Good sire and good dam and 8 puppies, how do you choose? looks,color or how they act or something else?

1 Mouth marks 2 how they act 3 looks 4 colour

Mr. Ray I personally I pick them on how they act. I like a puppy that can act right, when I say that I mean 1 that just walks around looking for something to get into.

I'm a Fri nite hunter, don't field trial, so I'm not necessarily looking for a speed demon even though not looking for a slow hound either, so I keep the entire litter, get them started and then pretty well cull by mouth. I hunt at night like to hear a pack of good sounding hounds pack up and make some great "music" so mouth is very inportant to me. Don't misunderstand, I need enough speed so they are up in the pack close to be giving mouth and certainly don't want them barking behind but I sell some very nice pups if they have high,or squeeky, or flat chop mouths that blend in and don't add to the sound of the race. So in answer to your question, I keep all of them until they start running to make sure I don't let one of the better mouths get away.

HaHa I wish I knew! Ray maybe I wouldn't have 35 to 40 hounds.

I want the one that, if i throw a bone in the pen, he will whip the others, an come out with it. Call it, the one with some grit. Downside to it, is he or she will fight when u feed them. My Grandpa handed that down to me, through my Dad.

Ray pick the one that is the funniest looking, if nothing else everyone will know your hound!!!!! I don't think there is a good answer to this question, besides pick the one you like!!!

line em up and drag race em with the 4 wheeler. winner stays !!!!!! just joking but i have done it.

Keep all 8 and by the time they get about 16 months old you should have them culled down to the best male and the best female.

I think it is really hard to evaluate the worth of a cross when the puppies are split up young. To know for sure you are picking the best ones to breed on (by your standard) it is better to raise them all under the same conditions and train them and hunt them the same way. I know everybody can't do this but it is far and away better to raise your own puppies than to try to buy a good one. If you have to pick just one I would say pick a healthy, active puppy and cross your fingers.

Who remembers all the ribbing Steve Ducote got when he revealed that he picked the fastest puppies in a litter by letting them chase his 4-wheeler?

He said those little hoppers that were slow might make good hounds but they would never be fast and those fastest puppies might not make good hounds but if they did, they would have the speed they needed to compete.

running a 4 wheller is a great idea you can find out which can reaally fly and have some speed, not nesseceraly the best hound but surley will be fast.

in answer to the question

1 the puppy acts

2 looks

3 behavior

My brother picked one of the best puppies and hounds years ago because he was into everything, called him Wizard i think.

I had bad luck with the four wheeler trial. pups where out of three different litters, and there was one big preety gyp that just smoked the rest, i was real happy till the next time out and relized the pretty gyp that won the rcae was now crippled in her rear end an never got over it , so that was first and last time for that test at five months old.
Shelby