Jimdog obviously has had some bad experience with poor rearing farms, however don't let that deter you from sending your pup to a rearing farm as ultimately this will lead to the pup gaining the best of life experience in handling fields on a racetrack.
All you need to do is do your homework re selecting the best rearing facility to place your pup in. Good rearing farms will do all the work required to turn your pup out lead broken, well handled and muscled up from being galloped with other dogs.

Also, breaking in should only be done by experienced people so if you intend to go that way yourself, make sure you follow the guidance/advice of a top breaker and don't ever rush the dog with too much trialing early, as it is so easy to stuff up a dog permanently if a mistake is made.

Don't be tempted by well meaning folks who have limited experience themselves in rearing, training or breaking in, offering you advice ;-) so if you know a good trainer already, then pick their brains out. Don't be afraid to ask them questions however silly you may think it is.

Good luck with whatever you do,

cheers
lilly

thanks guys,

sooo many options. i think i'm going to have a good think about this, do a bit of reading, have a chat to my trainer and see how to go about it. it's funny how having sooo many options can make the situation a little bit harder to figure out. my pup's nearly 10 months old and i'm going to try and watch his pre training when the time comes. his a big daddy cool/dave's babe pup and is looking pretty good at the moment.

everybody on here is sooo kind and helpfull.

again i thank you all for your comments.

they're all oh so much appreciated.

take care.

ghlover86

ill throw in my two pence worth here
i dont live in aussieland so dont know your laws so will just work from my own experience

can it be done in a built up area........yes of coarse just remember it is a full time job no days off
you dont need to feed three times a day from that age on twice is fine but on its own it WILL be bored and could eat throught a wooden fence i would put a four foot wire around the yard
i started out in a built up area and did fine but i use to go out of twon to some fields to let them run a near by gallop is a must
a walking machine is a waste of time for a pup period
breaking in .... i know it done differnt there but i break in all my own never had a problem time and patience is key
ask ask and ask questions of trainers you know must are very good to give advice

__________________
the home of early

hi Noel,

thanks for the post. the wiring is a great idea. thanks for all the advice.

ghlover86

Hi

I believe a race dog is 60% rearing , 30 % breeding and 10 % training . i don't talk about feeding , pups must be a little more weight than a race dog .

The important stages is : age 0 to 3 months (mother time ), 3 to 8 months( growing period ) and 8 to 14 months is the most important , imprint period .dogs must never be stress in that time , else he will keep it all his life .

You have to keep all the litter together , 3 to 8 months in a 1/2 acre circular pen with trees and no corners , 8 to 14 months in a 1 to 1 1/2 acres circular pen , with trees and no corners . 6 feet deer fence is perfect .


At 14 months you can start to play with them , at 14 months it take me 5 min to learn a dog to walk at 18 months start fast work .

14 to 18 months you can do group of 3 or 4 dogs , turn loose in a safe 3 acres paddock , I cut the grass around with a radius of 100 feet , they learn to take the bend and run on the rail , you can drag just to make sure they chase , the best is a rabbit skin . When you hand slip first time , fix the rabbit skin on the harm , make him smell it before , he will know the rest .

I keep my pups in group in the kennel , all litter til 12 months and split depending there agressivity . sleeping Pen are 12 X 30 feet , feed only inside and in group .
Turn out 10 hours on 24 , i turn out at 6 am , bring at 12 feed , rest and out at 2pm back at 6 pm for eat and sleep .

At 14 to 18 months , group of 4 , feed in the sleeping pen a bowl for each dog , need to make sure the boys are not too ruff on bitches , some came in season at 12 months .
I turn out every 4 to 5 days in my 3 acres paddock for a fast free gallop , take 2 weeks to take the speed and now they start to build up in a race dog .

Training is work , rest and recovery , you need to build a sprinter .

This is approximation , some dogs can be early some late , but if you don't keep them all together till 14 months they can have problems to race in group and less competitive , shy when touch by others dogs .

Cheers ! Paul

good afternoon Paul,

thank you very much for your post!!

i have read your post a couple of times and find some of your techniques very interesting and if you don't mind would like to ask you some questions to hopefully learn some more about them. in australia the few trainers i know all bring there dogs up in rectangular enclosures. is the only reason you use circular enclosures to teach them how to handle bends or do you also have some other reasons as to using circular enclosures instead of rectangular ones? also do the trees serve only for shade for your dogs or do they also serve another purpose? lastly are you located in australia or overseas?

again thank you very much for your post, you've got me very intrigued with your methods.

kindest regards,

ghlover86.

Hi

I believe a race dog is 60% rearing , 30 % breeding and 10 % training . i don't talk about feeding , pups must be a little more weight than a race dog .

The important stages is : age 0 to 3 months (mother time ), 3 to 8 months( growing period ) and 8 to 14 months is the most important , imprint period .dogs must never be stress in that time , else he will keep it all his life .

You have to keep all the litter together , 3 to 8 months in a 1/2 acre circular pen with trees and no corners , 8 to 14 months in a 1 to 1 1/2 acres circular pen , with trees and no corners . 6 feet deer fence is perfect .


At 14 months you can start to play with them , at 14 months it take me 5 min to learn a dog to walk at 18 months start fast work .

14 to 18 months you can do group of 3 or 4 dogs , turn loose in a safe 3 acres paddock , I cut the grass around with a radius of 100 feet , they learn to take the bend and run on the rail , you can drag just to make sure they chase , the best is a rabbit skin . When you hand slip first time , fix the rabbit skin on the harm , make him smell it before , he will know the rest .

I keep my pups in group in the kennel , all litter til 12 months and split depending there agressivity . sleeping Pen are 12 X 30 feet , feed only inside and in group .
Turn out 10 hours on 24 , i turn out at 6 am , bring at 12 feed , rest and out at 2pm back at 6 pm for eat and sleep .

At 14 to 18 months , group of 4 , feed in the sleeping pen a bowl for each dog , need to make sure the boys are not too ruff on bitches , some came in season at 12 months .
I turn out every 4 to 5 days in my 3 acres paddock for a fast free gallop , take 2 weeks to take the speed and now they start to build up in a race dog .

Training is work , rest and recovery , you need to build a sprinter .

This is approximation , some dogs can be early some late , but if you don't keep them all together till 14 months they can have problems to race in group and less competitive , shy when touch by others dogs .

Cheers ! Paul

Hi ,

Sorry i did send the last post twice !!!

I did lear about Greyhound in New Zealand but my vet and couples of trainers over there gave me some clue .


Circular pen ! The pups should never running stop , turn 180 deg and run again like in square pen , the best pups will hurt there shoulders and will stay lame at the racing age , if they don't brake down before .

The trees help the pups to watching in front and taking turn , turning out in group show them top run many dogs together .

You just need to turn them out in this kind of pen and trow them a rabbit skin once a month to inprint there scent memory and competition spirit .

You don't have to drag a lot . more risk to get hurt in drag .

I'm in Canada now , i'm a fan of Aussie line , i have 9 pups ready to go race in USA , I got invitation by a very good track there to trials my pups .


<
Cheers !

Paul

hi Paul,

thanks for your reply and don't worry about the double post. i will have to try that one day and see how that goes. i wish you the very best of luck with your pups and hope they give you many wins. let me know how they end up.

kind regards.

ghlover86 =]

There are a lot of different rearing methods by farms in Australia, I know of a guy out in upper hunter valley who reared his pups in obstacle course paddock to teach them to use their eyes and brains to avoid obstacles. He put a lot of stuff like barrels, tyres, etc in the middle of paddock.
Some rearing farms (mine included) prefer to keep pups penned in at nights in 30m x 30m yards and let out daily for a couple of hours twice a day to free gallop in big paddocks. (more than 1 acre preferably, best is 10 acres or more, the famous Pringles reared them tough that way too, letting their pups run wild on huge acres.)

Other rearing farms keep pups in long straight runs, pups are never let out to free gallop around a huge paddock, so their skeletonal structure will be a lot more prone to calluses, deformity, overgrowth/undergrowth etc from constantly running up and down with other dogs in a long straight run, competing with their neighbours. Especially if the ground becomes hard and dry from the constant pounding, you'll find these pups at 12 months old with chronic wrist/metacarpal problems and 'dropped hips' etc.

One of my bitches was reared by a poor rearing farm in western sydney and was never let out to gallop, was kept permanently in a small yard along with her playmates and 20 other pups (at that time I had moved house and was working in a full time job, so couldn't get away to visit my bitch on the farm until she was 10 half months old. I had dropped her off there at 5mths old) So when I discovered the appalling conditions she had been in, I immediately grabbed her and took her home. But that 5 months already damaged her too much, she ended up with chronic wrist injuries, thin skeletonal frame (was well fed on bread and chicken though *rolling eyes*) dropped hips and overall her physical structure was just damaged to the keen eye. She broke in super fast but kept pulling up after each trial barely able to walk, so was only able to be worked every 2 weeks after her metacarpals and sore hips had recovered.

Never again will I send any of my pups out to be reared by anyone again, unless the establishment has been fully checked out in person first and with the internet these days you should be able to easily find out character references for each farm.
Back then I didn't have a computer or internet and most people didn't have computers too, that technology was still fairly new and only just starting to spread.
(And that was only 7 years ago lol lol)

All you have to do is post the name of a rearing farm on a forum, and ask members if they have used it and if anyone has anything nice or bad to say about it, and you'll have your answer (after sifting through some rubbish posts, don't forget there are jealous people in the game, so some of them may slander or say bad things about a certain farm even though they haven't been to that farm before).

cheers