Message #69784

[barlow]

I've read all the fairy tales.

Hanover Sweisshunds weren't even developed til 50 years after the Plott family's ancestor supposedly came over. Vaughn, John and Little George Plott all said the same thing . . . their family had no dogs prior to 1838 when a cousin came back from Arkansas with brindle cur dogs. Vaughn's and John's father Mont was a fox hunter and bred them heavily to July running hounds. Big George Plott was a breeder of registered Goodman fox hounds. The leopard colored dogs appearing in most of the old Plott family pictures were Goodmans. Herbert Plott (their cousin) said many times that the leopard color phase and the large doses of white on lots of early Plotts came from Goodmans. In the background of one of the most important crosses in Plott history is a dog that Vaughn registered as Trigg Plott. He was a Trigg Hound that Vaughn bought and put papers on. A famous reproducing bitch owned by Vaughn was named Bill's Belle . . . she was a Bluetick x bird dog cross. In the 1930's Vaughn and John bought 7 Airedales from a breeder in Ohio and bred a few of them into their dogs. I have photos of registered Plotts that have the Airedale whiskers. In 1937 Vaugh went along on a Mule deer hunt in New Mexico with baseball legend Branch Rickey. He brought back a Lacy pup.

They were mountain people who raised sheep and hunted for survival. They would have bred to a wiener dog if he would fight a bear.

Having said that . . . I've hunted with Plotts that were hot nosed, silent trailers and I've hunted with Plotts that were as slow as Bloodhounds. If you consider all the different hunters and how differently they use dogs . . . it is impossible to make a blanket statement about the characteristics of any breed.