EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

I have about a 30lb bulldog soaking wet. I raised her from a pup and she is outta old fightin dogs. Anyways she is as dog and human friendly as you can ask for. She just turned a year old and I put her in the pen with about a 180 lb boar and she nailed it like she has done it for the past 5 years.. Anyways all my buddies tell me I'm crazy for even thinking about taking her cause of her size.. I have always had big bulldogs And the last one got killed so I decided I would raise a gyp and this is what I got. I actually like the dog.. She is lighting fast an as Gamey as they come from what I could tell from
The first hog.. Anyways what do y'all think about SMALL bulldogs.. Am I crazy for using her?

Alot of guys use small bulldogs, nothing wrong with it. I like being able to throw a bulldog on your shoulder when walkjng through briars. Little bulldogs are great if your sending to a bay that in the thick stuff.  Best thing about them is they only require a handful of feed a day!!

Speed kills , as long as she is vested and catches hard I don't see a problem.


Sonny

  they only con I have ever had was that occasionally a big hog will run off wearing them like earrings .

I just picked up a bulldog that can't weigh an ounce over 40lbs, tall, leggy blue dog, supposedly catches hard and will boogey to a bay. Came from a standup fella, im quite certain he is as described. I think he will work well for me, every dog in my yard catches with the bulldog, and a few of em dont even wait for the bulldog lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 I have always heard people say this ...... Never seen it happen my bulldog is 42 pounds , an I have a Patterdale catches an only ways 15 pounds

I have seen some people use jack Russell's

If a dogs gets a hold an stays caught the hog gonna be worried a out getting him off an not running

   lol  I had a large boar run off wearing my 50+ pound bulldog and a couple of Catahoula's . when he hit the brush on the other side of the wheat field he drug them all off except the bulldog . when I caught up to them he was beating my bulldog up against a tree trying to shake him off . while the cat's were hanging onto the hams . it was a sight to see , but that was the day I nearly lost my catch dog from over heating every time I got close enough to grab the hog he would bolt again . while chasing them through the brush I lost site of the bulldog he wasn't on the hog when the cats bayed him up again  and i had to back track down that dry wash and found him laid out . I got him back to the truck and cooled down and horned the other dogs in . I had had enough of that one  lol but I wouldn't change a thing on the size of catch dog they work great in the thick stuff . that dry wash was nothing but dead willows and briars head high some bad stuff .

All I've ever used was small bulldogs. I once bayed two big barrs and sent 2 small bulldogs to the bay. They caught separate hogs. One went about 50 yds while I tied the first one. I believe when you turn em loose you have to be ready to go in right behind em to help the bulldogs out.

from my experiences i feel a little bulldog is fine as long as your other dogs catch as soon as the bulldog grabs that head. ive seen way too many bulldogs get drug off if they are the only dog catchjng.unless you turn that little bulldog in at 10 yards or less and run right up his butt and leg the hog and risk gettin hurt bad. just think about it... if your pack is still bayin once the bulldog catches, you wanna count on a 35 lb dog to hold a big hog all alone? i damn sure dont,lol. just my 2 cents

  I agree gary .  I use my catch dogs just like they are pistols [ which is my bd's name lol] I don't shoot him out till I can see what I'm aiming at . that's even with my catchy dogs .

Agreed. If anything, a small CD will almost confuse a hog in a way, if that makes sense....the times we have small dogs caught, we've yet to have a hog take off with them. We will however find the hog focused/intent on trying to get the landshark off their ear, at a standstill

I've got a small one that I send to the bay solo on a regular basis and he hasn't let me down yet.  I try to see the bay or at least be within 40-60 yards so that I'm always right behind him.

Judge hasn't seen this thread yet, but he has a small pit that will send in at 300 yards plus and hasn't been shaking off yet, but again we run rough ass dogs. Like many of you said, if your dogs aren't going in digging  your right.

When y'all say walking off with the dogs do y'all mean like running or actually walking not so fast I can't catch up ?

If you mean walking around yes my bulldog will have hog walking in circles around trying to get him off but not running off

  I prefer big over small. My bay dogs don't commit 100% on the catch , a positive in my eyes. I prefer the bay dogs to not even be there after the catch dogs get there.

when i say walkin off i mean a hog big, strong and determined enough to get away that he just gets out of dodge with a dog attatched . these hogs mean to get away from humans and the other dogs then scrape or shake or knock the bulldog off and either outrun him or kill it.

I like the smaller pit 40 to 55 seem to get more speed and endurance out of them we had a 55 lb er carried off by a big boar never to be seen again that's why I like rough catchy dogs that will pile on

When I had a smaller pit my bay dogs got cut more.  The smaller dogs cannot controll a hogs head as well and makes the bay dogs more likely to get cut.   Not saying this is how it is for everyone, but it is how it worked for me.

I have owned 3 smaller catch dogs that I thought a lot of. All three caught very accurate and had no quit. Traded the first one away because I hunted 2 bay dogs and one catch dog at a time and by myself a lot. The bigger hogs were more trouble than they should have been and the bay dogs got cut on a regular basis. It was the ability to control the hogs head or lack of. The second one was killed just from getting slapped by a big boar, not a single cut. The third was my favorite. I sent him to a boar in the 200# range, not much over that if he was all. The hit and the hog slung him all in one kinda motion. The dog had ear but as he came around when the hog slung him the hog caught his front leg in his mouth. He immediately slung him again and this time slung the dog off and broke to run. Bay dogs stopped him in twenty or yards. I looked to see why the bulldog wasn't right with them and he was coming but definitely hurt. He hit again and had a good deep catch this time. I threw the hog and noticed by bulldog pumping blood so stuck the hog. I don't know which one bled out first. My dog got hit right between the cut collar and vest and his front leg was like a bag of crumbled crackers. My logic is this, there were weight classes in the game dog sports, chicken fighting, etc. and they had to be within ounces of each other in certain sports. Boxing/wrestling are good examples. A 150# man is not going to out wrestle a 250# man MOST of the time. The 150# boxer also isn't going to take near as many shots from the bigger boxer as the bigger fighter will from the smaller, MOST of the time. I know there are good ones of all sizes that get it done, the smaller ones just haven't worked as well for me. I prefer the linebacker types and not the wide receiver/lineman types.

I like 2 big catch dogs

I like little bulldogs I say between 45-55lbs. I have never seen a hog walk off with a bulldog on it's ear he might be turning in circles trying to sling him off but not walking around. I hunt thickets and that's where we catch most of our hogs so thick we usually have to crawl in. A 100lb bulldog sounds like a buffalo coming through there and usually hog breaks with all that going on. And most big bulldogs run hot a lot faster than a smaller one will. And a big bulldog takes up to much room on the four wheeler or in the box and cost more to feed. A smaller bulldog is usually faster too. But you have to use what's available at the time and make due with what you have. As long as it catches and will hold on use it til something better comes along

Just checkin but I thought we were calling a small bulldog 30 lbs or so at the beganing of this thread? I have a 40 to 50 lbs red rednose gamebred pit that handles big pigs just fine, but to me that's an average size. Am I wrong?

^^yes I was talking like 30 lbs.. 45 lbs is average to me. My buddies are saying I'm crazy cause she is about 30 lbs.. They said there ain't no way so now I gotta prove em wrong!!! ;D

None of mine are over 25-30 lbs except for one that maybe 40. They do just fine but i usually like I use two at once... But good thing is once my cd hits all of mine catch.

I like using bigger catch dogs because they not only catch the hog but they can control it as well.

I've realized 1 thing about bulldogs over the years, it doesn't matter what size bulldog I use because as soon as it hits every dog i've got on the ground hits too so size doesn't matter much to me really. I like a BIG bulldog just for shear raw power on a hog BUT on the other hand I like a little bulldog for speed and athleticism, guess im easy when it comes to bulldogs, give me one that doesn't whine or fight in the buggy and that will catch a hog hard, if I got one like that im a happy fella  ;). Just picked up a little 30-35lb blue pit last weekend and he has to be one of the fastest dogs ive ever seen, we turned him and 2 curr dogs to a boar crossing a field yesterday, the currs got unclipped from the buggy first and had a decent headstart, if the hog would have been another 50yds ahead that little bulldog woulda passed both of them currs up, and the 2 currs we sent ain't slouches themselves, it was pretty impressive.

Guess all im sayin is  I like a good bulldog lol...... color, size, breed, make, model don't really matter much to me, just give me a goodun  ;D

try using a pack of dogs that doesnt help the bulldog once he catches and you boys may change your minds about  the size of the bulldog,lol.

All in all, only each one of us ourselves can know what style CD will work for us. Only we know our pack of dogs and what they will or will not do. There is no one uniform style of dog that will work for everyone.

Every one has their own style but here is my experience with a smaller bulldog. I had a good one really liked this dog in the woods and at the house one of my favorate dogs ever. Had a big sow in the pen she was tall tall for a pig. She got out one morning so figured I would take my cd catch her put her back and go to work well caught her and 30 minutes later I still could not catch her she would hear smell or see me coming and lift her head and go. Cd over heated and was never the same again and for this reason I will NEVER have a small bulldog or cd again. I still get mad over the deal I liked that dog.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Tapatalk

I hunt with a guy that has a small pit. I'm just guessing him in the 40-45 lb range and he locks on and does a great job.

I use a catahoula and a 1/2 pit 1/2 lab for catch dogs. With both of them, they catch and hold any hog we've ever been on. The catahoula  is gritty as can be, and the pit cross is as well. Neither are very big dogs.  But, once they get there, all of our dogs lock on.

I like a little pit. Like the 20-30# firecrackers. Fast as lightning and all heart. I'm looking for one if anyone is getting rid of one

But some of us dont want to use those type dogs so it really wont be an issue, for me anyhow. ;)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm with you Gary....

The APBT's we run are really good at what they do. They are a lot stonger than most people think.They are usually around 40 lbs heavy( which is normal)..They dont know that though. They work until you get them off.
www.noblekennels.com   

The APBT's we run are really good at what they do. They are a lot stonger than most people think.They are usually around 40 lbs heavy( which is normal)..They dont know that though. They work until you get them off.
www.noblekennels.com   

Well I went today to shut my buddies up and caught one about 230 and she smacked it.. So that'll keep em quiet a while  ;D