bigainbuilt,

What is the point of breeding 7 generations of a cross just to wind up with a 99.22% catahoula? Might as well just breed pure cats. Unless the idea is to capture certain qualities from the bulldog and making sure they are passed on as dominate traits. Wouldn't this make this line a different breed? In my mind I think that it would be a different strain of cats, otherwise why do it. I think this is a good question, maybe someone has a good theory or answer. If part of the answer is to capture certain qualities from the bulldog, will this change the 99.22% cat back to a lower number? Inquiring minds want to know....
By the way, I like your math skills...

I've read that dogs want to cool their underside naturally and that this is the place to really cool your dog down. This is where I concentrate on first and if I have enough coolant I cool the whole dog down.

Lots of good points on this discussion, like crib just said. It takes many years of line breeding to develop a strain and you get to a point where you are splitting hairs to get better dogs and then you get to a point that you need a touch of new blood added to the breeding program. The sensible thing to do is to find a dog that has at least 50% of your bloodline and the other 50% to be somewhat related and that dog needs to bring something to the program that is an enhancement to your dogs. This dog needs to be of high quality as well as its parents and these dogs should look and act, hunt like your dogs. This is so that you will gain from this breeding (hopefully). Also, If you are interested in a male pup to add to your program then you need to keep as many males from this cross that you can because if you are serious about improving your line, this is what you do. The reason is obvious. You want to cull those male pups over at least one year so that you wind up with the best possible choice for the breeding program. When you outcross a line that has been bred like this you will lose a lot of what has been bred for generations in that one outcross.

My vote is to keep them pure. Hunt the cur breed you like best to strike with and catch with your favorite catch breed.

When you cross a cur or hound with a catch dog your percentage of getting what you want will probably be somewhat low and very diversified. Then you will need to select the best from this and keep it going to increase the percentage of what you are looking for...

Rockin P, If I were to cross something besides MTN CUR to my Gyp It would be to something related to your gyp. She looks good and the grit is there...

I know when the weather is about to change that my aches and pains flair up. My Grandfather always told me the same thing back in the 1960's.

I bought a casio fishing watch and took it back and exchanged it for a hunting watch because the feeding periods are the same but the hunting watch looked better.

If barometric pressure triggers feeding for fish and game then I suspect it includes pigs and hunting hog dogs. I think it is possible for the dogs to hunt at a higher level during the best feeding times.

Me, I like to hunt best when it is cold and the weeds are down. Also, on a full moon night with the same conditions. Seems we always catch more hogs during these times.

I know that for every ten degree drop we need to increase the dogs caloric intake by a certain percentage to maintain weight so the deer also move around more to feed and my success ratio goes up. If the hogs move around more then the dogs have a better chance to strike a track.

To me the ultimate catch dog is the APBT. There are many variations in this breed. You can find a style you like in this breed and stick with it. A friend of mine once told me that any time you cross some breed in to the pit that you are watering down the Pit bull.

I have seen lots of curs that are very gritty that are killed before a year old but they only lacked in jaw power. The ones that make it have a certain amount of luck on their side and they finally learn to protect themselves.

If you use this RCD it needs to be fully vested because it is not if but when will it be killed. If the strike dogs are gritty, the RCD's will put more fight in the pack and this will get more dogs injured. You will probably catch more pigs as long as the dogs are healthy... Strictly my opinions.

From what I've seen of the catahoula's, the majority are very good bay dogs with good size so it makes sense to me as to why a lot hog hunters make this cross.

Personally, If I were to make a cross for more catch in my strike dogs I would use a larger line of hard hunting mtn curs with a longer legged type of pit bull and breed down to 1/4 pit bull. The well bred mtn curs have a lot of grit, hunt and nose so this should make a good cross. Like any outcross, the trick is to pick the right pups because there will be a lot of variation in any outcross.

About 2 years ago, more or less, Bobby Jones from the Brazoria area (located about 1 hr sw of Houston) sold a large reddish yellow mtn cur named Banjo. This dog is the last pure mtn cur of my 20 yr breeding program and would like to breed him to my gyp of the same line. If you own him please call me and lets make a breeding deal. Or if you know who owns him have them email me or call me at 979-233-6403. This dog is a top strike and bay hog dog and is gritty and will stick and not give up a track.

About 2 years ago, more or less, Bobby Jones from the Brazoria area (located about 1 hr sw of Houston) sold a large reddish yellow mtn cur named Banjo. This dog is the last pure mtn cur of my 20 yr breeding program and would like to breed him to my gyp of the same line. If you own him please call me and lets make a breeding deal. Or if you know who owns him have them email me or call me at 979-233-6403. This dog is a top strike and bay hog dog and is gritty and will stick and not give up a track.