I am an old man and have heard about them all my life. When I was a kid I heard about what they called "loafer wolves". Never seen either one of them and I have hunted over most of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

I have seen exactly 1 cougar as it went across a right of way. I have seen several bobcats. AND, I traveled in my job and spent lots of time on the road. We had one cougar move onto our lease in west Texas. I never saw it but a couple of guys on the lease did. I did see fresh tracks. I have seen more bears than I have cougars but none of them were in Texas.

I have seen plenty of coyotes but never a wolf and that includes hunting out west and up north.

My guess is that when they are spotted it is alcohol or drug related.

I owned a Jag terrier which is just a JRT that is black and brown. I have also hunted JRTs before.

They have no fear and will jump on anything. If you hunt in a place with a lot of green briars and berry vines they are especially good.

They are always good for a laugh on any hunt. Until you hunt one you will not believe what they can do.

When my son was in HS he went over to a friends house to study. They had a dalmatian and it attacked my son without provocation. He is big and was able to knock the dog down but it was jumping for his throat.

Here is the way the deal works. If you get dog bit in the city you call the police and if in the county the sheriff. So I call the sheriffs office to report it and make sure the dog is quarantined for the time specified. I mentioned that it seemed unusual that the dog was  a dalmatian. The sheriff told me not so and they were at the top of the list for biting people. Most of the time it is their owners and if they ever start they don't stop.

The owners of the dog could not believe it bit my son and did not put it down. It was not long and it attacked again, this time much worse, and it was put down.

Dalmatians are not bred to do anything other than have spots. The movie 101 dalmatians did not help either.

They are kind of like Irish Setters. People bred them for the beauty of their coat and ruined the breed. Some folks still try to run them but they are worthless. I have run against them in trials, watched them run, watched them being trained, and judged them in field trials. I have yet to see one actually point and handle a bird all in order.

My neighbor has a couple and both are idiots. I would look to something else if it were me. If you like going against the grain and crusades they are the dog for you.

There is still so much I don't know about breeding that it is not even funny. I always enjoyed getting with a lot of the top trainers in the country and listen to the have it out about dogs. Lots of different opinions, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.

There are some things you better not do. Don't go telling someone that "Pete or whoever" will do this or he won't do that. Anytime you do he is fixin to make a liar out of you.

One time I loaded up horses and dogs and headed to Oklahoma for a field trial. I thought I was ready. My best dog was outstanding and I was confident she would win. Where I made my mistake was telling the guy going with me that she was so good at backing I hadn't even worked her on it. We turned out an my dog just didn't look right to me and the other dog got the first point. I KNEW when I looked at her she was not going to back. It embarrassed me to death because she did it where EVERYBODY could see her. I don't think she ever refused another back for the rest of her life. Something about driving over a hundred miles and having over a hundred in entry fees.

I made the mistake one night of telling some guys on the lease how lucky we were that none of our dogs ran rabbits. We had one look like a grey hound the next morning.

DON'T TRY TO BREED AROUND A FAULT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mother nature will show you not to do that.

I had an outstanding dog that did everything right. The guys on the lease wanted some more just like her. We went to the stud dog owner that produced other to see about some pups. He had a litter coming up out of a bred in the purple bitch. They bought 3 pups or maybe 4 out of that litter. When they got old enough to run they cut them loose and they would not handle a lick. This was hard to figure because the stud was a known producer, a 6 time champion, and my best dog ever was out of him. When we examined the papers come to find out she was a litter mate to the crazy dog I had got from the dog jockey's years before. In fact I had run the dog with the original owner and she refused to handle. BAD TRAITS IN A DOG ARE STRONG AND WILL BE PASSED ON AND YOU CAN BET ON THAT.

One time I bred 3 bitches, 2 to the same 6 time champion, and the other to his son. One litter where I bred 2 bitches was great and every dog in it was way better than average an some really good. The other was worthless and I culled every one of them. The male needed to be bred to a strong willed rank bitch. The worthless litter female was tough physically but on the timid side. The other bitch bred to the son had some good and some bad. The one I kept was a cull but the one I gave my buddy won puppy and derby for the state of Texas for the year. Her sire went on to produce a national champion for a guy in Tyler.

If you can find a stud that you have seen run and you like use him. If you can find a female that you have seen run use her. If you have seen some of their offspring run and you like them try to buy one or get a pup out of the next litter.

Some of the best bird dogs I ever raised were setters of all things. I wound up with a setter bitch that I had trained for a doctor. She was a really good dog and I used her all the time to aid in training younger dogs. I ran across a male down south that was truly outstanding and could hang with any dog, any time, any place. They wound up having 2 litters and every dog in each litter was a dog of some kind. Some were really good.

Hello hog dog Mike

Do you happen to know John Rabidou ., Uodibar kennels ?

I'm a young field trialer pretty much going through what you've said . I go all over the country running dogs off horse and go get guidance  from pros when I can .

I don't know him personally but know of him. He is a GSP man that hunts down south. He copied the Whele deal and changed his name backwards for his kennel name. From what I hear he has some good GSPs but I never did see any of them run.

There is a guy in Brownwood, Tx. named Pee Wee Cole that day in and day out always had some really good dogs. I ran against him in trials and judged a good many of his dogs. If he put one on the ground it was usually a pretty good dog.

Hog dog mike what breed or crosses do you run on hogs ?


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I am temporarily out of hog dogs because I have custody of my 2 grand children and they are 3 and 5. My dogs came from friends that I have hunted with for years down around Franklin. Most of them were red curs and I had good luck with them.

My friend had an old dog named Rowdy and he was just a really good dog and produced good dogs and I had some out of him. Also had a red cur / cat cross female. The boys I hunt with always have good dogs.

Hog Dog Mike...

what can you say about the legendary Elhew line of English pointers and the original man behind them, Bob Wehle? I have been rather fascinated with his abilities as a promoter and breeder of some of his legendary dogs of yesteryear...I know he had the money to hunt and import dogs and to breed the ultimate English Pointers from what I have read and heard...I do know they were hard hunting and some of the most beautiful pointers I ever saw...I remember seeing 8 week old puppy pictures of some of these pups pointing bird wings...natural pointing and birdie instincts...

you having quite a bit of field trial experience so if you don't mind I would like to hear your thoughts on what so many doogers were saying back in the 1970's and 1980's about the field trials ruining the hunting dogs...this was coming from the hunters that did not field trial...I reckon the bottom line is that the field trialers were breeding to win and not worry so much about anything else...

What I remember is the coon hunters were saying the hounds are passing up good tracks to find a smoking hot track...also saying the dogs were ranging too far and hunting for themselves...

The retiever folks were saying that the field trial dogs were high strung and hard headed...had to keep a tight rein on them and will tear up the back yard if left unsupervised...did not double as pets like a hunting lab etc...etc...

The bird dog hunters were saying the field trials were ruining the dogs...especially the English pointers...they hunt for themselves it was said and you could not walk hunt behind them etc...etc...

It seems that about that time the German Short Hair became more popular because they were bred to have a strong hunting instinct yet were closer ranging dogs...hunting with or for the hunter...

These are some of the things I read and heard back in those days that folks were writing and saying...I don't hear much about it anymore...

so...with your vast experience as a field trialer and dog man, what are your thoughts on what I have written? I think it would be interesting and educational especially for the younger readers...thanks...

 

No problem. Here is the way the deal worked. Robert G. Whele turned his name around basackwards and named his kennel Elhew. He was from New York but also had a place in the south east. He wrote a book on bird dog training (Wing and Shot) and lots of folks swore by Elhew dogs. I got the book )(in the 70s), read it, and thought that I had it all figured out. All you have to do is go buy a Elhew dog and you were set. According to the writings they almost broke them selves, would out point, out back, out find, out everything anything coming down the pike. You have to actually buy a dog from his kennel to put the Elhew name in front on your dogs pedigree. Example you could not name a dog Elhew Jake but could name it Murphy's Elhew Jake.

I found a rich guy in Dallas that had several dogs he bought from Whele. I bought one and my buddy bought one. In my opinion they are inbred and you will see that if you run one, hunt one, or judge one. Mine would do pretty good for about 30 minutes and then she was going back to the truck and you could not stop her. My buddies dog was below average at best. Lots of them that I trained and observed seemed to be weak minded. Put some pressure on them and they would come apart. Not really tough dogs.

A friend of Whele named Dr. Alvin Nitchman ran a lot of dogs with Elhew blood but they were not the inbred ones. He did pretty good and had several winning dogs such as the Pork Roll dog. I had some good dogs that had a little Elhew blood in them way back.

The guys that bad mouth the field trial dogs probably got sold a cull from a field trailer. They will tell them Jake is a great hunting dog but just not run enough to be a field trial dog. Heard that many times and it is a dog jockey line. I personally owned dogs that won open horseback stakes, amateur horseback stakes, walking stakes, shoot to retrieve stakes, calcuttas, and could be hunted from foot, horse, truck, or 4 wheeler. Don't think a champion field trial dog cannot be handled on foot because they can.

When I finally got with some folks that really had some great dogs I ran mostly Rebel bred dogs. They were just smarter, tougher, and above all handled very well.

I don't know much about coon dogs. I will take a field trial retriever every single time. They are all great hunting dogs. If you doubt me go to an open trial and just watch the tests they have to do. Unbelievable. Any lab will tear up your yard because they are supposed to be in a kennel.

The bird hunter guys that bad mouth field trial pointers just watched the culls that got pawned off on hunters. I owned field trial dogs that I could hunt any kind of way you wanted to hunt. More than likely it was a dog that would not handle a lick. You can win a trial with all kinds of dogs but not a lost dog. A bird hunter organization had a trial that was a Calcutta. You had to buy braces once the names were drawn. All this money went into a pot and was awarded according to placements 1-5. Some serious money was involved. It was kind of a phony deal because it was only 6 minutes long and the deal was kill as many birds as quick as possible. I entered twice and won every placement and they banned me. The bird hunters got their plow cleaned by the field trial dogs. Most guys putting the bad mouth on field trial dogs has NEVER even seen a real one.

Here is the deal on German Shorthairs. If they are as good as pointers why do they have restricted field trials. Same thing on Britts,  and Irish setters. I have seen exactly 1 GSP run in a horseback trial and it did not place. I saw one good one back in the 80s at a trial down around Waco.

The hunting camp on the King Ranch had 50 dogs that they owned @ 4,000.00 each. They had 35 dogs at the lease on the Jones ranch @ 4,000.00 each. My friend leased them another 35 dogs. We also had several field trial dogs and others that we were breaking and tuning up. The owners were oil men and money was no object.

All of the dogs were English Pointers with the exception of a hand full of English Setters. It takes a special dog to run in the heat day after day, in front of a truck,  and they are better at it than any other. That is just a proven fact. I don't think a GSP has ever even qualified to run in the National Championship (there is only one) much less won it. Same thing for Britts and if a Irish Setter ever done it  was a loooooooooooooooong time ago.

I have judged a few Irish Setters and ran in some of their trials. I ran in the open trial because all the others were restricted. To this day I have yet to EVER see any Irish Setter actually point a bird, hold it, and let you flush it. One friend of mine just loved them and wanted to bring the breed back. He spent enough money on them to buy a black land farm and if he ever won anything in open competition I never knew it.

There are a lot of GSPs up in South Dakota where I pheasant hunt. They seem to do well there and my guess is that they handle the cold weather better. I hunted them when hunting for Hungarian Partridges and they did OK. Not as fast as a pointer but got the job done.

We mainly use labs for pheasants with an occasional Springer Spaniel. They do an outstanding job and they are not the giant fat labs that you see around here. These dogs cover some ground when they hunt.

Hog Dog Mike, are the majority of good bird dogs heavily line bred or do most breeders breed best to best?

Some are and some are best to best. The only thing that I know for sure is if you make a definitive statement about a dog along will come an exception. I started in the 60s and really got onto it heavy in the 70s. I had to pay my bird dog dues in money, time, and miles.

When I first started I didn't really know anything but figured that field trailers were the ones that do. It is like everything else in that some do and some don't. The trailers I got some dogs from were the wrong ones and it set me back years. They had some dogs that were bred in the purple but were just not very good. I bought a dog off of one of them whose sire was a National Champion and the dam was a direct daughter of a National Champion. It  don't get any better than that but the dog was worthless and it cost me about 3 or 4 years trying to bring him around. The trailer kept telling me he needed more work. I hauled the dog miles and miles and worked him over pen birds, pigeons, and wild birds. Finally  I culled him.

I got with a sure enough trainer that knew more about dogs and horses than anybody I have ever seen in my life. He took me to northwestern Oklahoma where we worked dogs in the summer. Then I got to go to the King Ranch with him in south Texas in the winter. I spent hours and hours in the saddle watching dogs. I spent hours watching dogs in front of trucks on the King and listening to my friend tell me about dogs.

One trip shortly after that was to south Texas down around Crystal City. Lots of birds. No excuses there for any dog. When I got back I kept one dog that was 14 months old and culled the rest. I got a couple of pups off of my friend and acquired another female and shortly had 4 scorpions. No holes in any of them. Wound up getting two more dogs to give me 6 that could run with anything, anywhere, anytime. Once you know what you are looking for cull anything that does not cut the mustard. A cull will eat more and live FOREVER.

You got to watch the dog jockeys because they will ruin your program. They do their best work in a bar or coffee shop. Seems that always the great dogs are either dead or not there. I have to run the ones in my dog box.

It is the same situation with labs, hounds, or squirrel dogs too.

I am an old man and have bred a few hog dogs. I have bred lots of bird dogs and worked harder at it than most people do at jobs. One time I counted up the bird dogs I personally owned and quit when I got to 200.

Here is the deal and take it for what it is worth. Many hog dogs are not registered so it is hard to trace bloodlines. Bird dog men have been keeping track for well over 100 years. A registration certificate has 3 numbers under the dogs registration number. The first number is the number of wins that dog has, the 2nd is the number of winners that dog produced, and the 3rd number is the number of wins that the off spring had. Just because a dog has a great number of wins means nothing because some of them cannot produce winners. One group started keeping track of winners produced per times bred and that is the one to go with.

The American Field is a publication that comes out weekly and you can keep up with which dogs are running and winning. You can also which of their offspring are winning. Some of the articles depend on who is writing the article. Once I got to judging field trials I could  not wait to see some of the famous dogs actually run. What a shock for me. MY thought was this dog cannot possibly be the dog I read about.

Here is what I would do. The bird dog guys learned long ago that the horse guys had been doing it longer than they had. One of their secrets was a PRODUCING FEMALE. They are referred to as a blue hen. They can produce good dogs bred to any number of good males. One bitch named Hot Haunches produced 6 champions our of 6 different male dogs. She could just produce.

I would look for a producing female and I want to see the dogs with my eyes the dogs she produced. Breed her to a producing male and I want to see the dogs he produced with my eyes. Some guys tend to run the good females and not breed them which is a mistake. If you do that you will be way yonder ahead in the game.

I talked to a goose guide down on the coast when I was down there hunting with him. All he had was Hondas and I asked him about them. He said that they were the only thing that would stand up in the salt marsh.

I have only had one and I bought her as a grown dog. The guy that owned her did not take care of his dogs and she was real skinny. I wormed her real good and put some good high quality dog food in her and she started looking good. In fact some of the guys that had hunted with the previous owner did not even recognize the dog.

She was pretty gritty, a good strike dog, and a good bay dog. When I first got her she was starved so bad she would really jump on any dog that got close to her food. She got out of that later.

I kept her until she died and I really don't know how old she was but my guess was about 15.

I bought a Honda 300 Four Trax in 1997 and am still using it. Wouldn't even consider buying anything but a Honda.

When I was in the service I spent some time in Rota Spain. One morning I watched a boy throw a stick into the ocean down by the docks. His dog was a poodle and it would go down the steps on the sea wall, swim out to the stick, and bring it back to the boy. He did this numerous times and the dog never failed to retrieve.

I know a guy that had a field trial bird dog that kept getting disqualified because he would start fights with the dog he was braced with. AND he had laid the leather on him so much for that he would drop on point with the handler walked up to him.

Sooooooooooooooo, he and some buddies started their own field trial club and changed the rules a little. If a dog dropped on point it was not a disqualification because the dog was trying to hide from the birds and it showed supreme intelligence.

I still have the hand book because nobody would believe me when I told them about the BS rules.

I wish I was still in my 60s because I am 71. There is not alternative other than pushing up daises. Things just take a little longer than they used to.

Recently I had my right knee replaced because I was bone on bone. It came from a injury back in 73 to my knee.

I remember my cousins philosophy on life back in 1960. He said that if you could clear 100.00$ per week you had it made in the shade. He was right because a car note was just a little over 50.00$ and a 3 bedroom brick house note was about 85.00$ per month. I bought a Ford Ranger pickup (loaded) in 1972 for 3,652.00. I bought a Ranger bass boat in 1971 for 2,370.95. A Remington 700 BDL 7 mag was 106.00 in 1967 and a Remington 1100 3" mag was 115.00 in 1968. I bought a Ruger single 6 22 in 1962 for 62.00, a Springfield 1911 45 in 80 for 300.00, and a Cold Python in the early 80s for 300.00.

One of the things that I will never forget is when one of my friends came by the house in a 1958 Impala---this was in 1960 and it was like new. I couldn't believe it and asked him how much it cost and he told me 1,800.00. Then I asked him how much his notes were and he told me his dad paid cash for it. I took off running to the house and told my mother "you are not going to believe this--Mr. Clyde paid cash for Don's car". I was as surprised if WW3 started. I simply could not comprehend the idea that somebody had enough money to pay cash for a car.

I know it's not the same but does anybody know how to keep your males from peeing in their water?

Hang his water bucket by a wire. Make it high enough he cannot pee in it and low enough he can drink out of it.

I had a jag that would jump on anything breathing. Absolutely no fear of anything.

The last JRT that I hunted with was hilarious. The big dogs bayed real quick --even before we got his tracking color on him. They were something like 135 yards away from us. The JRT was going nuts and his owner turned him loose. We watched him on the tracking collar---60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120, 135, eeeeeeeeeeeeee. He attacked the hog like a pit catch dog.

Buy you some syrup of epicac. This is the stuff you used to be able to buy in the drug store. I think you will have to order it from Amazon now. Anyway put some on some peanuts and put it where the rat will get it. It will make them puke -----but rats cannot puke. Place some water outside and the rat will go to the water and it will kill him when he drinks it.

You used to give it to kids in case they eat something they should not have. It is safe around kids and pets but not rats.

Oh yeah, I forgot about this. Once Reagan had been in office about 3 years or maybe a little more the economy took off like a rocket. Interest rates dropped like a rock. I was able to refinance my house at a rate that was less than half what I was paying. AND, I was able to knock 10 years off of the time of the loan. It went from 30 years to 20 years. My monthly house payments dropped by over 200.00 per month.

Another thing that really chapped me about Carter was his wife Roselin (I think was her name). They go over to England and she bows to the queen. The queen can bow to her---we kicked their ass in 1776, 1812, saved them from the Germans in WW1 and WW2. His daughter Amy was so ugly I would have to hang a pork chop around my hog dog Rooster's neck to get him to play with her.

Prime interest rate was 23%. If you were going to buy a home you had to get a loan based on the T-Bills. Your interest rate could change every month. The going rate was about 13.5%. Owning a home was just a pipe dream for the majority of the population. I bought a home then and I have excellent credit, I put one third down, and 13.5% was the best I could get.

Waiting in line to buy gas was a giant pain in the ass. If you had an even tag number you could buy gas on even number days of the month. If you had an odd number they would not sell you any gas under penalty of law. Some would only sell you 10 gallons at a whack. You damn sure would not go hog hunting or anything else because of the fuel situation. It devastated our economy.

The Iran deal was what pissed my off the most. They stormed our embassy and took over 100 hostages. Jimmy tried to have the army rescue them but the helicopters crashed due to lack of maintenance. The rag heads kept those people in prison over a year. When Reagan took office they released the hostages before he got his hand off of the bible. I HATE Carter with a passion.