EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

Does anyone train or deal with cattle dogs on her if so could I get some tips on training just got a new bmc and blue lacy pup and decided I try to gamble and make him a cattle dog.

If they are bred right, about all you have to do is teach them come here, load up and get out. If they are too tight and fighting cattle, you have to back them up. If you have no experience, you can put a ten foot hard slick nylon lead rope on them while they are working and let the cattle teach them to back up. Get out or a command for stop what you are doing right now is a must for any dog in my opinion. When working cattle, being able to call them off is a must.

Is there anything about teaching them commands or equipment to use because I’m totally new to the cattle dog scene

Go talk to Gary he did it for 50 yrs


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Without spending an hour typing I’ll make it short as I can, read up and look up as much as you can about obedience training, mainly tone training with a shock collar, a dog is a dog it doesn’t matter the breed or creed and what it’s used for and a handle on a dog is must for me, maybe not others but I like to have control over mine when their not in the box or leash, like bigo said, if it’s in them all you really have to do is put a good handle on them, feed them, and haul them to work, there’s a lot more folks out there that have a lot more experience than me but with the history behind a lot of today’s stock bred dogs a man doesn’t need to or should not have to put a lot of time into “training” a dog to work cattle, if the dogs don’t have the desire to do it naturally I would  get rid of them and move on to something that does because there’s plenty out there that take right to it like a baby duck does to water...

Yes sir, thank u

Just because a dog will run around and bark at cows doesn't mean they can be a usefull cow dog. If you could make it to Caney, Ks. Nov. 10 and 11 to the cow dog trials, you can see how the best cur dogs work and see some of the most knowledgeable men alive ,when it come to working livestock with dogs.

Bo Nutting lives 3 miles from your papa


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Bo Nutting would be a good man to watch and learn from and Charlie Spurgeon, who lives in that area, would be another.

Ya he is over in ennis last I heard. Bunch of cowboys in this area most are old it’s a dying way of life. Lot of old guys around here that aren’t known by many but are just as knowledgeable. Bo is getting up there in age my friend swaps dogs with him. He was more know around here for saddle making. Dogs second.


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All depends on what type of cattle you are looking to work ;) Gathering and moving pasture "pets" is completely different from dealing with "dick" cattle and actually cow hunting.  Hard to believe those cur dog trials could have the best dogs and most knowledgable men in the business without having any "Crackers" there ;D  Any Florida Boys ever show up out there.

I know it is tough to swallow that anyone in Texas or Oklahoma could ever find a hog or pen a cow without a "Cracker" or a Florida "total control" Curdog but it does happen once in a while.

Pile it on, I can take it ;D I would love to show up there one year just to watch any cur cow dogs work and meet some of you Cowmen, who have or still do use Head dogs to work. These damm Tennessee'uns don't know the first thing about cur dogs, except John, of course ;D  Unfortunately, I'm right in the middle of work during that time. Got one coming two years old now that is really doing well. Just got back from 8 weeks worth of work in West Texas. Used him several times to help gather and pen "rough pasture" cattle. He impreessed both myself and the Boss. Plenty of circle and "quarterbacks"(I believe that it what you Texan's call it ;D) well from the front when driving.

Quarterbacks, windmill, lead catch dog and all that other BS  was thought up by a P.T. Barnam type dog breeder.

10-4 on the "circus" terms ;D Met some boys from the Pitchfork that use gather and quarterback, so i figured i'd talk Texan ;D  Where I am from, they had better be able to find, bunch, ring, hold up, and attempt to catch, if necessary ;)

i saw a guy from fla work a pair of dogs at 1 of the ks trials , his dogs worked good but when he went to drive cattle he called them behind his horse . this cost him points . my grandaddy was from fla and they used curdogs on cattle and hogs . it was all free range until the 50's . he moved to tn after ww2 .the dogs he had as a kid were rough enough to stop stock but loose enough to let them stay bayed the same as the line i've got out of ok by way of tx . they would bay hogs and pull pigs up in the saddle with a noose on a pole to do their cuttin and markin .  they drove cattle and hogs back home with the dogs leading out front when it was time to sell the offspring . the same as some still do in tx and ok . ( and tn ) ;)


    heres the secret, they were about the same kind of people AND the same kind of dogs .

my granddaddy had 7 uncles that moved from fla  to tx after the civil war , they brought their dogs with them .

 good dogs are where you find them . if they aint bred for it you can't train it into them .

Us Florida boys ain't big on points ;D It ain't very often that we have to leave a dog up front to lead out. Once they've been held up and settled a few times, "most" cattle know what to expect if they try and leave out ;)   Got to be bred to want to stop cattle, no doubt about that.  It can't be trained into them.    I've heard TWRA say that LBL, and all the country around it, is full of hogs. Bringing in trappers even.

yep, there was a russian type boar killed not 10 miles from my house the other day . i wouldnt dought twra ain't turning them loose .

I know for a fact they used to, whether it was officially done by the state or not I’m not sure but we used to have a state senator here that was said to be the most powerful man in the state and he was as die hard a hog hunter as anybody who lived, when my pawpaw was a young man he took care of all of “60” Rayburn’s dogs and was directed by him to round up a bunch of swamp hogs, some game wardens from Tennessee drove down and picked up a trailer load and paw paw hauled several trailer loads of black swamp hogs as they were called at the time, up to Tennessee, this would have been in the 50’s, Senator 60 was also responsible for coyotes in our country, years ago when the original virgin timber had been harvested there’s wasn’t any game left, when the timber companies bought the land and replanted it in pines, deer were just about unheard of and red fox were prized possessions and the fox hunters had just about caught and killed them out, so he had a game warden from North La, whose name I’ll withhold who was a hog and fox hunter to send a trailer load of coyotes down here so the fox hunters would have something new to hunt...

yessir goose , i can beleive it . we have hogs showing up , bears where there they ain't been none in 200 years, panthers and what not .

when i was a kid we didn't have many deer and no turkeys . i don't farm but they are so thick now they cost my daddy alot every year from the crops they eat .


i enjoy huntig hogs but i'd rather not have to hunt them on my pasture , that would be more like work than fun .

Those "swamp hogs" came from Southeast Georgia, along with a few loads of "Pineywoods Rooters" from Green Swamp in Central Florida. They turned them hogs out on the Plateau on Catoosa WMA. Locals bred some Russian into them from mountain hogs out of the Smokies. See alot of color in those hogs up that way, but that Russian blood is definitely dominating;)

Not sure what “swamp hogs” your referring to but the ones I’m talking about came from the swamps of the pearl river and were descendants of the  old free range herds mixed with Russians that had been imported for sport hunting by the few hunters of that time...

I thought you were referring to the hogs that were turned loose by TWRA in the 60's on the cumberland plateau around Crossville Tn.

I don’t know where the hogs were turned loose, I wasn’t even born then much less even thought of, all I know is that close to 200 boars and sows were sent up there for LOUISIANA,and southwest MS, over a 2 year period and they were sent to Tennessee, all I’ve ever heard them referred to was “the wardens from Tennessee”, the old pens my pawpaw held them in were still somewhat standing after Hurricane Katrina and we demolished them with a dozer when were cleaning up, I’m not sure who or what your referring to but all the business I’m talking about taking place happened in LA a small bit took place in MS and the rest in Tennessee, there was absolutely no Georgia or Florida connection at this time, not saying that it didn’t happen because I’m sure it did but just not at this time and  place...

10-4 Reckon we're talking about two different release sites. I'm sure there were even more throughout Tn.  These houndsmen here in East Tn. are pretty serious about "runnin" hogs.  Sure wish I could find someone who was just as serious about "catchin" them though ;D Been here 15 years now and have yet to find anyone with a working line of cur dogs, cattle or hogs. Hard to keep blood going from 600+ miles away.

I guarantee there was way more “stocking” that went on, there’s actually documentation of the TWRA stocking them for more recreational hunting purposes, might not be to many cur dogs up there but I’m just about positive there’s some good gritty long eared brindle dogs up there (plotts)....

That's all they know up here is Plott dogs. ;D  They can have them. It takes 37 of them to bay anything and then another 23 high powered rifles to "stop" what they bay or tree :laugh:

Haha, you just ain’t hunting with the right ones...

Warrant there here in Texas to


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Caught a Russian colored boar here today with 1 Plott gyp, but one of those 300 yard dogs would not have even known that how was on the same continent, so even a lowly Plott can bay a good hog once in awhile sort of like the blind sow and the acorn haha.

Lol, a fella once asked me what kinda cur dogs I was unloading and what type of hunting style and range they had, I replied to him they were counterfeit curs and they had a fake it till you make it hunting style...

You bayed and caught the boar hog with that gyp or did you use a catch dog.

Haha this Plott gyp is a "total control" dog and she ain't from Florida either haha.

yes or no and how big was the hog

Doesn't matter much. I'm sure there are some good ones, some that are even catch dogs. Just not my style. Lots of ways to kill or catch hogs though. I'm 47 yrs old now and thank the Lord after every hunt for allowing me to still be able to walk behind my close range, rough cur dogs. He's made me a good enough woodsman to be able to get my dogs within striking distance of enough hogs to keep my freezer full, no matter what state I am in ;)  Stay healthy and hunt them up, with whatever you feed :) 

My way of thinking is I don't want to have to find game for my dog, I want my dog to find game for me, as you say a difference in style. I wouldn't feed one of yours and you wouldn't feed one of mine. There is more than one way. I'm 61 and still log lots of miles "going to" my dogs "after" they have found game.

No doubt, many different styles of hunting. And for the record, my dogs have found every hog they have ever caught, whether it was 100 yards from me or a mile from me. Good woodsmanship, as well as cow bred dogs, has allowed me to minimize the number of miles I log in going to the hogs they find and stop. Old "Cowhunter" mentality. ;D   I hope to see 61, let alone still be able to go to my dogs. Stay healthy and catch 'em up. ;)