Your catch dog

One thing that I think so many catch dogs lack is the ability to think on their feet. Some get better about it with age and that sounds like what your dog is doing shotgun. Some never learn it and that’s hard for me to tolerate too.

Accuracy is a big one. I like my dogs to be under control going in. The ones that take a straight line to the hog seem to break a lot of bays, or get hung up in the brush and wear themselves out trying to get there. The ones that pace themselves and look for an easy route seem to bust fewer bays and get cleaner shots. Big Momma never hit third gear going in. I can’t tell you how many hogs, and I mean sure enough toads, that she caught. Bear was another one. Point him at the bay and let go. If the hog was there when he got there it was a caught hog. Bear was bad built. I believe I could’ve put ran him, but he didn’t need speed because he wasn’t going to miss. In all his years I could probably count all the hogs I saw him miss on less than my ten fingers. I saw Vegas run a complete circle around a little briar patch, maybe 10feet in diameter. The boar was standing in the middle and evidently pushed his way in because there wasn’t a front or back door. When Vegas got back around to me, he stepped back and jumped over and on his way down eared the hog.

I think your dog sounds nice for a young dog Shotgun. I can’t wait to see how WOW’s male dog does. He’s tried a few of his game bred dogs over the years and my favorite was his old Jim dog. I think with consistent hunting and starting earlier than he got to, he might have been a pretty special dog. They have all caught, but some of them have wore WOW completely out going through the brush being so driven.

If you think about it, catch dogs are no different than any other dogs when it comes to working. The best, most consistent ones are the ones that are purpose bred. There dogs from about every breed out there that will catch a hog right. The problem is that many of the ones that do it in non traditional breeds are exceptions to the rule. Therefore it’s harder to get offspring of the same caliber because the pups are usually going to revert back to the average of their lineage. There are a ton of green dog hunters and a great many of them have low to no standards in their dogs. Not because they are dumb but because they don’t have any experience so they don’t know what potential dogs have. They are impressed by the bare minimum and end up breeding dogs that do the bare minimum back to another of the same caliber. Unless they are super lucky, the best they are going to produce are more dogs that do the bare minimum. That’s one reason there are so many culls out there IMO.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk