EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

Do y'all think a dog has to be smart to be a good hunting dog or that a stupid dog won't turn out well? Any of y'all have good dogs that aren't very bright?

I believe a lot of it is instinct but some dogs know how to find a hog and make it look easy even when there isn't many hogs around...

 I think, instinct can make a good dog....a dog with instinct and brains enough to learn where to look and that there are more out there beside the one you just caught.....will make a good dog look foolish.

No, they don't have to be real smart, and I personally believe most average dogs aren't real smart but can still be good hunting dogs for the right person.

Smart is just another genetic trait in my mind, a dog that don't hunt smart can make up for it by hunting harder than it'd otherwise need to; a dog with crappy bottom can often make up for it by being the faster than the hog and running straight to catch; on and on. They can be gifted in other areas.


Now, that's not what I wanna see personally, but like my ol granpappy used to say, if everybody liked the same thing as me, your grandma wouldn't never get nothin done

like T-bob said genetics is really what it is and instinct is a part of genetics...intelligence has to do with genetics...they say a dog doesn't really think it is more instinct but some dogs seem to know when to roll out and when to sit back while the other dogs hunt but this dog will strike first 9 out of 10 times...and this dog doesn't work all the tracks but cuts and slashes and lines out the feeding tracks pretty quick while the other dogs are still working out the feeding tracks...it is genetics but a higher level of intelligence...I have only had one dog that good but quite a few others that were excellent hunting dogs just didn't have that little extra that that dog had...

Any of y'all have a dog that's just really stupid but still gets the job done? I've got one that's probably mildly retarded and he's really not good for anything but laughs

I have one well I think he is just selectivly mis minded he has got a lot better though we had his moments jump a fence then cry because he cant get back over etc he has a good nose but his learning curve is pretty flat

As I think back over the years, I don't ever recall having hunted with a really great dog that wasn't what I would call extra smart for a dog. I guess that a dog that's a bit short on sense can make a good dog just the same but I don't think they're very likely to make an exceptional hunting dog. Just my thoughts about it.

Lol that's the kind of thing I'm talkin about. Mine took off running and came face to face with a tree to where he couldn't see around it sat there for a minute and started barking cause he couldn't figure out how to get around it

Easttex91 now that is funny.   Have a question but would like to know the breed on these "dumb dogs "  mine is 3/8 black and tan 3/8 bmc 1/4 cat.  His niece is what she would be is smart as a whip though. 

Mine is ybm. I don't know a thing about him someone gave him to me. He has a mean overbite I can't look at him without chuckling.

Lmao a hillbilly ybm that remindes me of a pic thar circulated facebook a while back a dog with buck teeth

I dont think a dog has to have high intellgence to be a great dog .  But I sure do admire and like the smart ones.  This is one of the things that is wrong with the Lacy breed they are damn near human some of them I lovem but I hate em at the same time.  Love my Bell dog but she is just to smart for her on britches and 99% of the time shows me up !

I had a bmc/redbone that we couldn't catch. He listened good but was impossible to touch. He would load up on command but if you tried to pet him he'd bail out. After hunting he would load up. He wasn't all there but was a hunting sob!

I agree that instincts will take over as far as the hunting aspect goes BUT having said that I have owned one truely intelligent dog in my life, she was my best bud for a long time. Daisy picked up on any and everything I showed her. NO BS, in 2009 I went to the beach with some of my buddies and I swear on my life that I taught her how to get a beer out of a cooler in less than 30 minutes......the very same day we were walking down the crowded beach and I started telling her to go get me a beer, she would run up to the first cooler she saw in a crowd of people grab a beer and bring it back to me..........needless to say she was a BIG hit lol, we must have got her to grab us 20+ out of different coolers and the response from the people was always the same, they thought it was the funniest thing ever, met a buncha pretty ladies using that tactic over the course of the week  ;D anyway, that dog was a once in a lifetime type dog, I have owned labs since she passed but I always end up buying them and giving em away a few months later because they don't compare...........I did have 1 that I thought was gonna do pretty good but she ended up disappearing never to be seen again.

Justin a buddy of mine is trying to teach his mastiff to do the same thing lol. I told him its gunna be hard cuz she I still young and she acts like a pup (half retard). He bound and determined to do so. All I could do is wish him luck.

Irondog, really it was easy BUT she was already a rock solid retriever, she knew all her commands and listened everytime. I didnt back when i sent her, id say git me a beer everytime....(it woulda been pretty embarrasing comin openin day of dove season in a field with 10+ hunters who all have coolers lol)....anyway She would retrieve anything i threw so that day i grabbed a beer and started playin fetch with her, after maybe a dozen reps i started throwing the can into an empty cooler....she acted like the cooler wasnt there.....next step i added a dozen full cans of beer and then tossed the empty in again, told her to get it, she did and as soon as she got back i sat her back at my side and sent her again.......at first the cold can threw her off but it didnt take her long......next thing u know we are sittin on the porch and she is making constant trips to the cooler......that dog flatout lived to retrieve, it was her life i have never seen another the enjoyed it as much as she did.....i couldnt probly write a book about that dog....she truely was my once in a lifetime dog.

this is one smart dog...I believe he is 3/4 southern cur with a 1/4 blue healer...I culled him because he would rather stand around and bullchit instead of going out hunting...he was too smart for his own good...  ;D I'm sure most of you have seen him by now...


http://youtu.be/nGeKSiCQkPw

U didn't send him to AR did ya. If so I think I own him now. Lol

intelligence to me is the deciding factor between a damn good dog and a 1 in a lifetime dog.

(http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/ac192/t-bobparker/045E7739-B598-450D-86FA-AC712ECF2AA6-1940-00000393F0C2647F.jpg)

100 percent right on...the difference between a once in a lifetime dog and a great dog is intelligence...great dogs are common enough but once in a lifetime dogs are rare...

a great dog can hunt with the best of them...some can drom a 40,000 dollar dog and you can drop your great dog and you just know your dog is just as good day in and day out...but a once in a lifetime dog will do amazing things that great dogs just don't do...if we are real lucky we might have one...and very few folks might have 2 in a lifetime...

thats how I feel about it as well.

I've always compared to some of the professional athletes. They can't even spell the sport they play but were born with one talent. One of my buddys has a dog that will lick on a piece of galvanized pipe for an hour and always has a confused look but drop him in the woods and he will find hogs.