EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

Three young dogs I am starting this year. They are right at 7 months. About a month ago I showed them their first hog, about a 60# shoat and they caught it. Put them in one at a time and they still caught out. Probably will not live long!  Got a feeling tho that they going to be taking a lot of hogs to the train station. They have been running since they were 4 1/2 months old in a running pen. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20240121/bf44da7ba69a83d4a91980ddfa42e60b.jpg)
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The


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What’re they off Mike? Can’t beat that for young dogs starting, sure makes it easier to feed em!

Well the next round of them seem real  promising, hope they survive.

Ben, all three are off my Oak dog by three different gyps. The Maltese female is off my Trumpet dog who is the grittiest dog on my yard. She is a running catchdog. No bay to her unless she is by herself in a real thicket. Rip, the pup with the red collar is off of Auburn who is off of Hank x a Littermate to Trumpet. Flint is off Showgirl. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20240121/10b1b3b9c7b0b69cb0324a5ad58ff44a.jpg)
Oak

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Showgirl


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Sounds like like they will be giving hogs the fits if they can get educated without meeting their maker. Really nice looking dogs!


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Those are some good looking dogs bubba


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They are good looking pups, from what little I can see the one with the blue collar is my favorite.

Some fine looking pups! Hopefully you can get them on a rank sow off the bat and back them up some


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I’ve thought about starting young dogs in a running pen. What kind of game is in the pen your using?


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A friend of mine has a old coyote pen with hogs inb it.

How open are your plots?

Some are tighter mouth then others but if a dog can smell it and move it, I want him opening. Besides, I like those hogs to know what's coming.

Hey Cajun how are these young guns getting it done and are they all still living ?? I would imagine they have been through what most would consider there first season by now.

Birdslayer, all three of the top pups are making the grade so far. That pup with the blue collar has already cost me 1650.00 on two vet visits. He got gutted on a hoghunt and herniated on the inside of the skin. Normally I would have opened him up to see what the damages were but we got home late and if one of the intestines had been punctured, that is above my pay load. Took to the Vet the next morning and he just had a couple of loops of intestine hanging out but inside the skin. That one was 700.00.  Sent him and the other two up to Wisconsin and he(Chief) got sent back to the Vet. on his 3rd day of hunting.He had 3 broken ribs and a dislocated hip. That one cost me 960.00 While I hate to pay it, that pup was at the tree treeing with that damage and still ran that hog another hour after being gutted. Rip had his shoulder chewed up pretty good but only missed a week and Sassy has had holes in her but nothing to serious. All in all they are doing well for their age. They are  right at 13-14 months of age.

I meant to add, that Chief pup is a littermate to Highwaters dog that is on the catchy side. Those two dogs on the bottom are two year olds and can do it all by there selves.

Hell yea Cajun that sounds awesome other then the vet bills but the rougher style is definitely what you lean to which I believe is staying true to what they are suppose to be. I’ve looked at a few and just haven’t been impressed. A lot of people over look the grit a hound has and think they can’t run one like a silent dog which is just so far from the truth. What they don’t realize is a hound has the lung bottom to see it to the end where a cur type dog will quit it far before a hound would ever even think it. I just want someone’s cull that may not make it in the woods but will in the pen. I’ve been to a plot bay the last couple years in north GA and them boys ought to be ashamed of themselves. I thought being close to places that allow bear hunting it would be impressive and that just hasn’t been the case. Is that what you sent them up north for bear season ??

Birdslayer, it doesn’t matter what breed it is, pen dogs are seldom woods dogs. NOT ALWAYS, THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS!! Pens were originally to judge the working style of dogs in the woods, they got away from that many years ago. It happened for several reasons but mainly because the practical style didn’t suit the pen lovers. There are a ton of pen dogs that are pen dogs because they were bred to be pen style dogs or they were woods culls for one reason or another. I remember a VERY prominent Catahoula dog that won tons in the pen and was in lots of peds because of it. Out of the owners mouth “ he’s pretty rascal but he’s as sorry as he is pretty”. He said” he wasn’t worth a nickel in the woods and if he had to work any longer than the 3 minutes (I think that was the bay time), he wouldn’t be any good at that”. “But he shines like new money for that little amount of time”.

Cajun, I hate that your young dog had the hip dislocated. Hopefully it won’t hinder him for a long time. I agree though, you had to spend that money, he did his part for sure.

To me, that drive is what separates hounds and cur types. I don’t know that it’s as much the bottom is different but that the heart and desire is. I might offend somebody here, but I’m gonna say it, the purer dogs are to the cur type, the less you will get from them in the heat or in extreme adversity. I have hunted in lots of places with lots of dogs in my almost 52 years. I have hunt with good dogs of most every breed commonly used for hogs. The dogs that always mashed the gas in adversity, be it heat, injury, etc., were the hounds or dogs that had hound in their back ground. It may a ways back but was still there enough to have influence. Some people don’t want that kind of bottom or drive. They feed them so it’s their business. I personally like it, expect it, and appreciate it. Again, there are some exceptions, that will always be the case in anything. I’m in no way trying to discount or insult ANYONES dogs. The old timers new these things I believe. They used hound way too often to breed back into stale cur types to freshen them back up. Usually the F1’s weren’t their desired result, but after that they started getting back more to the original dogs they had but renewed vigor.


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T-Dog I whole heartedly agree with you about the pen dog woods dog debate and I’m well aware of all that and why Dad owns woods dogs and my daughter owns pro pen dogs. Very very seldom do they excel at both but like you said there is always an exception here and there. In my opinion the good woods dogs that can get it done in the pen often catch out . Hell the #1 pen dog there is right now with several hundred thousand in winning can do both but in my opinion I feel he produces better woods dogs then pen dogs. It just blew my mind the lack of want to from the plot dogs in the pen. Hell we can’t run a 2 dog because the hogs just aren’t up to par at that bay pen but they have a 2 dog plot bay and doesn’t help any. The bays are at 2 minutes for 1st round now but I’ve seen several bay offs eventually pushing 12/15 minutes. The pen dogs are specialist these days and I understand it. First part of next year there will be a woods dog only bay in OK and if it wasn’t a 20hr drive for me I’d damn sure be there as I feel it’s going to be getting back to the old days and the origin of it all and Mr Rusty puts a set of hogs together that are the real deal.

I again agree with you on the hound thing and your right the F1’s are nice but I think when you get them back down to 1/4 that’s where they really start to shine again. If one was serious about it though and not a purest as you have to take the good with the bad when it comes to pure and wanted to make a line you’d be hard pressed to put something together that preformed better then a good game line bred for lung crossed with a true fox pen dog. A 3 day type and then put some cur in them or took it back to the fox pen dog and were real selective about it. Most don’t have the patience to see a 5 to 10 project through and keep there eye on the goal though.

It’s a challenge for sure. It’s also expensive and requires lots of dog space if you’re attempting it solo. As you said, you have to really be selective which means a lot of hunting on a lot of dogs. My family of dogs carry hound but it wasn’t a one time injection. Being selective for what I like has bred the hound percentage down on paper but not in traits. I still get some real good hound qualities in a more cur type conformation. Many of them have that hound color and markings though. My saving Grace has been that some great friends also got on the band wagon and hunt the same dogs which allows us all to trade pups back and forth and collaborate on breedings. We keep and raise what we can hunt fairly. So far it’s worked great.

Cajun, do you have anyone that you work closely with like myself and some of my friends and my nephew do?

I know this can be hard because everyone has a little different flavor about something. I’m my case, with the exception of the Sexsquatch, we all hunt the same kind of country and hogs, issuing the same style. The Sexsquatch lived out here long enough to know and understand our ways, I think he’s still using the same method for the most part in Georgia.


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This is my benchmark in a dog.

When I breed dogs, if they can do it all alone at two years old, to me that is a successful breeding.

They sound like some really nice dogs Mike.

A lot of the old timers down this way would add pointer (English or German), for that little extra go to them. They seemed to tolerate the heat of S. Florida a little better. You have to be carefull because too much and they would be land crocs! lol

T-Dog that awesome you have a small crew that seem to think alike and breed alike. That’s damn hard to come by these days. I’ve tried a few times with my livestock dogs and I’ve been burnt enough it makes it hard to trust these days. I just wanted a pup back but that seems to much to ask but it’s ok for me to drive sometimes 4 hrs and give them a completely trained dog free of charge and never asked for gas money either. I’m working on getting my Florida curs back going after being out for some years. I swore I was retired as most my kids didn’t show much interest if any but now my step daughter is everything a Dad dreams of so I’m back both feet in again. All brakes no gas. In my opinion T-Dog if you have the good traits from the hounds bred into your line and good cast dogs and by cast in my opinion if they aren’t going a mile they aren’t casting you can be above average hunting anywhere in the country with your dogs. No they might not bang straight out the box but a few days hunting somewhere they going to put it together.

Cajun has to T-Dog as I feel he’s producing some damn fine dogs from what I can tell or he has the ability to feed and hunt far more then the average but I also feel he’s more honest with himself them the average dog man as well.

I’m going to have to get your number T-Dog. I’ve got plenty of offers to hunt GA as we seem to make the trip quite often these days with my kids living in SC real close to the northeast corner of GA and some buddies in middle GA. They drive me nuts trying to get me up there on a regular basis to hunt or want me to send my daughter to stay so she can get some hunting in. I’ve actually got some damn good connects in GA these days for being a southwest FL boy.

You’re right Cajun a lot like putting a little pointer in them. In my opinion the only pointer worth feeding is an English haha but I’ve thought about it quite often and the way a pointer hunts and efficiently covers ground I see why one would want to. They have pretty good wind and seems to tolerate quite a bit of temperature differences and recover quite well I think. To me it would have to be some field trial stock you need a horse to hunt behind

Birdslayer, I’m in Texas. I’m right on the the line of being considered central or east Texas. My buddy, Sexsquatch as we call him is in Georgia. He has some nice dogs. He definitely knows what he likes and he definitely doesn’t tolerate anything that doesn’t fit the bill.


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I was listening to the Dixie Doggers podcast today and the guest they had on today done let the secret out and let the world know Mr Cauley has the real deal plotts. Damnit I haven’t even had the chance to get one yet and I bet his phone blows up now. I’m gonna have to get on Mr Joey about what he lets some of his guest talk about.

LOL.....I think that feller is behind the 8 ball on that info man,,,   Thats like saying they just found out Joe Biden lied....  HEHEHE

They’ve been kicking the door down on those Bayou Cajun dogs for a while, from
all over the world I might add.


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I know they are well known but I’ll bet his phone rings more than he wants it to now. The ones that didn’t know damn sure know now.

  The good thing about where we hunt in Wisc. was there was no phone siganl. Zip, nada. If I needed to make a call I would have to head for the highway about 2.0 miles away. Verizon just didnt work out there. Most peacefull 2 1/2 weeks you can spend. Another reason I cannot seem to catch up on pups is I normally keep 1 or 2 and then might give my buddies some when they need them. I have never sold a pup to a hunting buddy and I used to give more away. About 7 or so years ago I gave a young kid that wanted to get started hog hunting 4 pups. A month later they were on FB, Bayou Cajun Plott pups for sale. That will sure put a bad taste in your mouth. All that being said, they are just dogs and I have my share of culls too.

It is so peaceful when you have no cell signal. I recently deleted all social media which wasn’t much to begin with as I didnt have face f&$k (Facebook) and I’m not going to lie yea I miss seeing some posts at times but everyone I truly care about I have there phone number and it’s been the best thing I’ve done in a long long time. The wife even deleted all hers and she’s even made the comment it’s actually truly peaceful. Well duh. Mr Mike those comments are what have given you the success you have had and continue to have with them hounds and what makes you a true dogman. Most people breed to chase a $$ and with you that’s absolutely not the case. Your breeding for your own using purposes and the love of the hound and the betterment of what your breeding to make a difference in the breed. I can absolutely relate to helping a youngster or just someone in general. I own and raise some roosters and I have some livestock guardian dogs that I’ve traveled all over the southeast obtaining that were bred born and raised on rooster yards and I normally buy or get every puppy I can from a litter. I keep what suits me and works cull the ones that just don’t and have raised 1 litter of pups. I’ve driven states away to gift someone a pup or finished dog because they did there job just not the way I liked. My only stipulation was I want a pup back or a pair of pups back. To this day I’ve yet to receive a pup back so I truly have a bad bad taste in my mouth when it comes to these dogs and have a damn hard time trusting someone’s word. To many people today just don’t have the same level of respect and morals I was raised on and don’t take a hand shake as serious as I still do.

Y’all are spot on. My buddy King Smitty and I had this very conversation this morning. I will tell y’all that this man had a litter of pups out of a gyp from my family of dogs. He ASKED me what I thought he should breed her back to. I hooked him up with another friend hunting the same family. When they hit the ground he let them have their pick of the litter. There were only two females which is what I told him I wanted when he asked if I’d like to have one. He was going to give me the second female even though a female was his sole purpose in raising the litter. I declined her of course. I couldn’t have done that to him. Point is, he’s a good hunter, an eager to learn dog man, and an upstanding man. He’s the kind I want in my circle. My old family of bulldogs ran out because I just couldn’t keep the numbers I needed for the breeding program. If I had had the circle I have now they would still be here. I can’t stand to see people do stupid and unfair to quality animals. Hunt them starved, no water or shelter, won’t worm, hunt them without any gear, get them cut all up hunt after hunt and then when the animal has reached a breaking point they get mad and cull it! Nah, not with me. I can’t tolerate it. The same kind of people usually standing there with 5 of them taking pictures or videoing while the dog’s hanging on with all they have. 4 of you put the phone down and help the dogs and you can all watch the one video. Technology is really neat too, you can share the video these days. THEN, they gotta show everyone on every social media site how macho they were. No regard for what might be seen by some tree hugging reader that has zero clue about what they are looking at. SEE, Y’ALL DONE GOT ME UP ON THIS SOAP BOX!


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Since you posted all them nice looking young hounds on here thought I would put ol pork chop on here. I almost cut him few times but he is slowly earning his spot on the yard. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20241101/2d0e163ec85ce7a924dfd08a65377023.jpg)


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Good looking young dog Judge.

Thanks


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He’s purdy judge! You need to breed him to a border collie/lab cross. It works great sometimes!


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Well Cajun don’t let some young wannabe ruin us younger crowd for you. We’re few and far between but there is a small crowd of young guys that respect the dog game and are trying to keep it and good stock alive.


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 Yeah Mike I had that happen in times past so now only the folks I know real well get them without buying them and they know it is keep him-kill him- or bring him home, unless its a  mature dog they hunted and made, then I wouldn't feel hard about them selling it.
Another thing I don't like is for the pup not to ever get a chance, but if they bought him then it's not any of my business.

Clue and anyone else in Ok. Hope y'all are ok. Heard about several tornadoes hitting in y'all's area.

For a update on those three pups, they all made the grade. The pup in the blue collar who I had originally named Flint but I changed his name to Chief. He has just had bad luck all the way around. He got shot up there while baying a bear. The hunter was sure all the dogs were in the front and it was so thick he couldn't see Chief right behind the bear. Bear was broadside and the bullet went through and broke his leg. Vet put it back together but we do not know if he will be able to run again.
  Sassy did all you could expect and really shined one day by trailing out a bear and getting it jumped ahead of the young dogs. She ran it 5.77 miles before treeing it. Not bad for a 14 month old pup. And has some 20 year plus old Seman from my old Trapper dog. She came in heat last month and we AI her. She is starting to show so I think she is bred.
  Rip did everything right. Heck of a tree dog, fast and gritty. Wish he had a little more nose, he seems to be just medium nosed.

Cajun what made you select this young gyp to use a straw on?


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  Actually Andy did. I sold Trapper to Andy's Dad way back when because I got hurt and couldn't work for a while. Trapper would be in the top three Plotts I have had in 40 years. Sassy has Trapper and his littermate sister probably 10 or 11 times in her pedigree. She has done exceptionally well from 8 months old when we started her on hogs and continued through bear season. Real catchy dogs normally do not live long on hogs so when she came in heat during kill season Andy brought it up. Andy is a extremely hard bear hunter and knows what he likes in a dog and Sassy fit the bill. Anyway it was a chance to bring that Trapper blood right back in to my breeding program. We will just have to wait and see if it works or not.

Should be some good pups then


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Trapper(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20241104/10d239982a16d8bd7f9f0a4b7fafd0f2.jpg)


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He is a handsome fella

That sounds like a great recipe Cajun. I sure hope it works out for y’all. To me, this is the scariest part of using straws from dogs that aren’t around anymore. If it works it was worth the risk and if it doesn’t you are down a straw or two. I feel like y’all definitely did what you could to stack the odds in your favor. Ole Trapper was a good looking hound.


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 Hope the breeding makes the kind for you, sounds as if they can't hardly miss and bringing Trapper back in close will be a good thing.

Thanks for the concern, we didn't get any of the bad storms in our immediate area just a super good 3 day rain that ran the rain gauge over. I feel for those that lost their homes in the storms though, both here and the hurricane. The storms that came through here won't even scratch the surface on the damage and loss of life the hurricane and ensuing floods did down your way. May God be with them.

  Y;all sit down and let me tell you a story about a dog that doesn't know the meaning of quit. When Chief was 8 months old I threw him and two other pups on a hog we saw swim the bayou. After a  hour race we heard them bay for a few minutes then break and run. After about 45 minutes the hog beat us to No Man's land and we caught the dogs. Chief had herniated from a cut to his gut and I ran him two the Vet the next morning. He had 3 loops of intestine out of his stomach cavity but under the skin. He healed up fine and during the Wisconsin bear season they were bayed up and Andy started into them. Bear broke and the dogs walked him a mile and treed him. Chief was at the tree treeing but Andy knew he was hurt. Took him to the Vet and he had multiple bites and a dislocated hip. Out for a month but ready for kill season. There was a walking bay and the hunter slipped in and shot the bear but the bullet went thru the bear and hit Chief in the leg. We thought his running days were over as he was essentially  head bobbing lame. After almost a year of being off I took him with the other dogs roading them. He started falling back after a couple of miles and I told Andy I didnt think he would be able to stay in a bear race. Joe Hudson thought he might be able to use him to breed a female too so Andy gave him to Joe. Joe tried him on bear and he was able to run. Evidently bear scent gave him more incentive to run then just roading him. Every bear that stayed on the ground he got holes put in him to the extent that you couldn't even pet him on his head it was so puffy. No matter how much he got chewed up, he never quit a bear. Even crippled he ran at the front with Joe's dogs and Joe told me he could take a 10 hour old plus track and get it going. That is high praise coming from a guy like Joe that has had real bear dogs for 50 plus years.

Owner Joe Hudson





-------------------------------Bayou Cajun Hank
---------------------Bayou Cajun Yellow
-------------------------------Bayou Cajun Trumpet
------------Bayou Cajun Oak
-------------------------------Bayou Cajun Hillbilly Jack
---------------------Bayou Cajun Flirt
--------------------------------Frees 3k Brandy
Bayou Cajun Chief
-------------------------------Bayou Cajun Hillbilly Jack
---------------------Bayou Cajun Showtime
-------------------------------Bayou Cajun Amber
----------------------Bayou Cajun Showtime
-------------Bayou Cajun Showgirl
-------------------------------Bayou Cajun Hank
-----------------------Bayou Cajun Auburn
-------------------------------Bayou Cajun Trumpet

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(https://i.postimg.cc/HnFM2dvT/IMG_8671.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)

He sounds like the kind cajun sounds like a heck of a dog

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You might want to find a gyp or two for him to get a little lovin.

Yeah, Joe bred a female to him and sent him  down here. I am planning on breeding a couple to him and sending him back to Joe for bear season.

That’s one heck of a dog!

When is your Sassy gyp supposed to welp Cajun? That breeding has me a little excited and they don’t even have any border collie in them.


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She had her pups from the Trapper semen almost a year ago.  They started early, the female and male I kept have done well until I had to lay them up for deer season. They are pretty gritty for hog dogs so dont know how long they will last. The female Sissy got really cut up pretty bad on a boar hog we caught right before season. I had another young gyp that got gutted on that hog but she survived despite me and Scotty Needhams Veterinarian skills.  They didnt learn anything because they caught my hog in the pen which was about a 140# with 1 1/2" cutters and got cut up on him.  Joe Hudson got a female and hunted her on bear from 7 months old and by the time season ended told me she was as good as he has seen for her age. She was rigging and cold trailing real early. He also wants me to make the same cross again.
  Sassy is a 1/2 sister to Chief out of the Oak dog. Those are two of the young guns I had posted. The third is Rip and he has everything the other two have except he is not as coldnosed. I sold him over to Sweden and they like him pretty good.

That’s awesome to hear. It’s amazing to me how instinctive purpose bred dogs can be. It sure makes it hard for anyone to argue against it.  I sure hope you get pups out of those two young gyps before you can’t, especially the Sassy pup, Sissy I think you called her. Do you make many repeat breedings and if so do you think you get the same results each time? I personally don’t. My logic is that I only raise enough dogs to keep my circle in supply. If I breed a good producing female back to the same dog repeatedly then I’m going to get bred into a corner pretty quick if I’m not careful. Half siblings are still pretty darn close and even closer when you take into account that the different studs are all related as well. At one point I had 3 dogs of hunting age and one 6 month old pup. Momma and 3 of her offspring, each out of a different stud and litter. They all 3 made really nice dogs by my standards. I have pups out of the older two bred to other dogs in the family but will never get any out of the youngest gyp. I ended up letting my buddy Kohl have her. He made a really nice dog out of her but he lost her recently. Each litter was a little different in some way, but each litter was very strong. I’ve seen it in game chickens, horses, and dogs where just because a cross worked well the first time, it wasn’t the same the next. I was also scared that would happen to me and I would’ve lost time and opportunity on a mating that wasn’t a necessity.


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T Dog I do try to stay with proven crosses altho like you said they are not always proven. I had a Nite Ch. Plott gyp and bred her to a Grand nite Ch. male. That first cross was great and I kept the worst one of the litter. He would tree squirrels and coons but just didnt have the go to them. Two out of that litter went to competition hunters and made Nite ch. out of them and others went to pleasure hunters but they made coon dogs. I make that same cross again and there was only one in that 2nd cross that made a coon dog. So much for proven crosses but overall I will stick to them.
  Twice in my life I have come close to running out of dogs and swore that would never happen again. I keep enough  now that I cannot hunt them all but have enough variety in them that I can breed to different studs and not back myself into a corner although they are all related. The only time I really need that many is Feb. when we really run into alot of boars in the marsh  and have to lay alot up from injuries.
  I find myself leaving trained dogs at home just to hunt the young dogs.

I don’t get to hunt like I use to for a variety of reasons. That’s why having a good circle of like minded friends is so valuable to me. I don’t have to keep so many dogs to keep the family going. Yu know ike i know, some dogs just don’t reproduce well. Some matings no matter the quality of the pair being bred, just don’t niche. If you get too much of one thing and it doesn’t niche or doesn’t reproduce well, then you’re in a bind. I love my older dogs, they are what has continued to keep it fun for me, but I also love to watch the progression of the young dogs. I try to leave the oder dogs in the box as much as I can once I think the younger dogs make me think they can do it. Once they are really doing it on their own I will cast old and young both. It usually pushes both to be better because they all seem to want to be top dog and they hustle harder. They may all leave out headed south, but by the time they are 3-400 yards out, they covering a swath 2-300 yards wide (usually). I love that because it usually gets a hog found in shorter order and I feel like  fewer hogs get missed.  Now and then though, we will get a young dog that seems to always be out of place and misses being at bays more than they are there. What I think I figured out is that they are suer independent and competitive. If the cast goes south then they go north. Once they are get out far enough then they can’t hear the bay that is equally as far the opposite direction from us. What started doing with those dogs is casting them first in the direction I want them to go and let them get bayed or settled into hunting good and then casting the other dogs. That usually fixes it after a few times. It’s kinda like that dog that’s excitable and hot footed that hits the ground barking and sprinting to nowhere out of excitement. Cast them
first and solo a few times and it usually corrects itself. Hunting them more held too but that isn’t always an option. That’s our approach.


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I have known some people if they make a cross and it works good they will make it every chance they get i believe for sure that every time they make cross they turn out different then I have known people who very rarely make the same cross twice I am more on board with this group because not being able to keep a big number of dogs and not hunting as hard as I use to  you get in corner real quick on your breeding program thats just my opinion and I am not nearly as advanced in breeding and stuff as cajun and tdog is just my thoughts

Tdog isn’t advanced! He’s been lucky!!! Cajun on the other hand, he’s the professor. You know what they say, everybody wants to be like Mike.

I think the size of your program and your outlet for puppies has to play a role in your breeding strategies. I watched an interview with Dan Braman and he had an accidental breeding. The pups are outstanding according to him so he had to DNA all his male dogs to figure out which dog was the sire so he could do a repeat breeding lol. He said the male he would’ve eventually bred but not the female more than likely. Now that she produced some all stars he’s changed his mind I guess. Just goes to show what nature knows I guess.


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There is nobody and I mean nobody that has a 100% turnout ratio. To me tho the results are more predictable in a established line of dogs.  Just like Tdogs friend who said he probably would have never bred that gyp but then due to a accidental breeding, he found out what kind of producer she was. I have had a few gyps that have produced way better then what they are. I can give you a example: I have a dog named Yellow.  Let's just call him a good journeyman dog. He should have been a really fast dog but just came out with average speed. He did have a really good nose and a abundance of grit. He can go out and get the job done and needs no help but he kind of sits in the shadow of Showtimes, Hank, Amber or a couple others I can name. Those dogs were just in another class. That being said I bred him to a female that was a pretty good dog but she lacked a little grit. Those pups came out the real deal which two of them were Oak and Cypress.  The  main thing that has worked for me is only breeding dogs that can do it by there self. We as hog hunters have to many split races and if a dog will not run and bay his own hog, he has no business being in the gene pool.

Good stuff coming here. I have never had the same same luck on a 2nd cross of the same dogs as the first. It has baffled me for years. But I dont breed a lot and when I do the dogs are usually pretty older by the second cross. that may make a difference.

I am right with you Cajun....if a dog cant do it solo, I dont have a use for it. To me that is where the bar is set.

I agree with the solo dog theory and that nobody raises dogs that turn out 100% of the time. Cajun I did pretty much the exact same thing you did with Yellow to get the litter Outlaw was out of.  I don’t know about everyone else but I intentionally put my dogs in that solo position. At this stage of the game I can pretty much tell you before I do it if they are going to be able to or not, but that’s just knowing the family of dogs. The ones that would normally fail that test usually fail some others prior to that one. Some people say I’m too picky but I don’t believe I am. I know breeders from the past that were way harder or more strict than I am. You have to have a standard though and you can’t make excuses for faults, especially the bigger ones. What one person can tolerate isn’t necessarily what the next one can.


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