One thing about a good book is that 50 years from now it becomes the bible as to where the dogs came from and who did it. Sometimes it seems like the real person behind a great line of dogs is in the background and doesn't get the credit they deserve. That old saying "The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword" is so true. The book needs to be as accurate as possible and not biased.
It is obvious that these breeders you are talking about created a breed within a breed because people still remember these dogs...We need more breeders like that right now....
That’s an interesting thought about creating a breed Reuben. I can understand how someone might come to that conclusions but I respectfully don’t think it’s an accurate statement.
None of none these guys created these dogs, meaning the East Texas Black Mouth Cur dog. We got em from the get go like they are. Yes, over the last 40 or 50 years through careful selective breeding, proving and culling some of these guys have maintained they as they were and hopefully improved performance in them in ways, but none of us that have them created them. We cannot take credit for that, men long before us deserve credit or are responsible for that. In fact if you had talked to old timers 30 or 40 years ago who were 80 years old then, you’d find they couldn’t take the credit for these dogs either. They only carried on with them and many of them did the same things we are doing today.
To the feller that I received an email from that is thinking about writing a book. This may be a good place to start.
With the 4 or 5 different lines of BMC dogs still around today, I don’t think you can write a single history of the BMC dog. I think it would have to be 4 or 5 different books all within one binder. Each different major line of dogs has a different history, different people and different story. My advice is to talk with as many major breeders and men using each line of dogs as possible. (Remember to take your FBI lie detector machine with ya..lol)
The current different lines I am talking about are:
L. H. Ladner line.
Howard Carnathan Line.
J. D. Howard Line.
East Texas BMC line.
Art Lee line. (I think he deserves it. He is the only man to breed and show a BMC world champion tree dog in OPEN competition at the world hunts. He is number one man in the number of BMC dogs qualifying to be hunted in the open world hunts)
I left Weatherford Ben lines off the list because if it weren’t for the ETBMC line, specifically the Leroy x Liz cross mentioned here, Weatherford Ben would not exist. His story can be told under the ETBMC section.
I left Mr. James Lee from Mississippi off because I only know of 3 dogs of his breeding left alive today. He basically quit breeding years ago. This man had a monster impact on BMC dogs for years, but it a well kept secret by those that benefited from it. A friend of mine has a tape recording and written notes from him we got when we made a visit to him before he died several years back that should be included in the book. Same for Mike Lott, he has a big impact for several years down in Mississippi but no longer breeds dogs. Some of Mike’s accomplishments and part of his story could be told in the Art Lee section.
