Matt - Who are the parents of your Tater dog? I also like the looks of your Brandy dog. It really doesn't make a flip as far as hunting, but given my choice I would have preferred to have dark masks on my two...I took what was offered. I sure like the appearence of a dark masked, slick coated, buckskin colored BMC. I've always been a sucker for good looking dogs.
Elliscountyhog - Everyone I have talked to on the Weatherfords Ben bloodline dogs swears by one thing...if you want the dog to bay looser and not be as catchy, start them very young. The dogs which are started later tend to be rough (which is definately true with mine). I have talked to several people who strickly breed and hunt this bloodline (Randy Wright, Robert Benson, Steven Dallas, and a few others), and they have all told me that when they need catch dogs, they will hold a few pups back...start them later and make straight catch dogs out of them. These guys strike, bay and catch with nothing but BMC dogs.
In many packs (just like the reason Matt was selling the dog earlier today) a dog like my male would not fit. Of the nine dogs I own, only one will stay back and bark once the catch dog steps up. On smaller hogs, I don't need a catch dog at all and on bigger ones my dogs are just waiting for someone to make the first move. Most of them won't stay caught by themselves, or don't have the power to control larger hogs but 99% of the time when one dog lays teeth on, its game over as a group. As a result, I usually don't have much trouble with hogs breaking bay and running very far.
Many people don't like catchy strike dogs because they have a tendancy to get roughed up more often. At times that can be true, but the key to the deal is this: If your gonna run rough catchy type dogs, you better have more than one on the ground at a time because they will end up needing help. One catchy dog on the ground with a group of looser baying dogs will send you all over the country chasing broken bays because they will put too much pressure on an otherwise settled, bayed hog.
Sometimes (a lesson I learned a while back from Douglas Mason) the key is also figuring out the right combination of which dogs to hunt together. I have six strike dogs and 99% of the time I hunt a certain three together at the same time. With my pack, it took me a lot of time in the woods and scratching my head to figure out who worked best with who.
Enough rambling...
Thanks for all the comments on the pup!
Bryant
