WOW and T dog I guess I better start thinking before I go to typing because I resemble some of those remarks. lol T dog I wished you could have locked on to that bear and tied him. Bear meat is pretty dog gone good.

Boys, call it old age or just wimping out but we are not going to hunt the marsh on Sunday. Supposed to be 19 degrees and I am going to tell you that is cold in a boat, especially with wind. It will only be 26 Monday morning so we will be out there then. I have some older dogs that think I have forgot all about them and the young guns are getting ready to get trained in Nutria Avoidance. Looking forward to getting out there and I probably will not be walking to far as Im still getting over knee surgery but hey, that's what those youngens are for.

Really good dog work and nice hog. It can be tough in the afternoon when sign is not as fresh and the dogs have to make it up by hustling.

  They dont get much better then that. That is a fine Barr. You know I wouldn't get onto Deputy dawg too much. I can see the resemblance between you and WOW. Y'all pretty much look like twins. lol

Hope everyone makes out ok.

  Thomas we were talking the other day on how many spots we have lost over the years and a lot of them were because of some one buying in the vicinity of where we hunted.

Sounds like a very productive hunt. Good dog work.

Sounds like a good start WOW but you have to quit bringing this weather when you come. Try to leave it up there next time.

Fine looking bulldog pups. They sure grew off nice. Good luck with them.

Got some shanks on that sucker.

Y'all have been getting some good hunts in. Sounds like you have more hogs then you used to have. I believe it was one of the Plott boys that said that the bears  kill the plotts that are too rough and he kills the ones that are not rough enough. Ole Everett sure did produce a good strain of bear hounds.

Safe travels. At our age now, those youngsters are as important as the dogs.

Just getting the young dogs out is a huge plus. We still have a couple of weeks to go before we can run.

Sounds like a great hunt and some extra training for the young ones. Whether big or small, the bite is the most important trait on a catchdog. I also prefer the bigger ones but have had a couple over the years that were smaller but they had the bite.

They have sure grown. Nice and healthy looking.

Y'all wore them out. You ready for a break and we are ready to get started.

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.

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.

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.

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.