mcduffie developed the "leopard cur" now known as the "leopard hound".
one of the foundation studs was supposedly half or one quarter aussie (or some type of merle farm shepard)...they were bred as tree and woods dogs.
they are completey different than the catahoula leopard curs of the south, those were dogs developed
in the same fashion with much the same genetic origen as the yellow black mouth dogs...
there is no doubt that mcduffie used some of the catahoula type leopards to develop his line of "leopard curs".
J. Richard McDuffie talked a lot about the farm Shepard. The way he described them I envisioned an Australian Shepard that wasn't of the show type that was bred for farm use and they could tree and hunt and watch over the farm. I read his articles for years and I don't remember him saying anything about breeding in any shepard but that doen't mean he didn't. I remember him talking about the farm shepard and it sounded to me that it was a small area where a few farmers kept these type of dogs. He liked what he saw in the farm shepard and was trying to help form a registry for these dogs.
He developed his own strain of leopard curs but I don't think he started the breed but was very involved in its development. I never saw any of his dogs but in the pics his dogs looked to be thick coated and thicker bodied leopard curs. I personally don't like those two traits in a strike dog but for whatever reason his best dogs looked that way.
