How did you come to hunt the dogs you hunt?

[lawdawgharris]

I love reading and talking dogs. I love to hear people's ideas and philosophies about them as well as hunting styles. I'd love to hear how you settled with the dogs you hunt, what breed, what family, what cross, their style, etc. It doesn't matter to me what discipline or game be it bear, cat, hogs, etc. I can learn something from everyone. Myself, when started I was a kid which meant no money. The first ingredient for a hog dog was price. If it was free, I would check it's potential. If it was a stock dogs, a hound, or had even seen those breeds I gave it a chance. I got tired of the negative results and a guy gave myself and a buddy the opportunity to buy a pup out a family of dogs they used both ways, cattle and hogs. She couldn't grow up fast enough lol. By the time I started hunting her at 6 or 7 months old, she already thought she was a hog dog. She probably had more mock hunts under her belt than most 18 month old dogs had live hunts. By the time she was a year old she had a ton of hunts on her and a finished dog had better have his giddy up shoes on or she'd bayed before they knew there was a hog in the country. Fast, lordy mercy she was blistering fast. Nothing ever out ran her and she was relentless on track with a really good nose and brains to spare. She handled super easy and got along with all the other dogs be it mine or anyone else's. She got hunted everyday nearly and sometimes twice a day on the weekends. We had the fever bad. She set the bar for me. It was finally a real dependable dog. She was about 18 months or better when she finally had a true heat. I think because I had worked for so hard and for whatever reason had given her a break and she came in. Being so fond of her and her having a hazardous occupation, I figured I better get litter out of her before something happened to her or she didn't come back in. One of my mentors had a real nice male that I bred her to. After she weaned the pups and dried up good, I started her bak slow but she was just not the same. It was like the fire was gone. She eventually completely quit. Her pups were just ok, no real fire in them either. Kinda always seemed like they were just going through the motions. To this day they are still my perfect physical types. I moved them all down the road. She was Good enough lots of people were willing to keep trying with her. Never worked again though. Lucky for me, I had lucked into a dog that was half treeing walker (lipper) and half catahoula ( a family of what the old timers called leopard dogs). They bred the hound in to freshen the family up as it was starting to get stale from years of tight breeding. They wanted to improve the nose and bottom and they did. Problem was this dog wouldn't look at a cow. He had his first thought with his first breath, he was here on earth to be a hog dog. The guy had hogs and came home one day and Clyde had killed a couple shoats and had the rest of the hogs bayed up. He got a pretty good whooping and put on a chain. He was just a big pup then. A week or so later they let him out of jail only to come home and find him bayed on then again. I got the call to come get now if I wanted him lol. I couldn't get there fast enough. Turned out he was my once in a lifetime dog. He raised the bar and to this day is the dog I judge dogs by. Everything I have goes back to him. I don't want a full curr type or a full hound. When you get that happy medium in the crosses, they are unbeatable, atleast for my liking. I'm 20+ years into it since I got Clyde and I get a pretty high percentage of good dogs out of them. I only breed dogs out high percentage litters. They aren't the best I'm sure, but I buy the feed and like them. Tell me how you got to where you are.

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[macedonia mule man]

I am not as lucky as some or I don’t know a good dog when I see one or some people think they have good dogs but don’t. The only thing I can saw is I have never had the kind of dogs I want. Am running some pretty good ones now and have in the past but not like I want.

[lawdawgharris]

Mule man, what do you desire that has been or is lacking in your dogs?

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[bowieknife50]

My story is pretty short and probably not what you're looking for but I'm going to jump in so I can keep track of this conversation. I have 3 dogs right now plus three house dog. All of them were freebies and one I could never have afforded. I grew up hunting coyotes and used to have a running dog that was given to me as well. He was never hunted enough to realize his potential.

When I moved I fell in with a bear hunting group and made a couple really good friends. They are all pretty much Plott people. One gave me a pup 1/4 running dog and 3/4 Plott. I really like him; as a 1.5 year old he can burn down a jumped bear track but can't cold trail to save his life. Wouldn't take any money for him because he thinks money ruins the sport.

Not too long after he got out of it and gave me a finished coyote dog running walker. This dog has a one track mind and is very good at what he does. He looks like a big tub of lard but I've seen him out run a lot of younger sleeker dogs.

Next came along a bluetick that my wife saw on Facebook as a stray and just thought she was beautiful. When she first came home I was not to take her hunting of any kind. Then after about a month she was spending less time in the house and maybe it was ok if I took her coyote hunting. After a while she didn't come in anymore and I could do whatever I want with her. Took me 2 months to get her to leave my side. Then she got hurt on the first bear of kill season.

So I have all the dogs I have because I happened into them. I do have to say I like the Plott the best. Just something about his spirit like you can't really phase him. And after the second day of bear season when he didn't come out of his kennel in the morning I thought he's not gonna do anything today. Then I turn him loose and he goes another 10-15 miles. He did that for 4 more days. Hard to describe exactly what I'm getting at but when I add dogs intentionally they will be Plott heavy.


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[lawdawgharris]

That's what I was asking Bowieknife. You have a few different types, styles, breeds, and have hunted enough different types of game that you know now what direction you want to go when get ready.

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[scrubrunner]

Lawdawg, I expect Muleman is like most of us, we just want better than what we've got. And old southern tradition and proper etiquette, brag on your friends dogs and point out the flaws in your own.

[macedonia mule man]

Staying dissatisfied keeps you from going backwards and eventually, OUT.

[lawdawgharris]

That's pretty similar to a saying one of my greatest mentors use to say. He always told me "if you ever quit looking for better, you'll never have the best". I think there is a lot of truth to that. Ourselves nor our dogs are ever gonna be perfect so there's always something to improve on.

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[bowieknife50]

I forgot to mention that Plott I like can't cold trail to save his life right now. That's what I'll be looking for and working on.


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[Bearhunter247]

Mine started with a walker coon dog a older gentleman gave me. We need him to my uncles gyp he wanted one pup and he got rid of the rest. I’d been bear hunting with other people but never had my own dogs. Well one of these pups he had given away was being passed around from person to person he would tree a coon wouldn’t run a deer and when he was 3 I was offered him back. I thought I’d try him to see what he’d do took him coon huntin 5-6 times wouldn’t leave your feet. So driving home one night I was thinking about doing away with him and a bear crossed the rd, well he lit the box up. So I turned him loose 6 hours later I caught him bayed up in a cutover. Treed 17 bears that first year with him by himself. I bred him to a plott that ate all her pups but one I took him but he was a hot nosed bear fighting fool but couldn’t trail so I ended up with a gyp out of the same blood as the walker side that would trail bred them had 5 pups down to 3 now 2 have gotten killed their turning 4 in January the pups trail decent but they are tough dogs that want to catch iv got a Airedale/plott cross a blue tick gyp and a red tick male that trail bred the red tick male to one of the last 3 walkers they had pups that turned a year old in July making trees. They are far from the best but they get lucky so we’ll just keep putting them in the woods and see what happens next...


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[Rossco]

I personally prefer crossed up stuff, but crossed up stuff that has been closely bred. Living in California it makes sense, but I like the older California big game bred dogs. Most of what I have and hope to have in the future is pretty heavy with Shockley and Matthes blood. But has been crossed out with either Cameron, some red tick, or just recent a random walker female. I like dogs that are gamey. When they are young it typically means trashy because they have a hard drive to catch almost anything they can smell. But as they get straitend out that drive stays there on specific critters. But I've always preferred to have to work on taking some hunt out of a dog than try to encourage them to hunt harder

[Ndigs]

Just checked in on this site so a bit slow but Great ,something worth reading again, Thanks Lawdawg , always enjoy the conversations you get going, and Thanks Rossco, you just described my dogs and gave me some hope. Started with a Walker female puppy 6 years ago, have had alot of fun on lynx bear and cougar with her so bred her to a crossed up California Male I bought 3 yrs ago. The two pups I kept are just a yr old and exactly what Rossco described, going to be getting some snow fairly soon so looking forward to getting them straightened out on what we're wanting to chase. So far it's chase the hair off anything from rabbits to you name it. So far I think we're going the right direction with this cross, time and training will tell.
Tom Griffith

[lawdawgharris]

Thanks Mr. Tom! I enjoy talking and reading dogs. I love to hear what others are trying or have tried. I was fortunate to start hog hunting with men that were old enough to be my father or grandfathers. I considered it a short cut in a sense because I had people helping me when others were having to learn it the hard way. Sitting in the truck stop at 5 a.m. drinking coffee and listening to those guys talk and give opinions and advice, will forever be some of my fondest memories. The only thing I would change about is to have them all back as they are pretty much all gone. I know there are some great dog people on here from different disciplines. I'll try anything to get them to chime in so I can learn from them and those that aren't as far along into it as well.

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[lawdawgharris]

Speaking of mentors and the dogs we hunt. One of mine owned what I consider the best dog I've ever hunted behind. He was a blue tick/catahoula cross. He was a hard hunter, good nose, pretty good track speed, good bottom, brains to spare, quick to locate, but bordered on too gritty at times. It's what got him killed in the end. He bred him one female that I know of and she wasn't much of a dog in my opinion. The litter was small and only produced one decent dog out of it and he was never in the same league as his daddy. He also had an Eskimo Spitz cross that someone gave him. His name was Casper and believe me when I tell you, I wanted to make him a ghost. He would find hogs but not dependable, today he would tomorrow he wouldn't. I've seen him leave on a hog that broke and the hog crossed the right of way between two sets woods and him quit at the edge of the second set of woods. Like nah, you can chase him, I'm tired. It wasn't but a couple years after losing the good dog that he quit hunting. He was spoiled to the old dog and they just don't come around like that everyday. It taught me to not take it for granted when I found something that was comparable. I was fortunate to own what I call the second best dog I've ever hunted with. Second only because he wasn't as gritty. But, I got more years out of him because of it and I think he was actually a quicker locator. So if he's second it's real dang close second. I didn't waste an opportunity to carry on with his off spring. I finally got ahold of the females I needed and we are still rolling with it.

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[macedonia mule man]

I never did have any hog dogs or try to hog hunt, but I have caught hogs accidentally while hunting coons. I’m am curious as to why people that really like hog hunting don’t use English pointers or pointer crosses. As a kid my daddy was a bird hunter and had good dogs. They ran out and were never penned or chained unless In season and then they were shut up in the corn crib. They followed us to the swimming hole or anywhere we wondered off to. They could smell a hog a mile and bay and catch without any trouble.