I would like to find a breeder in East Texas. Oklahoma, Arkansas,Mississippi or Louisiana. Thanks

A few years ago, on the Cur and Feist Board, there was a lot of material put on that would help you get started on Blackmouth Curs. If you are willing to spend the time to do this, I will help you. There are a number of people on this board who have knowledge of lines of dogs that they and their friends have bred and used.  Where are you located?

John,

I am very sorry that you lost Zeke. He was a really good dog.

Charles

In terms of closeness of a breeding based on genetic relationship, I think a sire to daughter or a litter mate brother to sister are about the same. However, the pups from a parent-offspring mating would be expected to be more alike or uniform than from a brother-sister mating. The genes are similar but are recombined differently. Also, if you are interested in perpetuating the old dog's genetics the sire to daughter would be better. I have had a couple of brother-sister litters that were not bad.

I am very sorry for your loss.

I always enjoyed talking with him. He was a good man.

Charles

I think that using dogs on both hogs and cattle is a matter of owner preference and I know of many that do this without any problems. As has been said earlier, many dogs that are used a lot learn from your actions which you wish to do that day; also, good handle on the dogs solves many problems.

Now, I also know of friends who have had their dogs get on cattle and could not get to them before the dogs were shot by the owner of the cattle. I am glad this doesn't happen any more than it does but there are incidents that have occurred. I also know that there are people who will shoot a dog that is just crossing their land. However, as in all issues, each of us should decide the approach that we prefer and consider the locale and conditions in which we hunt.

That is really good news. I am most pleased to hear it.

Charles

Most of the hogs back then were quite a lot different from most in the woods today, both in genetic background and experience with humans. I am not sure it would be possible to drive a group of hogs with a lot of Russian influence, particularly if they had been hunted with rough dogs. I think there may be a few instances of hogs being handled this way today but I think it is very rare.

I think someone told me that he owns a couple of Bud distributorships. Also, that of NFL players he is second only to Roger Staubach in net worth.

Like many of you I was glad that Denver got the job done. My grandsons thought I was not too bright on Saturday when I said that I was for Denver. I think a lot of money was lost by the betting crowd on that game. I was happy for Peyton but also for Wade Phillips and Gary Kubiac.

Here are more pictures.







I think this is really pretty country and I hope it stays this way for a long time.

jdt and I had the pleasure of helping our friend Dale Toon gather his cattle off of his Forest Service lease last month near Smithville, OK. He grazes the lease from springtime until mid-October. We spent October 13, 14 and 15 riding with Dale and his family and friends to find and drive the cattle in to the home place to winter them. Good folks and great hospitality provided by Dale and his wife Tabitha made this a week to remember.

Each day we trailered to an area in which Dale thought cattle were likely to be, unloaded and rode while letting the dogs (usually 2 or 3) hunt; when cattle were located and bunched, we drove them in. I think the longest drive was about 15 miles. On that drive when we reached the truck and trailer, I volunteered to drive it in; so I made only about half that drive. That was plenty of fun for me!

jdt took some pictures and I will try to post some of them.











I will post more pictures as I can. Also, jdt may wish to provide his comments on our week.

I am really sorry to hear that.

Until a few weeks ago, I fed the blue bag Retriever (27/15) and like it fairly well. I got a chance to buy some Diamond (24/20) and have been feeding it for about 6 weeks. I feed less of the Diamond because of the higher fat content and my dogs are looking better. I like the Diamond feed better but was not unhappy with the Retriever.

The Smith and Wesson hammer less air weight revolver in .38 special +P is nice. It is made in .357 magnum but may have more recoil than desired.

Back several years ago, he competed in many hog bay competitions. And he was very competitive, winning his share. I was told his dogs were Pointer-Bulldog crosses and that's what they looked like. I did not know anything about how they were in the woods but they were good in the pen. Bayed close and placed high if they didn't catch.

As others have said, cur-hound crosses can be very good. We have used Plott-BMC crosses on hogs and cattle. Some were very good dogs.

Ormiston in an article in Dog World several years ago discussed "Colonial Curs" made some interesting points about origin of these types in general. Tom Risinger told me his family moved to Texas after the Civil War and brought dogs. I think several families moving from the southeast brought dogs that were the foundation for the curs that we see today.

I hand feed all my dogs a feed that is at or above 26% protein and fairly high in fat with a good digestibility. I use the same feed for puppies.
 I try to feed each dog the amount of feed that keeps them in a moderate fat condition but not what would be considered fat.
I give pups all the dry feed they will eat. If I think they need something more, I will use 20-20 calf milk replacer. I mix it rich and give pups all they will drink once a day. That works for me.

A number of blackmouth cur cowdogs from parts of the Big Thicket of East Texas were pretty good at stopping rough cattle. There have been discussions of Mr. Taylor's dogs;  Jude Hart, Tom Winfrey, Risinger family, Henry and Jimmy Thornton, Buddy Lowrey, Clyde Ashcraft, Curtis Spivey, T C Pouland, Ray Modisette and his cousins Havard are all folks that I associate with decent kinds of blackmouth curs. And for each of the ones whose name we know there are several we never heard of but who had good dogs. Many of these dogs were yellow (fawn) but some were red, black & tan, brindle and variations of these.

I think you may be right about the Pug, especially for heart, and color? But I think BMCs were around before Dogos?   

Of course, originally BMCs were bred from whatever the folks had that did the jobs as they wished.

Looking at the differences in different lines, I think that some amounts of hound, bulldog, mastiff types and perhaps others were in early curs. Ormiston wrote an article, I think in Dog World, about "Colonial Curs" that contained some interesting thoughts.