Waylon, I am gonna back you up on this fight I have seen and have had dogs that are excellent at both cows and hogs, but I have no cows and no need to run cow dogs,so I choose to break them off of cows, but as said by my long time friend above ybm his line of dogs have a passion to except both rolls as hog dogs or cow dogs or both but we choose to break them off of cows, I have also seen this line of dogs not look twice at a cow and be eaten up with baying hogs, as alot of you no my line of dogs came from Myles ( yellow black mask ) and I am a strong believer in his line because it has been and does prove its self.
All I am saying is that waylon in my books is right with the right line of dog you can do all.
And to reuben I don't no how much cow hunting you have done but around here we have guys that get payed good money to go find wild or stray cows and trust me thay have grate dogs that go along way through some rough stuff and the dogs do not quit because the going gets tough. And thay also go into thick brush and brier patches even ponds (or tanks to some people ) and trust me a long horn cow that has turned wild and is 900 lbs and ain't seen anyone in a year or ever can be very deadly.
And to ybm I would cull before I sold one knowing it was not gonna be a dog and if I couldn't get one broken off cows yes would let it go for a cow dog. But I cull if there on my yard and don't work a hog im not in the cow dog businesses.
First I will say that I do not know much about cow dogs but have heard alot about the cow dogs you are talking about. Where I am from we do not need the kind of dogs you are talking about. I am sure we have places around here that need that kind of cow dog but I would venture to say it would not be very often. The majority of cow dogs around here are to gather up cows in a open pasture and then herd and guide them to a corral. But for sure I am no expert on on cow dog work but have made some observations and assumptions(Key Word
). I do know there are some big ranches in west, south, and Central Texas and even east Texas where I can see needing the type of cow dog you are talking about. There is no doubt in my mind that that type of cow dog would make a hog dog...
And for Waylon, I commend you in that you are trying to breed the ultimate BMC. Yes you are right in that you have to be hard nosed about culling and you must have a clear goal as to what you will breed and select for. Otherwise, you would be pi!!ing in the dark.
Starting out with the best possible dogs is very important as well as selecting correctly from the pups.
The bottom line is that yes you can breed a dog that is all around but I would breed for hogs first and cows second or vise versa. It just depends on if I were primarily working cows or just hog hunting.
I do know that Randy Wright breeds for the all around dog. If everyone who buys his line of dogs followed his methods then the majority of those Ben dogs would be top all around dogs. The problem is that when someone gets a pup that is a cull they breed it because it is a ben bred dog and they will get there money back and then some, thus, there goes the line of dogs that Randy has culled hard for.
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