What Michael is referrring to, and his question remains...there is a difference between a so-called rough dog and a catch dog. If you want dogs that straight catch, why even mess with curs? Why not run a pack of bulldogs? What he's referring to is a dog that will stop a hog, then back up and bay it. Happens VERY little even though everyone says "so and so got him stopped and we finally caught him". If this was the case, there would be a heck of a lot of hogs caught (with bulldogs...not with curs hanging all over it when you get there) in the open, which doesn't often happen. If it's the dog truly doing the STOPPING (not CATCHING), seems hogs wouldn't often end up bayed in places beneficial to themselves (wash-outs, edges of water, against fallen trees) like they mostly do.
Another question for those with the rough (catch) dogs. How often do you bay up groups of hogs together? Ever thought that one hog you find the curs caught on when you got there could have been the smallest of ten that were together when the curs decided to catch out and send the rest packing? I think the latter is what happens more than anyone would admit. A catching cur dog would be a quick cull on most of the old time stock mens yards.
I hunted with an old friend a few weeks ago who I used to hunt with some when I bayed and shot hogs (which he still does) and was reminded how a true stock bred dog should work a sounder of hogs. His dogs bayed a group of seven hogs and had them bunched pretty as could be when we got there. He shot a hog, and instead of the dogs all pouncing on the wounded, they immediately got ahead and stopped the group. We eased in about 50 yards later and he shot another hog. People can call BS on this all they want, but in the end all seven original hogs lay dead....one shot at a time. Probably one of those things I'll see once in a lifetime, but thats the true definition in my mind of how a true stock bred dog should work.
I CALL BS ON THAT STORY.............lol.......there must have been an 8th hog that did'nt make the personal desicion to bay up like the other 7 did.
. No in all seriousness Bryant.......I have seen the same thing and to me there is no better sucess on a hunt than to bay up a group like than and shoot several out of it at several different bays. Most dogs do good to consistantly bay groups and even with the really great dogs; to re-bay the same group one or two more times after shooting out of it is top notch in my book. The stars must have really lined up just right with some really good dogs to take that whole group in sucession. I know it can hapen and I beleive you that it did. But like you said most probly don't believe it, and more than likely its simply because they never hunted with the style of hunting and the kind of dogs it takes to have something like that happen.
RE to what Bryant said in reference to the original question....... (if it were truely the dogs stopping the hogs then more hogs would get bayed in the open as opposed to where they bay more often than not; like water edges, down trees, and creek banks.) There is allot of truth to what you are saying, but what causes a hog to choose the spot where he bays up. Seems to me its more of a defensive chioce because there is almost always some sort of natural fortification. But what put him on the defensive? Seems to me like it has to be some influence from the dogs wether it be simply the influence of a loose baying dog barking or a "rough" dog getting hard and putting teeth on a hog. I say putting teeth not because its a cliche term that sounds cool but because thats litterally what happens sometimes. I hate to keep beating the same drum that I always do, but it seems to me the best way to describe it. Take a group of cows; bunched, settled, dogs baying, and being driven horse back to the pens. Now almost inevitably there is going to be a snakey cow that tries to head for the nearest thicket once you get close to the pens because she doesn't want to go to the house. But its no big deal because the cow dogs will do thier job and transform from the simple loose baying barking presence that they are when the cows act right, into the bunch of in your face, ear eating, monsters that come out when a cow tries to run off from the bunch. Ofcourse, the cow allmost always realizes the bunch is a good place to be and goes back. Yeah, she may have been the one who decided to go back. But there was a very strong influence of the dogs and had there been no dogs the cow would still be heading toward that thicket with cowboys in tow burning out thier horses for a cow that they will probly have to go back for later and rope anyway. Now take some stock bred cur dogs that could be used on cows and hogs and its not easy to translate that cenario. The cow becomes a hog and the security of the group becomes the security of a down tree or washout or god forbid a group of hogs. The hog may have chosen to stop on his own but the right kind of rought dogs can influence that decion to stop sooner or closer than it otherwise would have.
Waylon
