What's a catch dog worth ?

Well put Nannyslayer. I know there's plenty of hunters out there who use "pound pits" or bull dogs they find for free here and there and I think there's nothing wrong with it at all if they catch right and have yard manners. I think the major change in the sport is that people value their dogs much more now than say 10-15 years ago. That's not to say that people didn't care but there were far less hunters and the ones who were doing it usually had at least 10-15 dogs. If one got cut down and was laid up it wasn't as big an issue because replacements were available. Now it seems your average hog dog owner keeps 8 or less and if a dog's on IR it's a much bigger loss to his team. That being the case, a great catch dog that can stop a bad hog and hold smart and in doing so keep the strike dogs out of harm, is very much worth having around.