Quote Originally Posted by OGDOGG View Post
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