If you can let a whole litter of pups run loose you better.  If 1/2 of them get mashed on the highway you are still money ahead on the other 1/2.  I can remember raising pups running loose and them running rabbits and treeing squirrels at 4 to 5 months old in th middle of the summer time.  If a dog can run a riabbit and run it right without loosing it....there is no creature on this earth that can get away from it.

You can pretty much break them from anything, I just about had one broke from eating one time but wouldn't you know it....the sun of a gun up and dies on me 

The thing that I have found is that breeding dogs is not like mixing paint.  White and balck don't allways make grey.  When you mix hounds and curs their is usually not an even mix.  You will get some crosses that are real houndy and then some that are real curry.  If you could just get the long range, nose, and bottom of a hound and them be silent.......everybody would have them.  In my experiences most of them bark.  I just sold a male plott that I had on here because he didn't bark enough to suit me.  He was a Hog Dog and I don't use that term lightly.  In my opinion stopping hogs is alot more about the hogs than the dogs.  We ran one Tuesday for 7 hrs and saw him 3 times, bayed him 5-6 times and never got close enough to send the bulldog.  Took the same dogs Wednesday and caught 5. 
As far as hound just getting gone and not hunting with you....dogs are alot like kids...they are gonna do exactly what you let them.  You can put a handle on a duck if you handle it enough and tri-tronics will fit around its neck.  If i keep a hound over about 2or 3 years may not be able to run out from under a falling tree or smell a gorilla fart but you can bet 2 things it will know its name and better than that, know my voice and respect it.  I have had several hounds that could be called off a running or bayed hog, never need a leash, and handle like a 12 year old boy is suppose to. 
Please don't take this last bit to be offensive....I do not know any of you and am making a blank statement in general........

The problem is that there are very few people that really know dogs.  All they are interested in is putting their hands on a hog.  That is great because it is what we are all after.  I can have a good hunt and never touch a hog.  If I have a young dog progressing good and showing it is making a hand...I have had a good day.  I like listening and watching the dogs, learning about how they work and what they are doing.  If you can understand a dog and let it teach you and you teach it you will both progress alot in the same direction

Lionboar.....the best dog that I have ever owned was out of an old line running walker bitch that was a cat dog.  She was not like the pen bred dogs today.  She could cold trail a bobcat through a cutover with no vegitation in the panhandle of Florida (sugar sand and scrub oaks).  I bred her to a 1/2 plott 1/2 leapord.  1 puppy lived and he was lemon and white with blue cracked eyes.  I have seen him cold trail bear and hogs with his head up at 2-3 p.m when potlickers were standing on their head.  When he got the game up he could flat pump the wind out of him.  We bred him several times and never had a good get out of him.  I have tried several running dogs and crosses since then.  I can't find one that will stay bayed when a bad hog gets rough with them.

In my opinim people judge hounds and curs on different standards.  For example if a hound runs a 3 hr race it is average and if a cur runs a 3 hr race it is very good.  A dog is a dog and anyone making excuses for them is lying to themselves. I want the best dog I can have be it hound cur or whatever.  With that said you have to rate the qualities or characteristics that you desire in your dogs and find the breed or strain that posses the highest number of the top qualities you are looking for.  I have been hog hunting for many years and when I started our hog population in my hunting area was very low. (It has since increased but still not the numbers of Florida or TX)  I place alot of importance on nose and bottom.  When I find a hog track I want to be able to catch that hog be it under the next bush or the next county.  For me hounds are the only way to go.  Are they for everybody, NO.  Several people have posted accounts of going all night and listening to a dog boo hoo and never stopping a hog.  I can alos give accounts of people putting curs on hog sighn and letting them hunt for 30+ minutes.  Catching them up and putting my plotts out, them cold trailing, (sometimes for hours and miles) and baying hogs.  Or even then sometimes hunting them together and getting on a bad running hog and the curs burn out after 2 or 3 hours and my plotts bay the hog around the 5hr mark.  It has allways been funny to me how people will brag on a cur for running a hog silent for 3 or 4 hours and talk about the bottom they have and then cuss a hound for running 5 hours saying that if it wasn't for all the barking they would have stopped the hog by now.  There is no secret recipe...If there is I will re-mortgage the house to buy it.  I have seen really good dogs in all kinds.  One thing I do know is that I like good dogs way to much to be proud.  Come hunt with me for a while, and if your dogs out do mine consistantly....heck I'll try to but them.  I want to switch brands tommarrow because that means that Ifeel like I have found something better than what I got. Until then I guess I will just keep hunting these barking, booing muts and hope somebodies cur dogs have chewed one up and left it for us to bay.   I'll leave you with some insight.  Good dogs are where you find them.  If you have one enjoy it because they don't last forever.  If you have a good solid dog be satisfied, those once in a lifetime dogs are just that...once in a lifetime...they are not mass produced or "bred for"....if you ever hunt with one you will know what I am talking about

I believe my hunting partner bred the Brenda dog and everything I have comes from close to that same breeding.  They are like al dogs some good some get culled.  Most of them can run.  Man the funniest thing......

If a guy is hunting silent curs and the hog runs for 4 hours they brag about how much bottom the cur dogs have and what a good job they did.

If a guiy is hunting hounds and they run a hog for 4 hours everybody is cussing and fussing saying they should have already stopped the hog and if they were quiet they would have already caught him.

I don't car if he has a monkey riding his back blowing a bugle if he can catch hog.  I actually will get rid of a dog for nor using enough mouth.  Stopping hogs is more about the hogs than the dogs.  I've run hogs for 10 + hours and take the same dogs the next weekend to "fresh" ground where hogs are not pressured and catch 7 or 8.  When ya'll get it all figured out put me on the list for a couple pups....I like to hunt the best I can affordd.  And if I get showed up a couple times I'll switch brands.  Until then I'll keep these Ol plotts around

The thing with the plotts I hunt is that they have more bottom and stick than most of the people I hunt with .  If you have small spots of land and a wife that wants you home on time then plotts are not for you.  If you have a low hog population, plenty of land, and a stick with them, run them in the ground, attitude, then plotts may be the way to go.   

I am going to quote someome and I can't remember who......"breeding dogs is not like mixing paint, you can't simply put white and black together and get grey."   You very rarely get the even amounts of traits that you puty inot the mix.

will be interested in trading for a cold nosed open mouthed hound

5 year old castrated plott male.  Very cold nosed.  Very quiet on track.  Finished dog.  Will trail a hog farther than most dogs will run one.  Not real fast but very steady.  $2000 with a 2 week trial .  In alabama 334-208-2799