EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

I got one of my hunting partners to hold my pup last night long enough to get a few pics.  She's just over four months and it won't be long before she gets to lay eyes on a hog!  I'm anxious as can be.

Many of you have probably heard the story of the Weatherford's Ben bloodline dog I was given a while back.  I had very little knowledge of this bloodline prior to getting that dog and showing him his first hog at a little over two years old.  When he bayed his tail off at first sight, and then found a hog by himself third time in the woods at 1/2 mile out, I had to find out more about these dogs.  I have never worked with a dog that took to hogs and was more of a natural at hunting quite like the one I was given.  Perhaps it was his older age and maturity when we started him, but everything I hear about these bloodlines is VERY consistant.  I was lucky enough back in December to get a pup out of a breeding Randy Wright put together.This pup is 47.5% Weatherfords Ben and 50% double linebred Wrights Bounty Hunter.  If genetics mean anything, she should shure enough shine and I intend to find out what it's all about.

(http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee138/bdavis1476/IMAGE_069.jpg)

beautiful dog. okay, this is one of those moments where i'm pretty sure i'll end up feeling like the world's biggest dumbass, but i have to ask anyway: what is the other 2.5% ? (i don't breed dogs)

PRETTY PUP,,Look like she's gonne be leggy too.Keep us informed ...

good looking dog...looks like she will be able to fly, small stature and frame...good looking dog...

I have read alot about the Weatherford's Ben line and like you said they sound like they should be real deal, and you got one for free now that's a deal.  Like i said before i am a sucker for yellow cur dogs

Sean,

Good question and while I'm NO expert I'll try to explain.  These (Foundation registered) dogs for the most part are heavy linebred with an occasional hybrid vigor outcross.  To figure the percentage of blood, you have to know the geneology and calculate like this: 

For Each Time A Dog Is Listed As A Parent: 50% (Because there are two parents 50%+50%=100%)
For Each Time A Dog Is Listed As A Grandparent: 25% (Because 4 grandparents 25% X 4=100%)
For Each Time A Dog Is Listed As A Great-Grandparent: 12.5%
For Each Time A Dog Is Listed As A Great-Great Grandparent: 6.25%
For Each Time A Dog Is Listed As A Great-Great Great Grandparent: 3.13%
For Each Time A Dog Is Listed As A Great-Great-Great Great Grandparent: 1.57%

For Example:  Wrights Bounty Hunter is listed as one of my pups grandparents on both the top and bottom side...25% + 25% = 50% linebred.  Weatherford's Ben appears all over the geneology of my pup.  You have to add the percentage for each generation according to what I typed above for each time the name appears.

I hope this makes sense...it took me a while to figure it out.  Like I've said before, having a "papered" dog for bragging rights or whatever is worthless in my book.  HOWEVER, knowing the geneology and there being no question of the past generations being good proven working dogs is priceless information on something I'm about to spend time and money feeding for a year before knowing what I've got.

Here's a pic of the older male I have (One I got for free).  My only complaint with him is that he tends to be a little catchy (especially if hunted in a group of say more than three dogs on the ground)

(http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee138/bdavis1476/Dogs/dogs14.jpg)

Love me some yellow dog that's for sure.  Good looking pup!

aaahhh, okay. shows how much i know,lol. thanks for explaining. good lookin dogs!

Good lookin pup Bryant!  I got one of them dogs too  ;D  He is 46.875% Weatherford's Ben and couldn't be a looser baying dog.  He is great to shoot over though, never misses a beat when you take the shot.  I just bred him to my Brandy dog and I hope to have some pups on the ground out of them the first part of May.

Tater
(http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f277/matt_aggie04/andrewsweddingjamieshower038.jpg)
In the middle
(http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f277/matt_aggie04/9-20-06010.jpg)

Brandy that I bred Tater to (pregnant last spring)
(http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f277/matt_aggie04/BrandyPuppies002.jpg)

Matt if you sell on of them pups let me know i got a female outta J.D. line and a 1/2 wheather ben male and another beutiful male that i just got that i am wanting another female for him.  GOOD LOOKING DOGS I am a sucker for yellow dogs.

I sure will Brandy is heavy JD bred and Tater is Weatherfords Ben so I am anxious to see if we get a little hybrid vigor from the outcross on both sides.

Matt

Well from what i have seen. Becasue we did breed the femal and the male once now and those pups come out naturalls. At 3 months they would bay a pig like a 5 year old dog. But we for some reason had 3 or 4 of them come out black and tan. From what i have heard the wheatherford ben dogs seem to be a little rougher than the jd cur line. But that is what i have heard dont know if there is any truth to that.

Hey Matt that sounds like it would be a pretty good cross right there.  If you do sell some of them i might be interested as well been looking for a good male cur dog and with that Weatherfords ben line that would be perfect.  I had been wanting to breed my gyp back again but unfortunatly someone poisoned her last monday so now i have to start over again.

I don't know, 3 out 4 of the JD dogs I've hunted with were rough as a cobb. 1 didn't even make it to 2 years old.

Good looking pup Bryant!

I used to hunt with JD every now and then back when I first started. His old Useless dog (RIP) was a helluva dog. When he disappeared you listened for two barks... then a squeal! ;D

my number 1 dog is weatherfords ben and he is 10 years old.....and still going strong-----will not pull hair until the hog breaks and then sets up 6-8 ft back baying his heart out.....my female was the same way....the only 2 ben dogs i have owned....i will say that the "natural ability" seems to show in every litter i have bred "Yella" to....we had 8 out of 9 turn out to be strike dogs from the litter with my florida cur, the last one is starting to turn on now back in florida....i have that same litter on the ground now that is 7 weeks old and thinking about keeping about 1/2 of them....seems to be dominant real strong blood from that ben dog....pigstkr

Matt -   Who are the parents of your Tater dog?  I also like the looks of your Brandy dog.  It really doesn't make a flip as far as hunting, but given my choice I would have preferred to have dark masks on my two...I took what was offered.  I sure like the appearence of a dark masked, slick coated, buckskin colored BMC.  I've always been a sucker for good looking dogs.


Elliscountyhog -   Everyone I have talked to on the Weatherfords Ben bloodline dogs swears by one thing...if you want the dog to bay looser and not be as catchy, start them very young.  The dogs which are started later tend to be rough (which is definately true with mine).  I have talked to several people who strickly breed and hunt this bloodline (Randy Wright, Robert Benson, Steven Dallas, and a few others), and they have all told me that when they need catch dogs, they will hold a few pups back...start them later and make straight catch dogs out of them.  These guys strike, bay and catch with nothing but BMC dogs.



In many packs (just like the reason Matt was selling the dog earlier today) a dog like my male would not fit.  Of the nine dogs I own, only one will stay back and bark once the catch dog steps up.  On smaller hogs, I don't need a catch dog at all and on bigger ones my dogs are just waiting for someone to make the first move.  Most of them won't stay caught by themselves, or don't have the power to control larger hogs but 99% of the time when one dog lays teeth on, its game over as a group.  As a result, I usually don't have much trouble with hogs breaking bay and running very far.

Many people don't like catchy strike dogs because they have a tendancy to get roughed up more often.  At times that can be true, but the key to the deal is this:  If your gonna run rough catchy type dogs, you better have more than one on the ground at a time because they will end up needing help.  One catchy dog on the ground with a group of looser baying dogs will send you all over the country chasing broken bays because they will put too much pressure on an otherwise settled, bayed hog.

Sometimes (a lesson I learned a while back from Douglas Mason) the key is also figuring out the right combination of which dogs to hunt together.  I have six strike dogs and 99% of the time I hunt a certain three together at the same time.  With my pack, it took me a lot of time in the woods and scratching my head to figure out who worked best with who.

Enough rambling...;)  Thanks for all the comments on the pup!
Bryant

 

Ben's Buck is the Daddy and Flannery's Josey is the momma.  He was bred in Florida but the momma and the daddy are from Texas.

Matt

I'm gonna bring this post back to life from years ago.  Matt i still own two of the dogs i got out of that Tater and Brandy cross and the other one is with my partners daddy up in Port Lavaca and still get the chance to hunt with him some.  These dogs were bred right, two of them are winding machines.  We wind them off the truck and if there is hogs out your gonna gettem.  One that i kept, Shorty, sounds just like old Tater  he winds like hell and bays real loose, l love the way he works out by himself.  he is silent and has bayed whole groups of hogs several times.  I sure wish i could find more dogs that are bred like him and Tater were. 

Darn good lookin dogs Bryant! Aren't you about to have some pups?

Wow this is from a long time ago! Haha.  Female I started this thread about ended up a straight cull.  I raised three foundation dogs and I was 33% on them turning out decent.  I put them aside and still hunt and raise what I started with.

Mark- 7 pups (3 saddlebacks, 4 yellows) born and lost one today.  Hoping for the best with the heat and all.

Shylar I am glad to hear that those pups worked out well!  I know the momma is still around but the daddy is no longer. I have a few of these dogs around out of brandy that have turned out to be pretty good cow and hog dogs. All I have left these days is a son out of brandy but I know where to go when I need more.  Hope your doing well and they continue to make you proud. 

What are they out of?