Wmwendler, okay, I am a plott man but have a good cur dog. I can see your point if you have some jam up curs, a few people I know have them also. I also belong to a couple of other sites and I found this post....what do you think this post made on another sirte?
"my experience. Just got back from a marsh hunt in louisiana. Long story short, river was way up, marsh bad soft and flooded, but i walked after 2 of my reg blackmouth curs 1 mile in to this crap along with a friends curs and 2 plotts. Literally we were just pushing pigs from island to island. I turned around and went bk to the boats,dogs in tow. All peoples dogs were in the boats,except 4 dogs. My 2 male bmcs, who never know what quit means, and they will run and catch a 250lb hog rt on the ear, and big marley my biggest bmc male never lets go until ive stuck the hog. But what amazed me, was XXXXXXXXs 2 young plotts. hell, they couldnt have been more than a yr old and both were doin everything they could to cross that marsh, and get to them pigs!. Btw, the day b4 i got down there, XXXXXXX hunted opening day with the plotts and 1 cur, they got 15 hogs in only several hrs of hunting. Im gonna say the plott may be the most versatile dog on the planet, but i like my curs too".
I like to hear a bmc cur man say that plotts may be the most versatile dog in the planet. And for those of you that thing open mouth dogs cant catch more than one hog in a day, I think you might be wrong.
Honestly.....here is what I think about that post. If he is bragging that his dog Cur dog will run and catch a 250 lb boar and never let go and he actually wants his dogs to do that, then....... #1: From the start, I would question his judgement and experience level if he honestly thinks that is a good thing. It may sound cool, but anyone who has done this very long knows that dogs that don't quit can get out of pocket real quick and that is not practical for one to be caught on a hog that size for very long. #2 Cur dogs are not catch dogs. If he means that his cur dogs are initiating a catch which is how I took it then he is hunting with Curs that are in my opinion culls. Sure some people have curs that do it and want them to. But..... Cur dogs are not bred for catching they were and are bred to locate and gather up free range livestock. To the point......In my opinion, he's got poor judgement of dogs and from what little I have to go by lacks experience with hog hunting and livestock in general. I would not take anything he said seriously.
.......Finally this thread is generating the discussion I was looking for
I do know that hounds can make good hogs dogs. I have hunted behind good ones as an adult and a child. My dad hunted with them when I was a kid. But, I just do not prefer them and I honestly think Cur dogs are far better suited for hog hunting than hounds. Here's why: First and foremost because thats what they were created for ~150 years ago. 2nd.....Cur dogs are silent on track. Yes you can bay hogs with open dogs but it is not the ideal. There is no need to give the hogs a heads up that dogs are coming before they even get there. The hogs WILL start to leave when they hear that coming if they know anything about dogs. In todays world with the ammount of hog hunters around its hard to find hogs that are not educated. 3rd......Hounds do not have the livestock working instinct that
good Cur dogs have. Hogs, no matter how wild they get, will always be livestock and they will always behave like livestock. A dog with stock working instinct is a definate advantage. 4th.....Curs have a more effecient hunting style. They hunt for you not for themselves. There is an understanding that they are there to work with you that I personally have never seen in a hound. When I unload my cur dogs from the truck, they wait for me to choose a direction and then they hunt out roughly in that direction. I much prefer this over a dog that leaves out hunting in which ever random direction from the get go. Thier hunting track follows where I travel. Now they make their loops, hunting out, which is all on them to choose which way but they loop back in and the general direction that we move in is based off of which way I am traveling. I Know the areas. I know where the hogs bed down. I know where the hogs are hanging from scouting or info from the landowner. I can put them close enough to find sign they will take and put hogs at the end of it. I can do that faster than I could by takeing a hound and randomly casting them on cold sign. Thats what I mean by more effectient. 5th... there are those traits that are almost intagible, which I will touch on a little atleast for now. Things like being aware of multiple hogs and baying them togther on purpose. I say on purpose becuase It can happen occasionaly by accident with any dogs but a good cur dog with do it on purpose and more often. That goes back to the livestock working instinct. Rolling out on the other hogs after you shoot or catch one from the bay. Being conscious of what thier doing when it comes to multiple hogs and trying to locate the bunch to keep them stopped and together rather than just blindly running the first track they come across. Those are traits that you find in good cur dogs and why in my opinion they are better suited for hog hunting by a long shot than hounds.
Waylon
