Message #550853

[T-Bob Parker]

A hound is bred to take track, move it with steady line control and pursue their game till the animal decides to bay or tree.

A collie is bred to be sent to cattle and sheep, judge the intentions of the animal who wishes to stray and compensate for the animals movement by eye contact, intimidation or even thru the bite when necessary. They know the animal belongs either in a group or where the human wants it to be and good ones will die to do the bidding of their master

A Pit Bull was bred to be matched in the pit with another dog, to engage, fight and remain fighting thru pain and distraction, to be ever willing to continue the fight until he or his opponent is eternally defeated.

A Labrador is bred to retrieve downed game birds, thru the tall grass of an upland field or the icy waters of winters duck spreads. They have the undercoat and the mental determination to fulfill their role and the intelligence to respond to complex commands

A sight hound is bred to hone in on movement, rapidly pursue and outpace its quarry and take them down either to kill by themselves, with a pack or to hold for the handler to dispatch.



A cur dog is none of these things, and all of these things, but to argue that curs as a whole are better duck dogs than Labradors is as pointless and futile as arguing that curs are better "finder holders" than the dogs who've been designed for that task.


Proper Texas style cur dogs were designed to tend to stock around the home, and be an improvement on their owners eyes, ears, nose and athletic abilities. The use of a cur stock dog was to be available when needed, to leave ahead of its owner, find his animals wherever they are, gather them together thru using the animals instincts to his own advantage, then help the animals to calm down and settle into a group waiting the arrival of the owner.
Once the owner arrived he could account for his animals, catch unmarked ones out of the group to work them while a few good dogs kept the herd together despite the rising stress of the stock. The owner may then choose to throw some salt or feed to the stock and call his dogs off and ride away, and the curs had better be smart enough to leave the bay and return to his horse once called. Or he could send the dogs to the front to lead the stock as he went around the back end to push their "personal space" boundaries to get them to moving the direction he wanted. Once the group was moving, the curs were to allow them to do so, but to help control their speed and direction, if things got out of hand, the owner could signal the dogs to stop the herd and settle them down again.

See, lots of the above traits went into the creation of these "cur" dogs, but not everyone these days understands the dogs and their instincts, so you end up with people dead set on "my dogs are the best at xyz, but xyz just happens to be a thing that abc dog was literally created for.
I'm out of time and will expand further in a bit.