I raised a male and a female feist together .The Male did good and started around 7 month old finsh out good around 22 months old .The female run around and watch the male and sort of treed when he treed but never treed her on squirrel untill i sold the male .I had given up on the female and just started leaving her loose to run free during the day .I come home one day and a squirrel run out of the yard and she treed it .I kill it and she took off from there and went on to make a good dog .I tell you this because after 5 month old I would not hunt them together any more for reason stated above. Good luck