Hey Reuben. Mt cur question.

CDunn,

I saw your post a while back and I was going to reply and decided not to do so until I got home so I could get on the computer...then I forgot all about it which at my age is not hard to do...

I am not an expert on the mt cur but the good ones are hard to beat...most require very little training...they are so gamey that you don't want to just turn them loose at first until they have run a few hogs...otherwise they will be trashing quite a bit on you...first put them in a bay pen to bay a few...then turn them in to a race or a bay...or turn them out in some fresh sign once they know what a pig is...if not they will run everything including deer...when I raised them I broke them off of deer before they hit the woods...some can be extremely long range with lots of bottom...

the problem with some of the mt curs is that they are bred smaller with the shorter ears and look more like a fiest dog...I like them to look more like a cur hound cross which some purebreds have that look and are about 45 to 60 pounds...mt curs tend to be gritty as well...

The longer hair in the mt cur is fairly common...it is found in the OMCBA dogs as well as the KSBA because the Kemmers who broke away from the OMCBA at the beginning stages, had the foundation dogs in common foundation dogs in common...and a few of those foundation dogs had that longer hair...I believe it is in the standard as acceptable hair length but the majority are slick coated dogs...I made sure that when I first started out that it was with slick coated dogs on account that is what I liked...that gene can be bred out pretty quick on account it is a recessive...just breed to a short coated dog...

The idea behind that "LAB" coat is that it protects them from the briars while in the thickets...these dogs will get in the thickest of thickets to bay their game...but I think more about the possibility of overheating and don't really care much about the few thorns the dogs will be dealing with...the lack of under coat or too short of coat can be a problem in the cold weather...it usually happens with those rare coats of blue or palomino gold colored/coated dogs.

the coat and size of the dog can be fixed pretty quick with breeding to a good line of hound or cur dog and retain those pups that have all the right traits and then breed those back to the mt cur...

I mentioned lab coat but some actually come with slightly longer or thicker coat than that as well...hope this helps you...let us know how they turn out...