looking for so advice from some more experienced hounds men. thanks little bit.