levels of gameness.

[TopShelfKennels]

A lot of the time people just go to the box far to often to ever be 100% healthy. Hell, I just had 1xW that was almost killed due to damage to the chest ( pressure biter), now i come from the medical field, and I would have given the dog at least 5 months off after his hunt. But his owner did him 9wks later with the same animal ( with no work) and lost his purse and the dog. I think people using the same dog too frequently is a major cause of seeing different performance levels in the same individual dog. A lot of active people think just because a scab closes, the wound has healed, and the dog is 100%. If a dog is 100% healthy, you should see the same level of performance or better, but definitely not less unless he's about to stop/quit. JMO

[Officially Retired]

A lot of the time people just go to the box far to often to ever be 100% healthy. Hell, I just had 1xW that was almost killed due to damage to the chest ( pressure biter), now i come from the medical field, and I would have given the dog at least 5 months off after his hunt. But his owner did him 9wks later with the same animal ( with no work) and lost his purse and the dog. I think people using the same dog too frequently is a major cause of seeing different performance levels in the same individual dog. A lot of active people think just because a scab closes, the wound has healed, and the dog is 100%. If a dog is 100% healthy, you should see the same level of performance or better, but definitely not less unless he's about to stop/quit. JMO

You're exactly right.

I can think of at least one member of this board who still can't seem to understand this concept.

The keep itself is hard on a dog, let alone the punishment taken. Sometimes it takes a year for a dog to recover fully ... and, in some cases, a dog will never recover fully from his ordeal

Part of being a good dogman isn't just the willingness to match dogs ... anytime, anywhere ... it's also having the sense to say NO when the dog needs a break, and to understand that every dog needs time to recover, including from the keep itself, let alone the damage done during the contest.

Jack