Nose and Bottom

I hunt with curs and hounds. My Dad breeds the yella dogs. I've picked up hounds from different places. All the curs and hounds that we are feeding will either "hog" or go to heaven. I'm not saying we have the best, but they are sound, functional dogs.

I lean towards the hounds, and my Dad keeps strictly curs. We hunt together often, so you can imagine the kind of friendly BS that goes on while we are together. These comparisons really aren't fair because these strains of dogs were developed for different things, but these are some of our observations.

Hounds can take a colder track.
Hounds generally open on track to some degree
Hounds work better if put on a single track at a road crossing

Curs generally don't have as cold a nose (notice I said generally)
Mosts curs are silent
Curs have a natural circling bay that holds hogs better
As a rule curs can pursue jumped game at a faster pace than hounds

I know these are general statements, and I'm talking about dogs out of proven hunting stock(hounds and curs). I have seen some curs with outstanding noses, and have seen hounds that can run in a "heads up" drifting race with curs.

As a rule, if the hogs are close to where we put the dogs down, Dad's dog strike. If the hogs have fed early in the night and moved a half a mile, my dogs trail close to it and the curs take over the race when the hog is jumped.

Dad is feeding ten dogs and I have five, but we both agree that the best two of the fifteen is one of his cur gyps and one of my Plotts. They both can be used for certain hunting scenarios, but they make a heck of a team when you hunt them together.

We have 8 littermate half breed pups scattered throughout our circle of hunting friends that are 11 months old, several of which have found their own hog. Maybe we can have the best of both worlds.

BTW, I don't think it takes a super fast dog to make a good dog. Folks that have hunted long have seen the old dog supposedly get smoked by the pups, only to pick up young dogs all over the country and find the old dog bayed, five hours later.(Just food for thought)