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Quote Al Baldwin : Some of the better dogs in a litter do not always reproduce as well as siblings who were not as balanced. Recall reading where Tim Ball stated that some of the well know houndsmen critized him for breeding the original Hickory Nut Harry. Ball stated that Harry had littermates whom were better hounds, but history proved that Harry reproduced.


The owner of Hickory Nut Harry is not probably one that we should be using as a role model for a breeding program. Anyone that has any doubt of this. Only need to go search and try and find hounds at this time in history that anyone has had success breeding, and maintaining (line bred) for any amount of years. At this current time in history. The reason for this, is after breeding all of these females. To a stud that apparently under the owners self admission didn't measure up to other littermates. Is a recipe for failure. As in a very short period of time, the offspring will resemble the inferior stud. And then things go quickly downhill from there. Now if you are on the hunt for money. None of this would make any difference to you. But make no mistake, you will be a quick in and a quick out. The original topic isn't about bashing somebody, but people have to know a lot of these things in order to have any success in having both reproducing ability combined with enjoying talent in the woods.

As far as to buy or breed? One has to understand, that if you start from scratch and build your own it is a lifetime commitment. And no matter how committed one is there will be speed bumps along life's road. That, more often than not hamstring even the most committed to breeding top hounds. Hopefully, there will always be a percentage that fulfill the goal. As they are the ones that will make it easy. For people that are unable to dedicate the time and work that it takes to be successful. To be successful.

What I am saying is with a little bit of research. One doesn't necessarily have to take somebody's word about what they have accomplished with their hounds. And if they are the one that you truly would like to purchase pups from. As you also have a paper trail in the name of the pedigree. It would be my recommendation that when you look at this pedigree, you will see very many common names. Both on the top of the pedigree and on the bottom. This tells me that the person appears to be very happy with the results that he is getting. And it also tells me, that although I don't have the time to start from scratch in a breeding program. I would be afforded the opportunity to purchase a female puppy. And if that puppy turned out to be exactly what I was looking for in the woods. I would then be able to breed back to her daddy. And have a high percentage chance of producing the same or better than the original breeder. But you have to do your homework and understand genetics to understand what I just said.

So I guess to the original poster, I would say. If you have the time, and dedication to breed your own line of dogs. There's nothing more rewarding. But for those that don't have the time. There certainly is no reason that you should not be able to come up with an above average litter of pups. Just remember to match the chest thumping with the paper trail(pedigree). And then read everything that you can about line breeding. And just enjoy the hell out of yourself.

Take care, Willie

C John thanks for allowing me to express my concerns about takeing free pups with strings attached. That as come from over time seeing hard feelings develope with friends who exchanged pups and later hard feelings develope. True houndmen who breed for betterment of thier hounds often will not sell pups to the general public & I sure respect them for that. Most of the pups I raised were given to local hunters or sold for enough money to barely cover expense of thier feed, shots & etc. I wrote about Tim Ball/s quote on the old harry hound only to make a point. No way to be sure what sibling from a good litter, with a family of good hounds behind them will be the better reproducer without breeding to them. Ball/s advice was to breed when they were young enough to allow time for testing the pups & making the cross again if the pups turned out to please you. Just something to think about. How often do we hear that cross worked well but cannot be made again? Allow me to state what pups sell for is the breeders business and sometimes quality does not come cheap. Al

Al, I think that is what I was trying to get at, A great cross seems to be a hump in the road that most people never make it to and some are just happy to get to it, but get stuck on that same cross with out maintaining it into a line. Is it that most people are afraid of line breeding or is good good enuff til it runs out

Jeff I believe lots of hunters are skeptic of line breeding. Most say to be sure one has everything you want in the sire & dam if you are line breeding and that can be hard to find. Ofcoarse if one was looking to breed only perfect dogs probably would never be another cross made. Al