Accidental Breeding

[Conejos]

I had a question for you guys. I have a four year old female plott lion dog. She is a medium nosed dog just average nothing real special but she gets the job done. My brother in laws catahoula got lose and bred her. Im pretty pissed cause lion season is a month away so it looks like I'm gonna be one dog short. My question is what do you think my chances would be of making a cat dog out of one of the pups. The catahoula is a cattle/hog dog out of texas. Do you think its even worth a try or should I cull right away? Any and all opinions welcomed. Thanks!

[Mike Leonard]

If I were you I would try a couple you might just have somthing there. I have seen some cat/hound crosses that were working trailing rascals. The catahoula has many dogs behind them making up this famous cur line, and full hounds are in that mix. Should make some darn good bear bay dogs and also work well on wild cattle.

[Gary Roberson]

I am with Mike. Since you are using for bear, may not be a bad cross; lots of grit in the catahoula dogs. We raised them and caught wild cattle on a bounty for years in the Brush Country south of San Antonio. The dogs we had were very gritty, would trail wild cows and bay them up. They were silent on track. They were hard headed and we worked them horseback with bullwhips. The whips were to back the dogs off the cattle enough so that they would be able to travel. If a cow broke from the herd, we would let the dogs "chew" on her a little and she was more than willing to get back in the herd. I always thought that one good dog was worth three good cowboys in that thick brush. Heck, proably worth five good cowboys in some of that stuff that was so thick you could not stick a knife in it. I never thought that these dogs had great noses but they dang sure were tough.
Adios,
Gary

[JTG]

I know a guy who is a life time dog hunter. He has had Catahoula/Kerr dogs in his familiy for over hundred years. He never sells or gives away dogs. He keeps whole litters and will not put a collar on a dog until it proves itself. His top dogs are the only ones with tracking collars. He will cull what others might call top dogs.
His son and I have been friends for years. One of My blueticks breed his female by accident. I kept three females from that litter. I had them all fixed and I regret it.
One of them is a bobcat hunting machine and the other two are almost as good and real good hog dogs that will find and catch. They are smart and try to please.
I know most would disagree but it my option the best dogs would come from a cross from the best dogs of all the hound breeds. Along with keeping whole litters and hunting all of the pups.
Of course the problem with this is it is hard to sell the pups.
JTG

[clb]

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[broncobilly]

You probably won't like them, just send them down here to me and I will take them off your hands for you so you don't have to put up with them. JK I have full blood plotts and full blood catahoulas, but I only have them because that is the only way to get plott/catahoula crosses. JMO


Bill

[Conejos]

Thanks for all the advice guys!
I probably will keep one male and one female and try them out. I was just a little concerned because the dad cums from cattle working catahulas and not hunting ones. Don't know if that makes a difference but I guess I will find out either way! The mother is from Mike Williams who I have seen alot of good dogs come from. So I'll see what they do and thanks for the advice.

[Pops]

personally i'd keep as many females as possible and try to farm out the males to the hardest hunters you know. that way if the females turn out worth breeding you can test breed to what you want and still have access to the males for stud if you need it for breeding to something else.
a good dog will make you famous but a good bitch will keep you that way.