What Exactly is a Cur?

there are lots of hearsay's and lots of articles written...and of course the writer will be prejudiced in favoring his people and giving credit in that direction...that is why I always throw in this old saying "THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD" ...I say this because oftentimes it is the common man that has the innovation but the one who documents will be who gets the credit...and as the years go by it becomes common knowledge...

but as kid in my neck of the woods a cur was a mutt or mongrel but today it is a breed of dog...in the 1950's some old timers came together and created the OMCBA (original mountain cur association) to preserve a type of dog that was used in Tennessee...in 1990 or so Robert Kemmer broke off of that group and started his line of mt cur and they are now a separate breed of mt cur (kemmer mt cur)...we also have the ledbetter cur, stephens cur, Canadian cur, Tennessee cur and all these are mt curs...the plott hound used to be a cur in some circles but are now known as the plott hound...

most any crossed up dog will hunt if hungry and make good all around ranch farm dogs... but the mt cur dogs were recognized as more of a specialty type dog that could do it all from herding to tracking and treeing and guarding...other breeds of curs were mainly stock dogs but were all around farm and ranch dogs...

I suspect that most of the dogs from back in the old days were crossed up dogs that were bred according to performance and as a result they have become what they are today because of the registries that have evolved around said dogs and developed standards for working and physical appearance...

The way I see it is that the cur breeds are still evolving as the environment changes and as the hogs adapt to their surroundings...