EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

I know this is a hog dog forum but someone has to have some experience with it. I like the collie smarts and quickness but you can't beat the toughness and endurance of a good old cur. It seems like curs it just comes natural to bark. I like silent... haha and collies have in my experience a better time at obeying commands. Maybe it's just cause they arnt barking and can hear what I'm telling them to do. Also it stresses the cattle out having 2-4 dogs barking at you and with collies theyre atleast a little more accepting of what the dogs want of em. Is there any breakin this bark?

I would agree about the collie being easier to handle or teach commands to. But both dogs have thier place as far as workin cattle IMO. If your in south Texas in the brush you would be better off with cur dogs. For several reasons. I like a dog that will take a cow track & bay when he finds cattle so I would prefer a dog to bark/bay on cattle. Plus alot of the cattle are ruff cattle there so need a little ruffer type dog like a cur. I guess it depends on where or what type cattle your workin asto what a guy would want. As far as breakin one of barkin/bayin a cow never heard of anyone trying.   

I use collies. I have had some crosses at one time that were so so dogs. Cur dogs are bred to bark so to me trying to take it out of one would be the same as trying to make a border collie bark when working. Just goes against what they were bred for. Check out daltons cowdogs. He breeding some crosses that seem to be silent. There are a lot of really rough and tough collies out there. I've been around a few that will actually catch.

I have been using cats and bmc for over twenty years but we pen horseback and they are bay dogs that is what we want collies are smart and easier to train but they are better suited for driving I don't need a dog for driving that's why we have the horses and one more thing if you have a fighter that likes to break a bay and run I would much rather have my old ruff bay dogs over a collie that is just my opinion

I really like to work cattle with both. I just got two cur pups. Thing I like about my collies is I can use them in so many ways. I work them horseback, atv, foot, and have even penned cattle from drivers seat of my truck. I can send them ahead of cattle put them behind cattle or on the side of cattle, wherever they are needed. They will bunch and hold cattle also. On the downside they are totally silent so they aren't much good in brush. Also have no hunt the them. I'm gonna post a few pics in a new topic if anyone is interested.

A friend of mine told me about a man that uses curs on cattle and that he has trained his curs to stop barking while continuing to work. I plan to try to see this because I find it very interesting. If he is able to do this, the next thing I want to learn is his method of training them to work in this fashion. According to my friend, this man is a good hand and spends a lot of time with his dogs on several large ranches which he manages.

I like both Curs and Border Collies on cattle and believe both types can be very useful in a variety of cattle handling situations. Of course, I think a person should use the type of dogs they like best.

Regarding dogs that are rough or strong enough to handle rank cattle, I have seen this kind of dog in both Cur and Border Collie type dogs.

Thanks for posting. I do agree with the brush aspect of curs bcuz seems like cattle will just stay put if they dont have anything pushing them out. Not tryin to steal secrets but if u ever hear how this guy teaches his curs to off that mouth it would be more than helpful to know how. I imagine it starts when there pups?
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A cur dog without the bark ain't a cur dog. Cur dogs use their voice in the same way a collie uses eye.

;)