Great dogs

[Cajun]

  I made a post on FB awhile back on what separates the good dogs from the truly great dogs. I had put I had 3 that I considered truly great dogs but after thinking about it I would say I have had 5. I have had plenty of dogs that had the same speed, nose and grit that my dogs that I had considered truly the Elite but the main difference boiled down to bottom. Those 5 dogs simply had the endurance to run a hog down no matter how long it took. I am not saying they ran every hog down because I caught them off more often then not but if left to there selves they would bay that hog somewhere. They also made baying hogs look easy. They had what I called the touch. They knew just how much pressure it took to keep hogs bayed. It is also hard to judge dogs of today to dogs of the past because you cannot run them together. One of many things I have pondered over the years.

[t-dog]

Cajun I like the topic. Do you consider the “once in a lifetime” dogs to be the same caliber of great that you are speaking of?

When me and my buddy first started getting our own set of dogs, any breed that could bark was a potential hog dog and if they were free or a stray they got an opportunity. We hunted with all older guys because there weren’t any guys our age doing it then, not close to us anyway. We got to experience all sorts of styles and strategies and even a very wide range of breeds. Then we started getting more competitive about it and wanted to have better dogs than the older guys. We started saving money and trying to buy dogs that we thought would be the sure fire answer to stardom. That didn’t work too well. We spent a lot of hay hauling money on gas and dogs for nothing. Then we were fortunate enough to start going with my buddies great uncle. He was the best mentor in the sense of always being legal, but owned the first great dog I ever experienced. This dog was business minded and was getting gone as soon as he was released. He didn’t waste any time getting bayed. If the nearest hog(s) was 50 yards or 5 miles away, that’s where you would see him next and you didn’t bay hogs between you and where he was. He didn’t just hunt but knew where to hunt, hog minded as I like to call it. He was the same dog every single trip. As long as you would go to him he would relay. He was going to stay put and if he got a hog bayed they played he’ll ever leaving again. We drove up on him numerous times out in wide open pasture where the hog would be sitting on his head because he had ahold of his pride and joy, or the hog would sitting because one or both testicles were pulled out. I can remember the guy saying “well I’m ready to go home” after killing several hogs. The old dog would be gone and bayed again usually and he would leave him in the woods bayed. We’d say you aren’t going to go get him and he’d say “nah, he’ll be home in a day or two” and he sure would. He found hogs that you wouldn’t have thought were anywhere close. He could grub a track or wind them equally as good. At home he stayed on a chain. He was so quiet and easy to get along with you didn’t even know he was there usually. He would be the only dog that had grass growing in his circle. He was a Bluetick/Cat cross converted from a coon dog to hog dog. He set the bar for me. It was a couple years after he died that I got my once in a lifetime dog. I lucked into him and he is what all my dogs go back to. He was nearly a carbon copy of the first dog only mine was a lot easier to look at. Both dogs were also very fast tracking dogs. The dogs that I saw keep up with them on a track were just running with them, they weren’t trying to track themselves because that would cause them to fall too far behind. Mine was a Treeing Walker/Cat cross. I had put him on cold tracks with full hounds before and they either couldn’t smell it like he could or weren’t interested in it being that cold to push it. I remember once in the hot summer doing this and they were a half mile away before the full hound started opening and trying to push it. From that point though, my old dog started walking off and leaving him. He would be bayed 2-400 yards ahead every time. The full hound was a bay buster. I’ve had several since that I consider very very good dogs, but I don’t know if I would say they were the same caliber as the old dog.


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[Cajun]

  When I started this topic it was to invite people in on the conversation to maybe talk about the good to great dogs the have had and what are the traits that set them apart.
  I guess I have been very, very lucky to have had what I consider great dogs. Dont know if i would consider them once in a lifetime dogs since I have had several.
  I have had a boatload of dogs over the years that could get the job done, dogs I would call good journeyman dogs if you will. To me what separates the great dogs is simple. They simply make good dogs look bad and do it on a regular bases. They are all business, get gone and stay busy and they produce hogs when other dogs dont.
  T dog out of the five I think were great, one of them was a straight Catahoula.

[Slim9797]

I’d maybe agree to an extent. I’ve can think of a handful of dogs that if they’d had double the bottom. They’d have been in the upper echelon of dogs I’ve seen.


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[t-dog]

I think that is a very good definition of a “great dog” Cajun. When I had what I call  my once in a lifetime dog, I hunted him with a lot of dogs that people said were top tier. It wasn’t to embarrass them but to measure my dog. I wanted to see if he was as good as I thought he was. A good buddy of mine that I ran with in high school called me one time. He said hey, I heard you have a bad
a$$ hog dog. I said I have a dog and I like him, he finds me hogs. He said well bring him over here and hunt with us. So we set it up. I had an square body Chevy 4x4 at the time. It was cold and misty the morning I left and went over there. They had catch dogs so all I hauled was Clyde. When I pulled up, my buddy came to the truck and immediately looked over in the bed of the truck for my dog. He said I thought you were bringing that bad a$$ dog. I said I did. Where’s he at he asked? I pointed to the floor board and grinned. He looked and said I wouldn’t let no $hit eater ride in my truck. I just chuckled and said ok. We get to the spot we are going to hunt and I asked if this was where he was going to cast? He said yeah go ahead, he ain’t gonna hunt no way. Lol if you can’t tell, the trash talking was very much alive and well. I cast ole Clyde and we waited. Their dogs came back but no Clyde. He said what’s that SOB doing? I said hunting but we can move if you need to move for your dogs and we did. About 45 minutes in he said where’s your dog? I pulled out the old wildlife and just could get a beep. I tracked him a couple more times in the next few minutes and he was in the same direction and the same signal strength so we headed his way. We stopped about 5-600 yards away to listen and sure enough he was hitting like clockwork. Of course my buddy asked what he was doing and I laughed. I said trying to show your dogs some pork. We let his dogs go to him and ended up catching several out of the group. I think Clyde bayed every one of them except one. When we got ready to leave my buddy said “ ya know I wouldn’t let no dog ride in my truck, but that SOB right can ride in my truck anytime he wants to!”, lol. He made lots of believers like that. He never let me down. He was good on his worst days. I sure do miss him. I see a whole lot of him in my Outlaw dog. I think it’s one reason I like Outlaw so much.

I think I have hunted with 5-6 great dogs and a whole bunch of really good dogs over the years. All the great ones were hound and cur or hound and cat crosses. I think one of them was pretty much a straight cur type dog. He wasn’t pure anything and if he had any hound in him it was extremely minimal. He was a hog dog though. Of course great is just like good when your asking opinions. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.


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[cajunl]

Yall talking about great dogs over here.....and Im just trying to get a good one?!


In all honesty. Ive had some very, very, very good dogs. BUT
Ive yet to have my great dog. The closest thing I had got crippled up young. Still was a very very good dog.

That said Ive only seen 1-2 truly great dogs. Of those ones I have seen.....when bred always seemed to produce  below average dogs, even when bred to good dogs. Dont know if the expectation was too high on the offspring or discouragement from the owners? But it is funny how that works sometimes. Do yall see the same?

[t-dog]

Of the dogs I considered great, mine and the first one I hunted with were the only two that I ever saw offspring from. The first one was only bred once as far as I know. In my opinion, the gyp was subpar. The best of the pups turned out to be on the lower end of average. My old dog wasn’t bred a whole bunch but he did produce well. The first gyp was a registered black mouth gyp. She was junk honestly. Her and her previous litter were given to me. None of the previous litter turned out. They had zero hunt and only some of them would even bark at a hog. Her and Clyde had a 50/50 litter but they all would at least bark. The one that stayed close turned out to be a really really good dog. Another black mouth gyp was bred to him and they had a small litter. She wasn’t mine so I don’t know how they all turned out except for the two we kept close. The male started a little slower (almost a year old)but when he started it was like he’d been doing it forever. He never was scared just immature and puppyish. The female was a Cracker Jack and was a super nice little gyp. Both finished out nicely. Then I bred him to a couple tight bred cat gyps that were related to him. That was really good. I think there were two out of several that were lower end average dogs. I don’t know if they were lesser or just never got the opportunity that the others got because both of them stayed cut up. Both of them died in the line of duty. I actually forgot about two of those. You might consider them great dogs. Man they got it done in style every time. Other good dogs would look silly hunting with them. Every now and then another dog might be there with them on the initial bay but never before. There were at least two more gyps out of that litter that were awesome. They didn’t have the bite that I like is about the only thing that keeps me from considering them great dogs. They were quick locators that hunted hard start to finish. They didn’t over run hogs. They drove a track really fast. If they started it they were going to finish it. Literally stayed bayed as long as it took for you to get there. Good noses and would grub cold tracks or wind either one. Super intelligent and didn’t just hunt but knew where to hunt, hog minded. They were real easy to live with too. I do know for a fact that the old man that had the male and female that I consider great, turned down a brand new truck for the pair. He was guiding for a guy that owned a dealership and after a few hunts the guy offered to buy the pair. This old man had money too. He turned the offer down. Finally the fella said look, I’ll give you a brand new truck, go down to the lot and pick it out what you want for that pair of dogs, he still declined. He said there wasn’t anything wrong with his truck lol. So I guess I’ve seen it both ways Cajunl. It absolutely affected my mind set towards what I kept puppy wise. To this day I’m picking females 90% of the time.


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[Cajun]

Yall talking about great dogs over here.....and Im just trying to get a good one?!


In all honesty. Ive had some very, very, very good dogs. BUT
Ive yet to have my great dog. The closest thing I had got crippled up young. Still was a very very good dog.

That said Ive only seen 1-2 truly great dogs. Of those ones I have seen.....when bred always seemed to produce  below average dogs, even when bred to good dogs. Dont know if the expectation was too high on the offspring or discouragement from the owners? But it is funny how that works sometimes. Do yall see the same?

Leone I have seen the same thing when breeding  what I consider top tier dogs. Seems like what they reproduce tends to drop more down to the average altho to be fair to the dogs we have bred the females while good were not in the same class as the male. Now what I have seen is dogs reproduce better then what they are.

  T Dog I am going to have to redefine what I call a top dog. I have never been offered a brand new truck for any of my culls, not even a older one. lol

[Judge peel]

Lot of different ways to look at a dog for being great. I don’t think anyone in there thought of that is wrong you might have what you think is and another guy totally different. Ain’t many dogs in the last 10 yrs or so impressed me much as far as a great dog some decent and others or most others just shy of the decent mark. I am fairly picky tho just don’t see why people say most of the things they do. When you see some one putting high remarks on some one else there could be some merit to it. But if a guy says his dog is great or good or bad idc I have always been if you like the dog and it does something and don’t mess up the hunt who cares I don’t. What real and not real is only in there minds cuz if you believe it then it’s so lol. Most would say a short rang dog can’t be great or a dog that’s rough so on and on. Or not being built right I say nonsense. One thing I know is good dogs ain’t on every corner just like good people

[t-dog]

Lol Cajun I said it was a load of bull when I heard that at first. Two things caused me to believe it. There were three other young guys with the old man the morning it happened. Two of them didn’t really care for the third one but all were there by invitation of the old man with the dogs. He was up in age pretty good for a hog dogger, late seventies at the time. He always had young guy’s going so they could do all the heavy lifting. All 3 young guys told the same story at separate times and I know they wouldn’t have done that with the relationship they had. Second, the old man was a Korean War vet and he wasn’t quite right in the head. He was always super good to me and it made most of these other young guys mad because he would give me stuff that he wouldn’t sell them. The old man wasn’t about nice fancy stuff. He had money from some businesses he had sold. He would buy a truck and in no time it would be beat all to hell and homemade bumpers and contraptions on it.  The cab was full of guns, trash, MRE’s, sardines, potted meat, etc. He eventually went to prison and died there for pulling up to a business and killing a man that owned it over a land dispute. He went and turned himself in and told the Sheriff he would’ve shot the man more times but his gun jammed. So he wasn’t wired right and is totally the kind of fella that would say no just to prove he didn’t need you. I said it was where two fools met. Him for declining and the other for offering.


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[make-em-squeel]

To each their own but the 2 dogs ive had that were great, and being around a few buddies who's dogs i consider great imo had these traits. would stop runners, bay all day, but rarely get cut and never/rarely serious when they did, tons of hunt, 45 min loops and off from their on any track, and it came to them naturally, defiantly cant take credit for training them.

[NLAhunter]

I am still looking for a great one lol I have seen some pretty good dogs though the years I have owned couple pretty good dogs though the years but I dont think I have had a sure enough great one yet I am still trying to make one but just keep coming up short

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