Predominant Traits

[sheimer]

I thought that mabey a snazzy title would get a little more responce to this thread .

In general terms, Why do you run the breed that you run?

I'm definately not asking for a pissin match, just some generalizations. You hear the Plott guys talk about "gritt" and "bear dogs" a lot. You hear the Walker guys talk about track speed. What makes you feed the dogs in your yard? Why are the dogs in your yard black, blue, French, or English?

I'm down to a month until season starts and need to pass the time somehow and the conversation seems to help.

Scott

[Emily]

My red dogs are very accurate, and beautiful. They also have a lot of stamina and very tough feet.

[broncobilly]

What makes you feed the dogs in your yard?

I feed the dogs I do because they catch game and because I like them.

Why are the dogs in your yard black, blue, French, or English?

The dogs I have are the color they are because thats the color God made them.

Bill

[nmplott]

Bill,
I like your answer. It is straight to the point and honest.
Stephen

[sheimer]

Emily - were you looking for the traits and found them in the red dogs or were you looking for the red dogs and found those traits?

Bill - I think you took my questions a little out of text. I was trying to ask what breed you run and what made you chose that breed in the first place.

Scott

[bob baldwin jr]

sheimer : No PISSIN Match here. That is a very Trick and loaded Question For every 10 preferences of mine I am sure there are 10 other Houndsman with contradictory comments. As far as a breed goes for Bear only : English, Blue dogs, Red dogs then throw in your Plotts and walkers.for amusement. Probably because my hound buddies use plotts and walkers the first 3 are what I would stay with. I say this because my buddies spend more time gathering up their plotts and walkers than enjoying the chase, I suppose that does not speak welll for the company I keep .Either Low class or NO CLASS hounds

[Mike Leonard]

Well this might blow the skirt up a little but I think Old Wild Bill from Eastern NM hit the nail on the head. God made em that way. I have run every color and kind and breed too. I just sort of cut em loose and hope for the best. LOL!


BUT I ALWAYS RUN BIG BLUE DOGS OR OLD TIME BLACK AND TANS IN MY DREAMS. Yep full moon night and I don't want to close my eyes to no yippee kay yii type dogs even if they catch the world record. I want to hear BOOOOOOOOOWWAAAAAAAOOOOALLLllll

WAY DOWN IN THE ROCKY CANYON OF MY MIND. And as I ride up to the tree I see a bewhiskered looking old puncher standing there. And he says my name is Lee, Dale Lee and my Pilot dogs was the first dog here.

Damn and then I always wake up before I can ask him which dogs was second.


LOL!

[sheimer]

Bill - I truley appologize. It was not meant to be a loaded question. It really was an honest question. I got my first dog because that's what my buddies dog looked like. No $hit. I got my next dog because she was priced right(free). I got my last dog for the big ole' bawl mouth that Black and Tan's are known for. My next dog will something with even a bigger bawl mouth. My brother-in-laws male bluetick has just an eerie bawl that I can't get out of my mind.

Mike, I thought that you mentioned somewhere in the past that you ran B&T's. Why did you quit? What made you run them in the first place. What did you buy your first walker for? What specific trait or hope?

Scott

[houndcrazyfool]

half of my pen is made up of old school walker dogs and the other half are all mixed up. But regardless they were all bred best dog to best dog. They range from 45-65 lbs, built to run

[Mike Leonard]

Sheimer,

I did run and raise a lot of black and tans for a number of years. Although my first full hounds were walkers and the first real good hound I ever saw as a young person were red-bones. Back home in Montana a rancher friend and I decided we wanted to try some black and tans so we got ahold of Gene Hicks in Tennessee and I ordered a male pup out of his Tenn, Thunder dog and my buddy got a female out of Thunder Mountain Mingo. Both of these hounds Gene had at that time went back to the old time Gossett Black and Tans from Earl Gossett in Ohio. My male Gunsmoke was 28" at the shoulder and had 28" inch ears. Ruby the female was a bit smaller. Gunsmoke over the next 13 years made a big name for himself as a game catcher and was a real cold trailer and could handle any track and rough terrain. Problem he never could sire a pup. When he finally was killed at age 13 when he trailed out into a highway I decided to get some more black dogs. I got several more from Gene out of Bandit and several from Jarvis Umphers, Fred Smith, John McDonald, and Bill Boatman, and Buddy Hutchings. I had some decent black dogs that really did well on bear, and coon. I caught a lot of snow lions and bobs with them but I never found another that could cold trail in the dirt like old Gunsmoke. As I moved further into the southwest and began to be more involved with bare ground hunting for lions I happened on a few dogs out of mixed breeding that had been used in this country for many years. They helped me over the hump and showed me what a real dirt lion dog was all about. I really think there are a number of good black and tans and blue dogs that would do just as well I just didn't come up with the cross on my dogs and so I sold my breeding stock to a freind in Oklahoma who had become very interested in bear hunting. I still think there is no hound prettier than a long eared black and tan well maybe a long eared dark red redbone but don't see many of either down this way much these days.

I like any hound that can get the job done even a goofy walker. LOL!

[papa]

Mike, are you familiar with the ranger strain of b&t? I think John Macdonald may have ended up with some of them from a guy in Az. I had onethat was the coldest nosed dog I have had. He could handle the Southern Az dirt when it was 80-90 degrees. I lost track of the line when left there in the 80s.

[Mike Leonard]

I don't know about the strain but the coldest nosed lion hound I ever saw was a black and Tan owned by Buddy Johnson of Brushy Mountain area of New Mexico. Luke was this dogs name and he was suppose to be out of McDonalds Ranger line. I was so impressed with this dog when hunting in the Burro Mountains that I bred my Kate dog to him. She however sloughed the pups and ended up having to be spayed as a result.

I saw this Luke dog do some things that I didn't think was possible for a lion dog. Let me just say you could not walk this dog over a lion track.

[Outlaw 3]

I run black dogs for their nose, treeing ability, and handling.
Nearly everyone around here runs plotts and walkers but I like to have a strike and trail dog along for when the bear are more scarce. Don't get me wrong I have had a couple of great plotts and walkers that were strike and trail dogs.
However, in my experience black and tans handle better and are less trashy or growly. They slick tree less. They are calmer than some of the other breeds so it is easier to train them. The dogs I have raised start earlier also. They are out of Gene Hicks' "Albert" bloodline just like Mike Leonard mentioned.
I also have and will continue to have plotts. They are often gritty and mine have never been growly. They have good speed and staying power as well.

That is what I have in the yard but I don't care if a dog is green or purple as long as they get it done. These current breeds were formed by breeding for desired traits to catch game. I would say that color was not the most important trait when trying to put meat on the table.

[swampposh]

but I don't care if a dog is green or purple as long as they get it done.

That's why I like English, they come in all colors. That way I only worry if the dog hunts the way I like here in the swamps of South Florida. Might as well go with the original, or with a Plott

[Emily]

Scott
I like the red dogs for their beauty, and if I can find what I want in red, that's what I'll take. I'm past my prime, so an accurate, stay-put tree dog helps me make it to the tree. At least one of them has to be loud enough for me to hear, too.
I think I can give almost any basically healthy dog the stamina by giving it enough exercise, but it helps if it has tough feet. I am old-fashioned enough to be suspicious of pink footed dogs on that score, but very few redbones have anything but black feet.

I can be silly about what I'll put up with in a hound. I have one that is so mischievous and disobedient than no one else would put up with him, but he's accurate, and has a huge amount of drive, and I find him entertaining.
I believe that most hounds have their strong and weak points, but if you start with the hound's strengths, you can probably find a job it is suited to. When one pup turned out to have far more interest in bears than coons, I took up bear hunting. I'm more interested in the hounds than the specific game. However, since I tried bear hunting and got hooked, and there's lots of bear near me, I'll probably always have at least one bear hound around.