my theory back then was that so many of those dogs came from stock dogs that didn't need to prove that they had a nose and probably a dog that got out and hunted was culled...a stock dog that goes 1/2 mile on another ranchers property to bay cows was in danger of getting lead poisoning...
If I were a cowboy making a living just bunching up cows in open pastures and driving them to the corral I would probably like those dogs that stayed with me...several generations of breeding that type of dog and the nose and range would be bred out just because it is not needed or not a good quality for the type of work I was in...
nowadays, there are quite a bit of stock dogs that hunt...either they came from ranchers that needed a long range dog that went deep in the woods to find and drive a cow, or, they have been breeding dogs that are born with both qualities...
without knowing...I am willing to say that there had to be lots of culling in the stock dog breeds to find those that hunted, trailed, stuck with a runner until bayed when using stock dogs as hunting hogs...
There is allot of truth to what you said.
Hogs are livestock just like cattle. Stock dogs were always used on hogs its why they are called stock dogs not just cow dogs.
But, with regards to your last post that is quoted. Stock bred cur dogs that hunt, trail and stuck with the job until it was done were not produced from culling those that didn't do it. They have existed in that form from the get go. It is from a lack of culling that didn't do it that produced cur dogs that did not hunt, trail, or stick with the job. In order for a person to really understand, they have to know that Cur dogs were developed during the free range days when livestock was pastured on natural rangeland. Not the kind of small, clear pastures you think of today. To successfully gather livestock in those post oak and pine woods rangelands, it required a dog to hunt, trail, and stick with the job, and of course bay. That is the essence of what a cur dog is and the primary driving factor of why they were developed in the first place.
Like I said, it is the failure to cull which coms as a result of changing livestock rearing methods that created Cur dogs that lack in hunting and trailing abilities. No one has free range domestic hogs any more. Fewer and Fewer ranches use the methods, run the type of cows, or are large enough to seriously require the use of stock bred cur dogs in the way they were originally developed and used (which included hunting and trailing). The Cur dog is slowly becoming obsolete for use on domestic livestock in the United States. Many times on cattle they are used out of tradition or habit, or at best for the baying aspect which is only a part of the original purpose. There are still a few places and people who run cattle on remnants of rangeland and have cows that are on the far end of domestication. So there is still a small need for that kind of dog. But even that is fading fast. Regardless of the rarity, that is where you find the few that are left, the true old school cur dogs that have not lost their hunt to the barb wire fence and bull dozer. That or hog hunters. If you can find dogs that are used both ways. That is a win/win. Which brings me to another point. It is sad that land is so populated and fragmented but there is not much to do about that. It is lucky though that cur dogs have found a place in hog hunting. It is an almost identical use except for the fact that the livestock is feral and no longer domestic, a bit more wild, and hardly anyone claims ownership of them.
Of course there was a bit of a gap in the timeline from when the true "need" of a Cur dog existed on a large scale in animal agriculture, and when wild hog populations and hog hunting became wide spread. Allot of good old style Cur dog lines, that excelled at both hunting and baying, died during that timeline gap and its why they are hard to find now days. Many times, even those lines that were preserved for the most part, spent their days during that gap, working relatively gentle cattle in relatively open pastures and may have lost a step or two in regards to hunting because they simply were not tested hard enough in that regard to keep it going strong. They did not loosed the hunting, trailing instinct. It was just not quite as strong. When the guys that owned those dogs started hog hunting they realized they could used some of that hunt that they lost in their dogs over the years. It took culling and selective breeding to step it back up to where it was before. Some cur dog lines never made it back.
Now days, cur dogs are widely used in hog hunting where a Cur dogs hunting ability is frequently tested and easy to evaluate. But they face a different challenge. The stock working ability is often not full understood by the people using them. Even if it is understood it is harder to evaluate in a real world hog hunting situation where catch dogs are sent often times sent in from a distance and hogs rarely accept the presence of a human to watch the dog work, or they rarely bay up in a spot that even allows a man to see the work. That is compared to working on livestock that more readily accept the presence of a human and the work requires the stock to stay bunched, which allows a man to watch his dogs work and evaluate them.
Waylon
