Breeding a Dog

when breeding an established line then only breeding the very best from that line is the way to go...no excuses and please take off the rose colored glasses...the simplest way I can tell you what a great hog dog is ...is a dog that can find you a hog and bring it to bay when most dogs never knew there was a hog in those big woods...I can write a full page to break it down but that is not the topic...also breeding for natural ability is a big factor as well...when the dog is 5 years old and finally makes a hog dog then you are not what I would call a top breeder...putting lots of time and tracks to make a dog...you can expect the same from the offspring...the percentages will work against you...

Rather than talk about what I favor I will explain how I created a line of cur dogs that I gave up in 2007 and shouldn't have...

speaking on averages as I saw it then...after stock dogs and Airedales and a cold nosed hound I finally decided to do something different...stock dogs didn't have the nose and hunt...Airedales are neither great strike dogs nor are they running catch dogs...

I finally tried some mtn curs that I had to cull for one reason or other...and after a few tries I finally got me a big red kemmer (Goldie) gyp that was bred right...the size was there...how she stopped a hog I liked...good nose and lots of bottom...but two thing I didn't like about her...way too open on track and not as fast on track as I wanted...but there were some greats in her pedigree not to far back and her sire himself was a great dog...

I also found some in San Antonio...the man makes me a deal on 6 mt cur pups that were about 8 month old and those were some hunting machines...first time out I took them to the marsh and they were swimming in the reeds and cattails looking for game...first time on hogs they ran for 3 hours or so and we caught one...moved to another clear cut where we could not walk through because it was so thick and they ran and caught another...they struck again and I couldn't head them off...I found them on my jacket the next morning...I culled three for various reasons and I bred the saddleback female to one of the best brindle bmc's around...I did it to get some size and to shut that mouth some...Smoke was a littlemate to the saddleback (Dragon Lady)...Smoke was as good as a strike dog could be if you didn't mind a very open dog...

Dragon lady produced one pup that I call a once in a lifetime dog because of the brain power he possessed...I tested the pups and no other pup from many litters ever tested as well as him...I tested for natural ability/inclination...
by this time I knew I was serious about breeding a line of curs that could be great hunting dogs and reproducers of great dogs...Even though Yeller was the best I ever had I knew he was scatter bred on the BMC side...They said the sire was Taylor bred but that is all I really knew other than he was a fair hog dog...but I wanted size and tighter mouth and he did bring that along with one heck of a chop mouth at the bay...

I didn't finish out Dragon Lady when I bred her but she already showed me what she could do...

I bred Yeller to the Kemmer gyp and produced some good dogs...Buck was his son and he produced five or six litters...buck was 7/8 mt cur...I knew my pups were hog dogs by a year of age most of the time...if they weren't on an acceptable trend for their age I did not keep them...usually by six months of age I knew that sometimes 10 months...

I also bred a Texas Smoke male to the Kemmer Gyp (Goldie)and used a Son out of that cross for breeding that I named Smoke #2 who was half brother to Buck...Also used a Male out of Buck crossed to a Texas Smoke gyp named Tut Tut (3/4 Texas Smoke) whose name was Red Man...all these dogs were hog dogs except for Tut Tut who had been a coon and squirrel dog...I paid some money for her just because of who she was...her pups were hard hunting and gritty gritty...the females bred were only tested and hunted very little and I turned them over after they produced a litter...limited space was the main reason and turning over the line was another...I chose to hang on to the males for hunting reasons and turned the females over quickly to purify the line...The tightest breeding was breeding buck to his grand daughter and then breeding to the great grand daughter who was also his daughter...

would I do it again now? no, I don't even hunt as often as I like...it costs money and I have to get ready for retirement...
would I do it again if I were younger? probably

in a round about way that was my thoughts on that...and I have no problem doing it that way and will do it that way but my main goal is to produce a few good dogs and not focusing on producing a high percentage of good dogs because of the cost...in other words hang on to good dogs first regardless of how they reproduce...and slowly move in that direction as new dogs are needed...