I like to see a good dog work in the woods.

 My job;  Is to set my  dogs up for success by checking the weather conditions including the wind direction and then making a plan of attack to increase the probablity of striking and catching a hog. I try to get in the dogs head to see what he is thinking and why he is doing what he is doing.  once I learn how the dog hunts then the plan takes into consideration the dogs strengths and it's weak points to increase our success.

The dogs job is to execute the plan and hopefully make it happen.

It's a game... a great game...

its all in the  individual dog ....some  just  smell  better  than  others  ....some  have  it in  the  breeding  to  trail  colder  sign or  scents ....doesn't  mean the  next  dog from a lesser  scent focused breed can't  smell it .....

a  cur  is a  mix  bred  dog .... thats  what  is  so  great  about  em .... my  old  blackie  dog  could  take a  10 hour  or  older  track  and  put a  hog  on the  end  of  it ....i  seen  him  do it  plenty  of  times ....

we  call  it  cold  nosed .......but  i'd  say  its  simply  more  scent focused ....

 X2. A well bred hog dog should wind a long ways when the conditions are right. Should be able to take an older track but can circle and find the hot end of a track very quickly.
If you see fresh hog sign, a good hog dog should be able to find a hog within 15 or 20 minutes even if the hog has traveled several miles away from all the sign. If it means crossing in some walker or plott to do it then so be it.

might look like a pit but maybe it is not a full pit... I don't have the answer for you.

you need to see them live. They are big and powerful with the right disposition...

I have 6 that are Plott x Catahoula, absolutely fabulous hog dogs. Mine are all silent.

Paul i always respect what you say, i have personally had horrible luck with them being silent for a year or more and then opening up randomly for no reason making me cull after all that hard work etc....how do you do it?

I really don't have any secret, but I do work all these dogs on cattle a lot when they are young. I do believe that a dogs first year at work wires its brain. So I spend the first half of a pups first year mostly working cattle. I "think" that might help. Those pups get to bay and hold cattle for hours and hours and they get real tired and they get real quiet. Or it could just be this line of dogs and all in the genes.

First year wires the brain.... I agree with Silverton's quote. Same with humans. They say that the younger the children are who take music lessons who play an instrument , have a larger than average communication nerve between the left/right side of the brain.

big bad boar in a bay pen with plenty of shock therapy. But real gritty dogs usually stay that way. Some learn to fight smart with experience but eventually they will get cut down.

You might want to run her with a bay dog vest.

back in the day most of the bmc and cats around this part of the country didn't take cold tracks but the ones I saw back then that were really good had hound in them. I am willing to bet that a lot of these dogs today that are really good curs probably have some hound in them from way back. I have seen a lot of talk on this board about half this and half that.

The right strain of mtn cur will drift on a track and find the hot end quick and get gone. They are somewhere in the middle of the cur and hound.

Hey guys figured i would go ahead and put mine up.Bo,Chula and an AB from Scott with no name.   

Okay the AB is my future catch dog.He also has one blue eye and no name someone help!

We had a pit/cat cross that was mostly white with one blue eye and we named her blue... good name. Also good looking pup mex...
I'd call him Blue

That pup is actually off a breeding put together by Crib. He gave my daughter and son-in-law the momma (off a breeding he did a couple of years ago) to that pup, and he owns the sire to the pup. My daughter and son-in-law were happy to do the breeding for him and get the pups into working homes.

I don't know the terminology that the experts use. But I have formed my opinion from reading and trying to understand what some experts say.

In a nutshell;  linebreeding for striking/baying hog dogs.

1. Breed dogs that are closely related

2. Breeding these dogs for hunting and baying style that meet your definition/standard as to what a hog dog should be and never compromise.

3. breed these dogs for physical appearance/performance.

All pure bred dogs were created by inbreeding and linebreeding.

i don't  think  its so  much  that  hounds  have  way  better  noses ....its  just  its  in there  make  up  genetics  to  trail colder  tracks .....

That's my belief too.

Just breed her to a good hound. DONE, PROBLEM SOLVED.

Some of the best hog dogs I remember were cur crossed with redbone, plott or walker.

The mtn cur is somewhere in the middle.

Hog Dog Mike,

That is a good post.

what you are saying is to go with the higher percentage of pups produced by the stud. In my mind the higher the percentage of winners calculated from a higher number the more accurate it will be.

I read the article that silverton put on his post, it was a very informative article and it also said the female was more important in the breeding program. I never knew that but one thing I know for sure, breed the best to the best from a line bred strain of hog dogs and eventually identify the best dogs for breeding and use them more frequently.

It would be easier to find someone that has already done this and just buy some pups as long as you like the type of hunting dogs that are being produced. Then you can go back to that breeder and pay for stud service on your gyp. This would be more economical in the long run and you will have 8 pups to cull from and you should wind up with some jam up hog dogs. Raising and selecting correctly from these pups makes it even more rewarding.

I used to buy it at the feed store and tractor supply used to carry it. Look at all the sheep/goat wormers and see what the active ingredient is.

I checked the internet real quick and "Livestock pro.com" has it, or you can go to a local feed store and ask them to order a bottle for you.

I agree with what you are saying... The challenge is selecting the right pups from the breeding and culling the rest. Some of the culls may be good for hunting but not good for breeding....

What Im going to say about this thread is IMO. This is a breeding fault that a lot of the dogs we use have. IMO if you cannot put a handle on a dog then that dog will never become a complete dog. This fault got started a long time ago when some of the old timers that I knew never put a hand on any of their dogs. They just opened the pen door and they got in the trailer.Got to the pasture opened the trailer and they worked the cattle got back in the trailer. Same thing when they got home.No hands on with the dogs. So of course they breed the good ones to the good ones . The young ones learned from the older dogs.How to load and unload bark at the cows get back in the trailer.From 4 to 8wks you can tell if a dog is going to be shy or not. If you stand over them and they do not come and crawl all over your feet but go get back in the house that pupis going to be hard to touch. IT IS A CULL jmo

I agree... But first it could be the environment. A pup needs proper socialization, especially in the first 8 weeks. The pup needs enough human contact and always bang pots, pans, shoot a cap gun during feeding time etc. etc.. However, the breeder needs to keep a close watch to see which pups are naturally timid and which ones are not. The timid pups tend to be gunshy, get rattled with high commotion but can stick if socialized right. But these dogs will always need special treatment. Some of these dogs make top strike dogs. But I am all about root cause analysis and root cause fixes. These type of dogs are not fit for breeding.... Not fit for breeding because if you have to give this dog special attention then the odds go up that some of its offspring will have the same issues and need the same type of special treatment and then the following generation will produce even more. IMO this is somewhat common in the cur dog breeds.

I am new to the ETHD and have learned quite a few things since I joined. You guys are running a tight ship and are on top of things... :)That's a good recipe for success.... keep on keepin on......

This site is especially good for the new guys just starting out.

I talk to you one time at Uncle Earls Didnt you tell me the mountain cur came  from a champion squirrel dog named Magnum ? Did one of those old gyps come from Kenny Reeves I heard that and was just wandering . Thanks Matt

I already made up my mind. If I ever change from mtn curs it will be a parker cur. The right type of mtn cur is hard to beat...

A friend of mine was given a kemmer mtn cur pup out of a squirrel champion dam and at three months of age or so was shown a good sized boar in a pen. Not only did she bay it by herself but my buddy couldn't pull her off until he finally cornered and caught her. At 6 months she was trailing and striking hogs. at 9 months she wasn't baying much just trying to catch so she was on the rough side. He lost her last week when she went out of range on his mn-10 tracker... Thinks a gator got her. We were making plans to breed her.

We are seriously thinking about crossing the mtn cur with the parker cur to quiet down the mtn cur. I don't know if the parker has the same winding ability and the cold nose as the gold nugget bred kemmer.

don't know for sure but i heard kemmer mtn cur and some type of cow dog, not the pasture type but the kind that would go deep in the swamps to find cows.

I have two kemmer pups that look like littermates to his pups.

John,

Where can I get me a devestator vest with a built in collar at. Would like to see some pics.

kawasaki bayoo 400 4x4 was a good one until it got stolen. my suzuki 500 is a 2000 model and it has been ridden hard and no problems. Some of my friends got good deals on the polaris but have had problems with them... good luck in finding a good deal. If you find one that has been parked a long time and needs repairs let me know and I can probably hook you up with an honest mechanic. Sometimes those are the best deals. The mechanic told me that honda,kawasaki,suzuki and yamaha were all comparable, just change the oil and filter and keep stabil in the gas tank if you don't ride enough.
I also use a couple of ounces of "militec 1" in my oil.