Quote Originally Posted by Earl Tudor
Jack just for questions sake, what is the oldest you have HAD to wait on one to start, and what is the longest you WOULD wait on one to start? I've never had a late starter, but I do believe in the motto' "Early to start, early to ruin". Most are incapable of doing a dog properly, regardless at which age it starts.

Interesting question.

Like you, most of my dogs are early starters and get right with it, from the first time down. Even Silverback, who started late for my stuff, still defended himself and DOAd the first bitch who ever bit him ... and would have DOA'd both dogs I put on him on his first two times (after he got pissed) ... he just didn't initially "aggress" at them ... but he damned sure wouldn't sit there and take being bit either. By his 3rd time down, Silverback would hit the opponent right from the get-go and was totally with the program by 2 years of age.

I guess the latest-starting dog I ever had was Diamond Girl. She too "defended herself," but you could see her heart wasn't really into it. Diamond Girl actually stood there on the second scratch of her first roll. A lot of "experts" there told me that I should "put her down," but I ignored their bad advice and knew that Diamond Girl was just a sweet dog who hadn't "got mean" yet. She just wanted to play at that point, and didn't really consider other dogs "her enemy," so Rudy and I waited and kept trying until she was 3,where she started to show promise, and by about 3.5 years of age, Diamond Girl was fully-on and as mean and nasty toward other dogs as her little snub-nosed self could be Her test was coming from way back to stop a pretty badass bitch in 1:05. I later sold DG, and the guy who had her put her through a brutal f-----g test, and told me DG was one of the gamest bitches he ever owned in his life. So, in Diamond Girl's case, our patience paid off, and she produced multiple DG and badass dogs, and was the dam of Slingshot's Ch Buster, the game Anderson's Legend (who's behind WestPenn's Ch LittleBuck), she was the granddam to Jackson's Ch Violent, and Diamond Girl was also distantly behind 2 Grand Champions one of which was the 2006 Philippine DOY.

In the end, I suppose I really haven't had to wait too long to get what I want out of most of my dogs, and very rarely do I get anything but the proper result right off the bat. Still, for the most part, my being patient with a few well-bred dogs has paid off. Naturally, like anyone else, I prefer "instant results," but if I don't get them I will still be patient and allow each dog to bloom at his/her own time and pace.

Jack

EDIT: As for how long I would wait, I guess that depends on how much I like the individual dog in other ways (looks, overall intelligence, ease-of-care vs. hard-to-keep, how rare/good its immediate ancestors were, etc.)

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