Message #299677

[bulldogger]

I'll add my 2 cents and it may not be worth that.  I am from Texas but lived in Floriday in the early 2000's.  I was lucky enough to get invited with a couple buddies to go on a hunt with some great people that own one of the largest cattle operations in Florida for over 100 years.  He was a great guy and family were as nice as can be.  They took us hog hunting with two of their currs.  Only had the female on ground with her son in truck for backup.  He was never needed.  We all killed pigs that day and was very impressed with the abilty of the cur.  I asked about the cur and he said it had been in his family for generations and bred for cattle and hogs.  He has other ranching friends that he still breeds dogs with.  I asked about where they originated and he said about 100 years ago they would add in what was needed to continually make good dogs.  He said the three main dogs used 100 years ago were: Redbone, German Shorthair and Rhodesian ridgeback.  He said each brought something to table and they breed a little more or less in until they got what they wanted and bred pretty true.  H said he was told this by his grandfather.  I was surprised that there was Rhidgeback in Florida 100 years ago and he was positive there was because of what old timers told him. Take it for what it is worth but this guy had no reason to lie and had pictures that were very old and still had tons of land and is very well respected.  His biggest issues was poachers on his land.  When we hunted with him he had a shattered leg from flipping his airboat chasing poachers at night on one of his properties that always gets poached.  The cur dog would stop any smaller hog and a cowboy was following that dog on a horse and we followed in a jeep.  We would get close and line up shot with finger off of trigger.  He would say bay, bay and dog would back up and he would say take your shot and it would be doen deal.