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How young is too young to start a pup on cats? I have a couple of excellent prospects, impressing me more and more each time. One trails better then the other but one has better speed and they both have good grit. They are about 9 months old. Is it too young to put them behind the older dogs in some peoples opinion or are they at a perfect age to put them out in the woods behind and finished dog and let them learn? Both did good on a bobcat drag but like I said one is better at trailing, the other one just needs work and I got her at 6 months old and never got to work on her once bear season started like I did my other pup I got at 3 months old. Next step a couple more difficult drags?

pups start at different ages in my opinion 9 months is plenty old enough. Try them if they are not ready give them another month or so.If one starts and the other dont keep the best one and put your time in to it

I generally start my pups when they are old enough to keep up on lions or bobcats, and six or so months is about the right time to do that. I start roading them first at about five months, and when they show me they can keep up I start taking them hunting with the big dogs. That three year old Ru Lui bitch of mine was born in January and had to start on bear because of the time of year, and to date has only missed one lion or bear tree. And none of those young dogs of mine have ever seen a coon or small game first, as laws and attitudes are changing and I don't own a trap. I suppose a pup could get hurt by a lion or bear, but most young dogs will be a little stand-off and not try and pull hair on either until they get a little maturity.

ike

Well one of the pups is my fastest dog, she is built identically to a greyhound and is the fastest dog Ive probably seen. She can straight run! The other dog supprised me yesterday on a training session and he kept up pretty good with her but he is slower, but not slow. They both were started on bear this last year, pretty good. They will both strike off the box with the dogs, the faster one is a little trashier and needs work and I have been working with her, the other one hasnt really trashed out at all. One is a better strike dog (faster one), and one is a better trailing dog (slower one). The faster one started her own bear this last year, and all 8 dogs made it to the tree. They need a little help treeing but showed a LOT of improvement yesterday. The slower one is always towards the front of the pack already as he always has his nose to the ground, even on a cold trail and tries hard to work it out. So they arent too young, thats good, ill just keep getting them into the woods and hopefully I can get a finished dog or have one of my buddies help me out.

i start turning pups loose on tracks when they can jump on there dog house . which is about the hight of a toyota tailgate. figure if they can do that then they can get over a log . another thing i do is if they a bawling lost i dont go get them.i dont call for them at first. if you let them be some times they will come out by there self . if you let them sit for an hour or so bawling when you do call them they useually shut up and come out.

A pup is never to young to take cat hunting if anything they do the monkey see monkey do thing from loading to all other aspects of handling if the old dogs get out of the box the pup should have the same oprotunity may not always do what old dogs do but if given the chance that is how they learn if they are to young to fallow atleast they have the opprotunity to learn the other things that are needed to have a great handling dog and over time they will be fallowing the older dogs if they have what it takes to become a cat dog. At 9 months of age in my eyes a pup should be tring his best to make cat races with the older dogs. later, Andy

i got a five month old cameron majestic pup that is going every where my big dogs are going. season just started so hopefully saturday we can send her on a full chase but i think she will do fine she has trainers down perfect on her own and doing it better than any pup i have ever had. so my belief is start exposing them as soon as you can. i turn mine lose and let them go as far as i can and pick them up along the way and haul them to the tree.

i had a pup that would trail and even treed 2 lions by herself at 10 months old without any older dogs on dry ground problem was she would try trailing on fox if you couldnt get her on a track and let her get bored but she would flat work a track just as hard as any old dog but she got killed before the age of 2.

Bucknaze, really good question. Problem is each dog is different. You'll have to guage them by trial and error. Some wanna start early and keep progressing and others come around later on and end up bein just as good of dogs. Depends on what you are looking for in your hounds. I personally like to see my pups wanting to work early. Different thing for different people.

I've tried to make dogs by leavin them on the chain and didn't have very good luck. They are better off chasin deer then sittin on a chain. Best of luck.

This is all encouraging. I just bought a pup that comes out of some reputable lines that is known for early starts among many other traits. And so I guess having a pup that will hunt at earlier ages is something to look for. Might as well enjoy all the time we can with them. It would be a short relationship if we had to wait 5 or 6 years for every dog to come around.

I usually start my pups on cats as soon as they can keep up with the dogs. I put a five month old pup in with my two older dogs yesterday and he kept up really good. I normally wouldn't put a pup this young in with the dogs but it was a really old track and the dogs ended up moving super slow. They ended up catchin the lion in a short cedar tree. My pup treed like crazy and learned a ton.

Thats great to hear! Its amazing how much a pup can learn by starting an old track and just seeing the game in the tree. Greaty success story, what is the pups breeding?

"How Young is Too Young?"

Well it really depends on your state and all that age of consent stuff. A good rule of thumb is to wait until you get certified verification of 18 then you are covered. Ask Kev about that whole deal. How do you think he learned how to weld?

As for dogs, it all depends. If I've got a couple, I wait until they show me something (ie fired up on a critter or go right with the other dogs). If I've got one, I ship them with every chance I get. I usually try to put them in situations where they will have success, make a road, make a tree, or where I can track them down easy if they get screwed up. If they are too busy playing grabass or messing up, shelf them for awhile or let them walk in with you.

Get those pups out, they learn something new everytime at that age. My last pup was trailing at 3 months and trailing and treeing at 5 months. I don't like having more than one pup out at a time though, they like playing grabass like Nolte said. Let 'em follow you to the tree and when they are old enough to keep up with the big dogs, let 'em go.

Yeah one pup is more mature then the other, one it takes awhile to calm down then she can concentrate, the other pretty much has his nose to the ground and is ready, they are both proving to be pretty good, hopefully....hahhaa. They did pretty good on bears.