This is one of "those" topics for me. On this board, on any board or a bunch of guys standing around will agree with this 100%. They will always tell you about the "guy over there" that ruined a bunch of young dogs by force starting them early or dumping a huge load on them before they were ready to carry it. And as soon as that conversation breaks up it becomes if he is "willing to get the chain tight at another dog he is ready".

Some dogs are ready to be bumped a lot earlier than others. There are dogs that are ready to start their bumps earlier in all lines/families and some that need more time. There are some dogs who win matches as 'boys and girls'. I am closer to a "3years" guy but I know plenty that think 24 months is 'middle-aged' and then on the downward slide after that. Simply not true but what a person believes is hard to persuade. If a guy goes out and wins with a 2 year old odds are that becomes his benchmark age and all other will have to conform.

I am a percentages guy, my work is graded on percentages, my pay check is based off those percentages so when information or facts are presented to me in the percentage form I understand it better than just about any other form of information. I tend to use percentages both factually accurate and assumptions in most everything I do.

I am willing to say at least 85% (if not more) of people who actually do dogs start them earlier than the dog needs and tests them way earlier than they should be tested. I have always thought every family of dogs would have higher success percentages if the dog had no tooth in him until he was 24-26 months, ready or not, perceived to be ready or not. Basically start the bumps at 2, the schooling rolls after that and a year or so later the match would be around 3 to 3.5.

And like always I have no problem putting my shortcomings out there. No secrets here. I love the Mims Red Boy dogs. The best ones I have seen are the ones who don't show interest until later in life. The best ones I have seen were with people with the patience to wait. The problem is that most of the Mims Red Boy dogs "ACT" and I repeat "ACT" like grown dogs at 8-9-10 months old. They appear to be ready in every sense of the word. The patient guy (smart guy) has sense enough to ignore the act and wait. A number of years ago I saw that ten month old puppy "ACTING" and it was all I could do to wait til he was 14-15-16 months old. Most did very well. I even matched and seen them matched at 22-26 months with good success.

Back to percentages, looking back I believe of the ones that did not work out at by 24 months would have had a much higher success rates if allowed to grow up.

Good topic. One that most need but will mostly be ignored. EWO