BigGameHoundsmen.com

I'll take a very fast dog with a great nose any day over an average silent mouth cur dog. JMO

I dont think anyone is arguing that statement
Longshot

I perfer silent dogs now, took some getting used to, but longshot knows the hogs in this country have been run for generations by barking hounds and start to move out ahead of a dog that barks on trail.

I have hunted the hill country for 35 years with everything from running walkers, to bluetic, to black and tan. I catch 5xs more hogs with silent cur dogs that dont have the nose the hounds had.

Speed and grit stop and catch hogs here, someone already said if the hog wont bay then the nose doesnt matter, I agree but from my experiance I'll add a barking dog (in my opion) doesnt put the pressure on a hog to make it stop that a silent dog working the hogs ass will.

Every area is differant and what works for me where I hunt may not work for longshot 20 miles down the road or someone in another county or another state.

Very interesting reading.I'v been hunting hogs for over 18 years with dogs.In all sorts of country,catching pigs is not the problem, its the big boars we are all after.Meny times I'v herd the dogs hit a good doar in thickish scrub and not stop him. I know it's not from lack of hart, but ability to find his cent again.So nose is a must.I think if you run houlding dogs with your open mouth dogs the houlding dogs can find the hounds, best of both worlds. looking to import a bluetick to Australia. feed back please.

If your gonna ship any thing over there I would waste the $5000.00 on a Blue Tick, you will get a nose, but most times they dont make good hog dogs, You need to look into Plotts, you'll get the nose and the grit to be a hog dog. Or you can look into Catahoulas, BMC, Mt. Curs or even Walkers but those are the breeds I would say make the best hog dogs. And to every one eles, We cant say it gets hot hear, this fella from AUS know what hot is. I was told by a friend that lives over there. he's seen 140 degrees, thats hot. And I was gonna ask ya, have ya ever lost a dog to a salty? and I know you guys cant hunt a whole lot at night, just because the salty's and the water buffalo, you guys have more things that'll kill ya then things to hunt LOL

trc i don't think it is fair to say that blueticks dont' make good hog dogs. they do it's just that most hog hunters like a silent mouth dog. if he is looking for nose then a bluetick would be a great dog to import. the curs wouldn't help him any because the dogs they run(at least the guys i have talked to)are basically the same as all the curs you just named. plotts are good, but i know my bluetick(and every other bluetick i know that is on hogs)nose is just as good if not better AND he's just as gritty. plotts would be a good breed for him to import, but he really wants nose i would go with a bluetick...the problem that he would encounter is that they would some of your blueticks are slower on track than other breeds, but if you get the right line you will get some fast track winding drifting hounds.

browndog,

What you are talking about will work, to some extent. The problem is that the hog will hear the open mouth dog coming, which will keep him moving, which means that you will have much longer races. Also, for all of a blueticks good points, they are not known for their quickness and agility, my experience is that blueticks tend to get cut pretty bad before they learn that they have to stay much farther back, and sometimes they get killed before they learn that lesson.

Of the three breeds in the crosses you are using, the only one that has any nose at all is the pointer. It is my understanding that pointers use their nose mostly for winding, and that while they can trail, that is not really their forte. (someone with pointers, feel free to correct me if I am wrong) So while your holding dogs can go to the open dog, they will not be able to stop the hog untill the open dog gets close enough to the hog that your holding dogs can sight chase it.

From what you have described, you do not need a really cold nosed dog, as you are not talking about following a cold trail, you just need enough nose to be able to follow the track of a jumped hog, for which a medium nose is ample.

This is all a long winded background to say that if I were you, instead of trying to find a dog to lead your current dogs to the hog, I would be looking for a dog that you could cross with your current dogs to improve the nose without impairing their holding desire or ability. They could, of course, lead your current dogs to the hog, which is a short term fix, while including their bloodlines in your breeding program would be more of a long term fix.

In terms of purebred dogs, my first three choices would be:

1. Old fashioned cur type line of plott
2. catahoula
3 modern hound type line of plott

If purebred is not an issue, my first three choices would be:

1. cur type plott X catahoula
2. hound type plott X catahoula
3. cur type plott X black mouth cur

This is just my opinion, and doubtless most other people would do something different.

Another option, and on second thought this might be the best option, is to simply import a dogo form Argentina. They have the nose to find them and the grit and physical tools to shut them down once they are found.

Hope this helps and good luck on your quest.

Bill

Sorry didn't mean to ofend you, I'm not saying all Blue Ticks, there are good ones. But for what it costs to ship a dog over there, I wouldn't want a 50/50 shot at a good hog dog, I would pick a breed that is a little better known for being good hog dogs, I shipped two Catahoulas over there and it took almost a year to get it all done and alot of money on the buyers part. Thats all I was sayin. I have never owned a Blue Tick and used it for a hog dog, I had one, and he was a bear dog and was good at his job, just a bit to slow for me, I sold him to a kid that was just gettin into the hound game after I seen him get out run by a cur that had over 50 staples in his ass-end. I still hunt with the kid and that dog is his #1 dog, but he's still slow LOL, hell of a tree dog and has one of the coldest noses I have ever seen, track smart on top of it too. But the kid dosen't have real fast dogs anyway, and that dogs so cold noseed, he's an hour ahead of the faster dogs, but they still catch him. LOL

i definantly understand what you are saying..i would say if he is looking for a dog i wouldn't get a pup anyway. i would get a started to finished dog that has proven itself on hogs, whatever the breed. many of the blueticks from yesteryear are rather slow(and like every breed there are your slow dogs), but many of your blueticks now days are fast track dogs. i would say this, when you build a pack you very rarely will have a dog that does it all for you. you may have a slower dog, but if they have the nose to start the track then your fast dogs take over the track once it gets heated up. i agree with broncobilly as well, he can make a short term fix and make it a long term fix. the plott's i've hunted with haven't been any better than the curs in the nose department, they are way the heck more gritty, but it doesn't sound like he needs that he needs nose.

i'd say find you are finished out or well started dog that has the nose to track up hogs, whatever the breed. usually the way it works is the colder the nose the slower on track because they have to move slow to work the track, the hotter the nose the faster they run because there is more smell. we run my hound with the curs. my hound is fast on track and has medium nose. he will start many tracks and his usually the second one to te bay. we have a garmin so we can see how fast he really is, there is only one dog in our pack that can flat out outrun him(and that dog floats on air...lol). we also like running my hound with the curs because when we get a bay he easily brings the catchdogs to him...being down under makes it really hard for you to see what the dogs can do before you buy it. i say do some research and either get a pup from those lines or get a started dog from those lines and you should be able to fix the problem you are having..

To answer your question, yes there are some very nice blueticks that can get it done on hogs. I hunt two bluetick gyps on hogs. My buddy likes to run his catahoulas with them. Both gyps will rig off the box for hogs. When they open, I drop them off. When they line it out, we pack them up. It works well. If you are looking for a bluetick to get it done, PM for my phone #, and I can help you with proven hog bluetick bloodlines. I have done a good bit of research, and believe I have a good grasp of it. The biggest differene between the hound and the cur is the cur will wind a hog that is close, and the hound will wind where the hog has been. Having a hound in any pack, makes an asset to the team. Nightowl has a silent mouthed bluetick that only opens when looking at a hog. He has stated that the dog can trail above average. They are out there, but they are not in every dog pen out there. If you are going to import one, either buy a finished out dog, or buy from a proven reputible breeder. JMO!!!!

G'day
Great response, I'v done my home work on imports. Yes it is costly and time consuming. I am looking for long term fix. I do hunt at night for two reasons, it's cool and they feed at night. I do have plenty of hart in my dogs and wind scenting ability its the cold scenting im after eg, big old boars been woloing in a water hole 5 or so hrs ago and gone into the hills to sleep my dogs will not be able to trak scent that old. I do not realy want the noise when traking but a nice loud bail would be great.There is something about hounds that i like. I have a bitch i would breed with avtualy, has plent of drive.

A good cur will run a 5 hour track, when you get into the blue Ticks your gettin into a breed that can run a 12+ hour track, I have never seen a blue tick run track silent, but we dont have a big selection of'em out here, so I'll take your word for it. But to be honest you dont see a whole lot of guys huntin blue ticks on hogs here or any were for that matter, dont get me wrong I'm not knockin blue tick's at all, I just dont see'em as much as you see cur's, plott's and walkers or vearious crosses of the three, I've seen plentty of crossed up blues but not a whole lot of straight blue ticks. But you hit it right on the head with the finished or near finished dog, a dog that came from dry country would be your best bet, because the climate makes a big differance. We shipped some finished dogs to Hawaii from here in California, and I mean dogs that were jam up hog dogs, they got over there in the jungles and couldn't find there ass if they were sittin on there face. The guy called me and I pretty told him he was full of it, hopped on a plane and went over there. It was so wet I could have started a track, but the track that I thought looked new , he said was a few days old. It was just so wet it held it there for ever and the dogs were runnin in cercles because every thing smelled fresh, so I would look into a dog from some were in the , mid west, south west or west coast. The dogs we shipped over there are doin great.

TRC,

Please don't take any offence to this, but I don't believe that the orgin of the hound or cur has as much to do with it. That is more of an ability to unravel a track. I totally believe that you have seen a few cur dogs that could track a 5 hour old track, but I have seen a lot of blueticks that could. I've got a few that will leave a fast cur dog in the dust if the hog decides to leave the country. Throw the tracker on them, get up close, and you can call them off if that is your desire. Just because it is a hound, does not mean it can not be trained like the "typical" cur. Like I stated before, if you want some info, PM me. I am more than willing to give up some good info. There are always several ways to get something done, it does not mean that one is better than the rest.

i agree with 12-gauge(not just because he hunts blueticks, either..lol). trc if you don't believe me i got references on my dog, good solid people that have been hunting hogs for 20+years some 30+ years. my bluetick is silent on trail. i know that it is rare, that is why i have a quite a few people that want to breed to him when he mautres out and really shows them what he's got. he does well right now, but i'm waiting till he is about 3yrs and he will be a jam up top notch strike dog. he is 2 right now and he is like a most hounds in that he still has a decent amount of puppy in him. a silent hound is very rare i know, but if you seen the blood on my hound you would know that the way he is bred this very well could happen. he is wound up real tight on ramboII, so with him being so tight on ramboII he got some recessive traits showing up. he has all the dominant ones but he is also showing the recessive ones. he is fast on track, has a great nose, is smart as a whip, gritty, AND he is silent. he isn't the best dog there ever was but i think he will be one of those rare dogs in another year or 100 hogs whichever comes first.

trc you are a catahoula man. you sell cat's so you are going to make your arguement for the cur breed. we are hound guys so we are naturally going to support the hound side of the arguement. i have no dogs to sell him, 12-gauge has better access to some dynamite blueticks than i do. i would say that if he is looking to work a 5+hr track he has a better chance of getting that with a hound than a cur. most of your curs are giong to run hot nosed, they may start that cold track, but most aren't going to finish it. finding a cur that can is going to be very very costly. hounds that take 5+hr tracks are very common so it won't cost as much. problem is again finding a silent hound is hard to come by, but if he is fast on track it doesn't matter. as well as when you get any dog that is already finished out they cost big money and from what i've seen blueticks that are straight on hogs run more than curs that are straight on hogs..

Now I did not ever say a blue tick couldnt do it for one, and I didn't say I didn't belive you about your dog. sorry to ofend you.


12 GA,

I know a lot a guys in FL and not a one runs any blue tick and there hound guys and I am too, and I thanks for the offer but I dont need any info on blue ticks or hog huntin, I've got a pretty good resume when it comes to catchin hogs, every one always thinks cause were from CA we dont know what real huntin is, but I have new for ya, we have just as many hogs here as Texas does and twice as rough terrain as N. Fl and S.GA, now like I said I wasnt takin nothin away from the breed, I run all open dogs still have a few that run silent but mostly all open, but to say a cur cant run a five hr track is, well its like saying a coon dog wont tree. I wasnt trying to get into a pissin match but if it starts flowin on my leg I'll start pissin back. we have over 45 years of breeding behind our kennel and 45 years of good dogs = alot of game. Bear, hogs and Cat, your welcome to check Ca out any time give me a shout and we can put on a hog or a bear.

12 ga
sorry thtas not ment for you I got pm by some one and your post was the last one I seen, well with a little slower reading I'm sorry its not you that I'm yellin at.