Culling dogs......

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On another site there was a topic....a guy was asking if he should cull his dog for barking in the kennel? I thought this was pretty amazing but im an idiot so here is my question......

What do you cull your dogs for?
 
I heard of a guy who culled all the brindle pups he had! That don't sound right to me.
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I would cull a dog that contnualy barked in the kennel despite my best efforts..as good a reason as any really.


I'll tell you a story.

Friday the family drove a few hours to watch a chukar championship....pro field trial.

there were dogs from all over BC, Canada,and even some big boys from the states.

I was talking with an old timer who came from Vancouver island he was interested in hounds. He ended up being from same town as a friend of mine.

he did not know my friend but knew his dogs by thier constant barking....he lives several blocks away. Said dave was lucky a nieghbour had not poisoned them yet.
 
All the dogs we have today are a result of hard culling of color,shape and size and a certian job they were required to do. IMO
Alot of guys talk about how good the old time dogs were. Culling is the reason why. IMO They did not just breed and breed a dog, they had to prove themselves before they were worthy of breeding and even then, sometimes they only let a very few pups out to the public, most of them went to guys that would hunt the hide off them and could tell if they were worth breeding a second time.
I don't believe you get super stars every litter you have.
If you hunt hard and cull hard you will come up with something.
Dustballs and I were talking on the phone the other night and the subject came up of a companion/hunting dog.My question is can anyone make a compainion/hunting dog at the same time or should you see if he is worthy of a hunting dog first then become attached to him as a companion dog?
Dustballs and I never did discuss that but maybe someone could shed some light. For me the dog must prove itself before it could become a companion/hunting dog.Otherwise you would be too attached to it to cull it if it didn't make a hunting dog.
 
Good questions.

I think we can all agree that animals that do not measure up relative to the needs we have should be sterilized (that is most all) and some need to be put down.

The controversy is most likely to center around what we as individuals want an animal(s) to be/do.

Seems okay to me. Different strokes for different folks.
 
I've bit my tongue on this subject for a while, especially when I see alot of folks getting hunting (decoy) dogs as pets and hunting companions. If the dog doesn't make the grade as a hunting dog and its already sleeping at the foot of the bed, its fair to say its not going anywhere. I don't have a problem with folks doing what they want with their own dogs, but when you start seeing litters out of dogs that shouldn't be reproducing and touted as "finished" or "solid" dogs its a shame.

While not everyone has the stomach to cull a dog that needs it, there shouldn't be any question as to the necessity of culling to maintain solid hunting stock. Of course everyone is going to have a different expectation for their dogs, in their situation, but indiscriminate breeding is what leads to dogs that don't make the grade on a more consistent basis than a proven pair that atleast gives the litter an honest shot at making a dog.

Back to the initial question, would I cull a dog for something that trivial, No, especially if I hadn't exhausted every other means of correction. Now if a dog were acting that way and he already had strikes against him for other problems, yeah that may seal the deal.
 
I doubt I would cull a dog for barking in the kennel.

When I got my female Catahoula the intention was to have a decoy dog and a companion. As I was putting the time into her I pretty much had a cull on my hands. But the problem with culling was the two little boys at home. I bought a made dog from Duane and that helped my situation alot and she has turned out pretty good. For what I do my dogs are super stars in my eyes, but might be culls in others.


To answer Devins question IMHO what I want a dog for it will need to hunt first then we can be companions. I didnt like the feeling of having a dog that wasnt performing the way I wanted it knowing I would have to take care of it the rest of its life or tell the boys the dog was gone.
 
This is a very loaded question about companion/hunting dogs. I believe no two people will ever agree on what they want outta a dog or what makes the cut. Their are too many different people in different situations to generalize them. As for me, i would never buy a dog from a "recreational" hunter. For me, i want the best bloodlines in the dog, i can possibly get. That being said, i'm a "recreational" hunter and will never breed any of my dogs. I don't think you can know if the dog "has it" in 1 weekend a month during the winter time. So for me, companion has to come first and then hunter. I will never cull a dog as long as it is a great companion. Although i wouldn't breed it either. Just my 2 cents.

Now for the culling dogs, i have no problem culling a dog for aggression towards people or other dogs if i've done everything i can do. I usually give my dogs 2 strikes, first strike gets them a harsh punishment and strike 2 is game over.
 
Originally Posted By: yfzduner450This is a very loaded question about companion/hunting dogs. I believe no two people will ever agree on what they want outta a dog or what makes the cut. Their are too many different people in different situations to generalize them. As for me, i would never buy a dog from a "recreational" hunter. For me, i want the best bloodlines in the dog, i can possibly get. That being said, i'm a "recreational" hunter and will never breed any of my dogs. I don't think you can know if the dog "has it" in 1 weekend a month during the winter time. So for me, companion has to come first and then hunter. I will never cull a dog as long as it is a great companion. Although i wouldn't breed it either. Just my 2 cents.

Now for the culling dogs, i have no problem culling a dog for aggression towards people or other dogs if i've done everything i can do. I usually give my dogs 2 strikes, first strike gets them a harsh punishment and strike 2 is game over.

No really it is not a loaded question at all. I was not asking to prove your dog to anyone. You know if the dog is a cull and if it is working for you then it is not a cull to you.
Dustballs was very honest and said the pup he got was not turning out as he had hoped. That is a tough situation for him because his boys are now involved. But I believe that if it was not turning out as a hunting dog and he made it a companion dog, that he would not show it as a hunting dog and would never breed it as such.
Culling does not mean you have to kill the dog. It does mean you take it out of the possition of a hunting dog and never represent it as such.
I know alot of dogs that have never made it as hunting dogs and that were gave to a family or person that wanted a companion dog. But it was never bred and never represented as a hunting dog ever again.
If a dog is aggresive towards a person it NEVER gets a second strike with me and will never be another persons problem.
 
I always thought the meaning of cull was the kill. I still have a ton to learn and thank you for clearing that up.

What i was talking about the loaded question is about what it takes for a dog to "make it". Everyone has a different idea of what their ideal decoy dog is. I don't believe two people hunt the exact same way. The point i'm trying to make is what i think is a super star, you might think the dog it's worth feeding.

I'm very new to this whole decoy dog stuff, so if i'm totally out of line with it all just let me know. My experience with dogs comes from bird dogs and i feel there are alot of differences but alot of the same.
 
good one devin, i have dogs that if they stopped hunting today would still be around when they die because they are like our kids, wouldnt breed them or try to sell pups out of them but they would get to stay. if mine dont show me what i want to see while their working then they wont get bred or passed off as a hunter, like you said everyone is going to grade a dog different but most everyone should know if they should breed a dog for hunting reasons, if a dog only see's 3 or 4 coyotes a winter then in my deal thats not a hunter, even if they have it in them their not being hunted so how do you know if they are a good one, just like we were talking the other day, my dogs dont get to decoy as much as they use to but they still get to trail, fight, find in traps, den, and work under the plane on about 500 ayear, plus hogs and beaver, to me they are getting hunted, but not decoying near as many as yours, we all use them different and verying amounts of time, but if one of my reg dogs thats not "one of the kids" isnt working out like i want, well he will be stopping erosion somewhere, i wont sell him to somebody as a solid dog or keep them to breed
 
No I think you are exactly right.I know for sure my dogs would certainly be trash to everyone else.I was just trying to get at, if a guy is honest with himself, he will know if the dog is a cull to him or not and if it is do you cull it and make it a pet or cull it all together?
My way is far from right and I like to hear what others think is the right thing to do.
Alot of guys on here have companion/hunting dogs, as do I. Do you make the hunting dog first or the companion dog first?
I think it would be harder to make the companion dog first, just is case a guy would have to cull if it didn't make it as a hunting dog.
 
i see what your saying about the hunt first then the pet, tough for me cause their with me all day at least 5 days aweek so they become companions pretty easy, but if thier not showing something by 6 or 7 monthes then its still not hard to get rid of one
 
With my first GSP, I bought it from a guy that told me how awesome he was gonna be......but he never told me about the mother being "gun shy" until about 6 months after the dog was in my yard. Jake eventually ended up being "gun shy" too, and I was stuck with a great family dog, but not much of a hunting dog.

I went without a hunting dog until I got Gus, my next GSP. Now he is a great hunting dog, hunts hard all day, works hard too, but does not have the manners that Jake did. I talked to the breeder and he asked me what I wanted in a dog and I told him "I want a dog that can hunt all day and I will quit before he does", he said "this is the dog for you". He wasn't lying. Gus is a hunting machine, he was out working, pointing, retrieving dogs that were twice his age. The more I worked with him the better he got. Do I think that this dog is the best or field trial champ? probly not, but he works for me. I don't know that I am gonna breed him either, he is still too young to see if he has desireable traits. I think that is why breeders, and I mean good breeders, are such a valuable asset to the rest of us out there. IMO the breeders are out there with their dogs everyday, working them and getting to know what their dogs are capable of doing, they are pros. If they don't like what they are seeing, the dog is getting culled. Not fit for breeding because there are some traits that they are not happy with. It is amazing that dog guys like some of the guys around here are so good at what they do. They are also very humble as well. YOU guys know who you are so I don't have to name you.
When I got Tug, from Wackmaster, I wanted a hunting partner that wasn't gonna PU$$ out on me and stay in bed on a cold day. My kids love this dog, as does my wife. I have started to train him, but I still don't think that he is half the dog that he could be if I was out there training everyday like some of the ADC guys. He is learning a bunch, but he has the natural instinct to chew on fur. He has done that since I brought him home, hasn't change a bit either. Do I think that I am gonna breed him? WAY TO EARLY for me to decide because I am not like some of the other guys around here that know that much about dogs. Like someone was saying, "they will get into the trash and eat and poop just like any other dog", that's all I know. Tug eats and poops and likes to chew on fur and loves my little girl, that is all I know for sure.
 
Workman and I had this discussion the other night on the phone. This is a topic that has no right or wrong answer. Everyone is different in how they feel about dogs. In my case, we've always had hunting dogs and then we had family pets. The boundaries never crossed...for the same reason of this topic.

I've culled a lot of dogs of the years. My wife and kids were not really happy at me each time, but they knew/know that a hunting dog is a hunting dog...not a pet.

By the way, I wouldn't cull a good dog just because of being a kennel barker.

Tony
 
Yeah Tony, I'm glad this topic is being discussed. Good to get input from all sorts of folks. Happy Birthday too buddy!
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