Bulldogger, both you and Rueben have true statements. I have been around the Fla cur dogs myself for 50 years. A lot of them used to come what the old timers called "pieded" which was black and white or red and white. When the YBM cur became popular ( and started bringing top dollar) many people went to breeding for the yellow color. Some of the Fla dogs were that color to start with, but they came about every other color also. I had a litter that had 5 black & white pups in it and an old timer came and bought one and said lots of the old dogs looked like that. He was 82 years old and been in Fla his whole life. And that was about 15-17 years ago.
My original female that started me in the Fla curs, 6 generations of dogs ago, was a yellow bob tailed ringneck dog. They told me at that time she has both bird dog and ridgeback in her, but just a little of each. My only litter out of her ( she was about 10 when I got her) she produced 5 pups out of a litter of 10 that had ridgebacks, even though her nor the male had them. That was the only litter I have ever had with ridges, and even though I kept two females out of that litter, they never produced a ridgeback.
But ranchers don't use the curs like they used to. Just think it was in the 1950's before there were any fence laws in Fla. Until that point they had to have a dog that would hit the woods, find and bay cattle in palmettos, cypress, etc. Now most cattle are in open improved pastures and the dogs don't have to find them. There are exceptions, but most of the big places have been split up and divided and improved for beef production.
Anyway, starting to ramble so I will close. Don't know if you will be able to see it in the pic, but this is my old PJ dog, a littermate to Dixie's grandmother. She was a yellow ringenck 3/4 tail dog with a ridge. Thats Dixie in the pic with her.
