What age does your dog peak?

[Mayfly]

Question for all you veteran dog owners out there.

From your personal experience at what age did your dog peak?

Or what season was it...was it his/her 2nd, 3rd, 4th season?

Any stories??

[jigglestick]

ages 4 through 7 or 8 will be the best years of a dog as far as the hunting career goes.
the maturity level is comparable to a human as far as screwing off vs. work ethic.
think as a pup 3 or under as a teenager. yes they can work, but all they want to do is horse around. their attention span is as about as short as the next tweety bird landing nearby.
then the whole "other dog" thing the males just want to play grab @ss. just like you did when you were in your teens or early twenties.

they work their best when they finaly settle down in their maturity level. you get about four really good years out of them, then their health starts to show. the hips start to fade, the eyes or ears start to go. the want to is still there, but the ability just isn't. when you pull them out of service is entirely up to you, but be sensible about it. my old girl would still go, but even she knows now that she is at her end. she doesn't stand at the door whimpering when I grab my stuff to head to the truck. before she would be insufferable.
you can and will get production out of a younger dog, but you asked for the peak. In my experience, there you have it.

[Spinach]

From my own experience, I have to agree with Jiggle.

Macey is 6 and a half years old now, she was born in May of 2000. Our first year was great in the fall of 2000, we spent a lot of time training and very little on wild bird hunting, she showed great potential that first year. The second season she was terrible, (Out of shape) and walking on my heels half the time. I blame myself for a lack of conditioning and also not getting her on many birds.

The 3rd season was much better, we started "basic training" in the late summer and had her ready for the season, I took her to the farm and planted 6 chukars every weekend for about 4-5 weeks, we also started hitting the game farm about once a month. I kept her on birds constantly and it all paid off in the 4th year.

During that 4th season, we started off at a bachelor party pheasant hunt in early October at the game farm, she was excellent, i was very proud of her, I finally felt like all the hard work paid off. Last season was even better.

I'm hoping for her best year this season, I have her in better shape than any previous year and her weight is down to where it should be for the first time. I'm guessing 2-3 more years of her in her prime, I'll probably start training a new pup next year, so they have a chance to hunt with each other for a couple years.

[vickieschessies]

I agree with jiggle. Dozer is now almost 10 and still irreplaceable!!!!