"Squirrel factor"

Noah,
in the mid to late 1990's I felt it was time to bring in some new blood to my strain of hog dogs I had at the time. A friend had a brother and sister florida cur hog dogs. The female did not hunt much but was one heck of a stop dog. The brother was a good strike dog and could stop a hog. They were red and well built and silent hunters.
They looked like some of my dogs so bred the male to one of my red females. Long story short I culled 7 out of 8 pups due to extreme shyness. The one good (stable temperament) dog I eventually culled because he quit a race after a mile or so at 14 months of age. He turned on but that was unacceptable to me because I liked early starting dogs...also did not like the percentage of culls. Was not in a hurry to get pups at the time but I do agree with Silverton that I will not hesitate to get a few good dogs in a litter...just depends on what I need...

I have had outstanding dogs that were border line timid and they needed special treatment. I tolerated them but would rather have dogs with the right temperaments...I take the extra time to socialize pups because I want to make sure the pups are stable as grown dogs...I have learned over the years to not invest too much time in one of those squirrel dogs you are talking about...