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Ps. Jake, Old Dog is your dream come true. He has been eight years looking for the same thing you are looking for. Buy him a meal, or whatever it takes for him to "sit down with you" and share what that eight years has shown him.

If he charged you 1,000.00 tuition to come hunt with him and pick his brain for a few days, you would be a few thousand dollars and a few years ahead.

yes david they are for sure different but to me that's part of the fun. yes brad this winter will tell if I wasted my time. jake between us on here we have givin you some sound advice in my opinion. brad is very picky, I am very picky, david is very picky and we have all seen and hunted with a lot of top shelf cat dogs. so when you talk about lions ,to us that try to run only bobcats a lion track is like a coon as it don't take such a special dog to tree one. however a lion hunter that only hunts lion may want one that will trail a day old or older track. that would be a dog that is only looking for a lion and has been on many in my opinion. so the main thing is don't get hung up on what every body else likes and find and hunt what you like. so again, if its a cur you want the two strains I mentioned tend to be a little more track minded than some of the others. jmo

Jake, I dont have any experience hunting my own cur dogs.I have hunted hounds my whole life. And about six years ago I went along with a friend that does predator control for a living on lions and coyotes. He doesnt like useing full blooded hounds because they dont mix well when switching back and forth(hounds will switch off the Lion on to the coyote and run them out of the country). His pack consisted of one half hound half cur( what kind of cur I dont know) , One full blooded border collie, and two full blooded Stephens curs( larger longer haired than the smaller slick haired Stephens curs I have seen more of). They looked more like a long eared black lab.They Put a lion in a tree after about a six hour cold trail job that covered a lot of country.They moved the cold track fast in a way that a good bobcat hunter would be happy to see dogs move a cold track( though the lion obviously had more scent). Every dog was there from beginning to end and we were not on top of the dogs until the tree (just a gps trail or a few barks while we were pushing the four wheeler out of the snow). These dogs were hunted nearly every day all year long.My only real experience with a pack of nearly all cur dogs,but they definitely worked on a cold lion track in those conditions. Good luck, Larry

Thanks fellas. Honestly, I appreciate you all taking the time to put your opinions, knowledge and experience into this. Old dog especially I'll be in contact soon. And Larry it is very heartening to hear that dogs like that exsist! Its also great news that I'm not the only guy looking to accomplish this feat! Any info any of you can give me is more then I had before so keep it commin. . I hope I'v not overstepped my bounds or come off as ungrateful in any way.
Jake.

We should have a cur pup here this week. I love my hounds and they will always be my go to dogs. My buddy has a cur with a little shot of hound and that dog will take off with the hounds and them be back at your feet before long. All the way to the tree she hunts around us like a bird dog and she'll tree once we get there as long as she can see it. She is loose on a tree and leaves a lot. He didn't do much at all as far as training goes. Hopefully the pup we're getting will go with the hounds. I think being raised with them will help. A lot has to do with what a guy puts in. I could take a good border collie or lab pup and teach it to catch a cat but it just wouldn't be the same. I like to watch a dog work a bad track into a jumped race and hear them hit the tree with a big locate and tree their heart out until I get there. The pup we're getting will have every chance to be a good one and if it's in him we'll bring it out. Good luck to you on your quest.

Here he is. He's out of a dog named Stillwater Hotrod and the female is Tree Knocking Cherry. We have high hopes for him.



Hotrod's papers



Cherry's papers

nice looking pup kevin! wish you the best of luck with him. if he is true to the cur style, you should have a good idea of what you have by the time he is a year old or sooner.

Hey man, shoot me a pm and we can talk

Good looking pup Kevin. You have two very different styled lines coming together on the bottom side, one of them very strong throughout the top side. Some very good dogs behind that pup. In my experience it is not too easy to get a real top shelf cur dog. But I hope,for your sake, you don't get one Kevin. Because if you do, your life is about to change. You will be ruined.

Boys and girls, Keep your eyes out for some real nice redbones to come on the market in about 18 to 24 months.

(Actually most of us long time houndsmen don't have to worry about a cur pup turning into that amazing dog and shaking down our world because most of us try to read them, train them, treat them like hounds, and expect them to react/respond like hounds. And we wonder why they turn out culls for us?? When others like them so much??? Trust me on that one, I know first hand.)

well put david....I ruined a few trying to train and hunt them like a hound and that's one reason I am 8 yrs in and not finished lol the young male I like so much, I gave up my old ways and let him do his own thing. however I did shorten his range a little. if I had not shortened his range he would probably still be ranging out of my capabilities. another problem with a cur dig is they sure worm their way into you're heart and its hard to sift thru them. I see some gazebrook blood in that ped. I have one here also. hard going dog for sure too hyper for me but all go in the woods he does quit when he gets behind the hounds on a hard race. no quit in him if he is upfront. with gazebrook and a couple shots of yellow bob, I would advise you to get after him at a early age for aggression or it will get out of hand. I do predict that he will run his heart out for you and should tree early. jmo I should add that the only hounds that put my gazebrook dog back to the road was varminators pack. I think every body should put their super stars along side of that pack at least once,,,lets just say that its humbling and leave it at that.lol

I treat all my dogs like dogs. I've had cow dogs, bird dogs, hounds, and a leopard. Never had a problem understanding any of them. Maybe this cur will blow my mind and I'll fail him but I don't think it will go that way. I don't treat my dogs like most do. Mine are with me about every second that I'm not at work or hunting something other than tree game. Right now I have 2 laying on the floor, one on the couch, and one on the bed. I don't pen them separately or chain them up. They are either in the yard or in the house or hunting. The only thing I wonder is if he will learn to trust the hounds and go with them on a cold track. Time will tell if he makes the cut. I didn't want a lot of Streak blood but I figured a shot of it wouldn't hurt. The male is bred tight and the top side of the female seems like it matches the males breeding. I like my dogs bred tight to lock in traits and throw their likeness. Once in a while a small shot of another line doesn't hurt at all. Time will tell if I chose right. P.S. - There won't be any liquidation of my redbones regardless of how the cur turns out.

kevin after talking with you about you're dogs and you telling me how you interact with them, I am real sure that you will get the most out the cur.they say just put them in youre pocket and they will try to please you and I found this to be true. I made a statement about aggression , let me rephrase that to he will probably want to be the dominate dog in you're house. I am sure you will figure it out.P.S. my dogs are all red or yellow but man I love the looks of them brindles!

There's only one dominant around here and it's me. My dogs all live together and get along just fine. I won't tolerate a dog that is over agressive. Mine live with a chihuahua and a cat. Never have I worried about the well being of either. If a dog wants to fight they learn quick that I'm better at it than they are. Pecking order among dogs is inevitable. As long as they know I'm at the top of that order life is good. I am betting that the pup will fit right in with no problems. Of course I was wrong once. It was a long time ago and just that one time.......

if you are interested in the leopards maybe try getting a hold of nick riley i know someone who got a dog from him. i went with him to pick the dog up nick is a really nice guy and honest and he has some nice dogs that tree lions and bobcats