Yeller…a Hog Dog

[Reuben]

T-Dog...I'll do my part in helping you tame the crickets...

I bought Yeller’s dam, Dragon Lady as a pup along with several of her siblings. Smoke was the best of the male pups. He made an outstanding strike dog about as good as a hunting dog gets so I thought…
I bred Dragon Lady to a well-known brindle cur from around this area out of black mouth curs but it so happened he was a dark brindle…the reason for using this stud dog was simple enough. I wanted more size and a quieter mouth…the mt curs had lots of hunt and bottom, at 10 months they could run all day and most of the night and didn’t mind hitting the water…the first time I took them out they were exciting to watch swimming in the marsh checking out the salt grass patches for game…
Once Dragon Lady’s pups were born I started testing them and about at 6 or 7 weeks of age, I started running drags for them in the back yard…Yeller would lead the pack when running the track…at about 9 or 10 weeks I ran a “J” track and then doubled back and cut across to a five-gallon bucket, set the drag in the bucket, and turned the pups loose…as usual Yeller led the pack, he made the big “J” and doubled back and cut across to the bucket and stood up on his hind legs and was looking in the bucket at the drag…that about blew my mind…
Yeller was a laid-back kind of pup most of the time but would play hard at times with his siblings. I took him hunting when he was around 4 months of age, maybe a little younger…I cut the dogs loose and set Yeller down expecting him to follow us along…my brother and I walked about a hundred yards and I looked for Yeller before we got too far from the truck…he wasn’t with us so I told my brother to wait while I went back and got Yeller…about that time I heard a splashing from the slough up ahead, I shined the light and it was Yeller running back from making a lap…running with his head up and looking from side to side…well my adrenaline went to pumping is all I’m going to say about that…from that day forward that pup was unbelievable…at times when 10 months of age Yeller would out strike Smoke whom we thought was unbeatable…at a year old or so Yeller was in a league of his own…
Yeller and Smoke competed hard against each other…I gave Smoke to my brother on account that he needed a good strike dog, but it seemed I still owned Smoke because Greg and I hunted together quite a bit.
A quick example of a difference between Yeller and Smoke…we came across where a bunch of hogs were feeding on acorns and pecans…probably a large area as the hogs will spread out…Smoke hit the feeding area and opened a few times as he searched for the exit tracks…Yeller had the inclination to make a wide loop and was on the exit tracks in about a minute…he just knew how to find the hot end…
The things that impressed me the most about Yeller were between the ages of 8 weeks to 6 months…I thought a pup shouldn’t be able to do what he could do in that time frame of a puppy's life…
I’ve had at least 5 or 6 dogs as good and better than Smoke but none Like Yeller…Yeller was in a league of his own…Yeller was my once-in-a-lifetime dog…I thank God for allowing me to have him…he taught me what the greatness of a once-in-a-lifetime hunting dog can be…
Even after the years went by, I was having trouble describing or defining the difference between Yeller and the above-average dogs I mentioned…because these other dogs are pretty phenomenal at times and do a good job each time they are cut loose…
One day the answer occurred to me and it was very simple…it’s the brain…brainpower is what sets a once-in-a-lifetime dog apart from the rest…Yeller also had a colder nose from what I could see…and that colder nose helped him to respond when needed…in his older years, I saw how he used his nose to get first strike…we cut the dogs loose and he would make a big lap…if he came back you can bet no hogs in the area…covering lots of ground and dogs are hunting well…all of a sudden Yeller leaves out because he is smelling hog the other dogs aren’t smelling…by the time the other dogs are picking up on the scent Yeller is looking at the hogs and baying…brains, nose and the natural ability to find came easy to him…

[t-dog]

Sounds like he had the main ingredient and that’s want to. I’ve had dogs that I know had good noses, I know they were smart, and they had athletic ability to spare, but it didn’t matter because they lacked want to. I sometimes think those dogs with that really deep want to get it done because they are more focused and try harder. Some dogs can smell the same track but they don’t want it bad enough to grind. A dog can be built a little poor and if they have that want to and then brain power as well, they are gonna be hard to beat to a hog. I think even more so in the quiet trailing dogs. Obviously the dogs that open on track tell it that they are smelling which draws the pack to them, where as the silent dog is able to get out away from the others without them realizing it. Your Yeller dog sounds like he was a really fun dog. One thing I’ve noticed about the great strike dogs is that they don’t just hunt. They know where to hunt. I’ve had some real good dogs but my once in a lifetime dog had this quality. He’s what all my dogs go back to. When you cast him, he was using the wind to his advantage and he knew to hunt water. If it was a place with few water sources then he used the wind and would be in bedding areas. It was like he had a hogs brain and just understood them. He knew from birth that hogs were his calling. I’ve seen him hit an area like you spoke of where it was rooted up. We intentionally cast the other dogs so that they had an opportunity to locate instead of going to him. After they worked it for a few minutes I cut him out and without hesitation, he ran right through the middle of it and never dropped his head. He went right out the back side and in about 200 yards was bayed on a small sounder. He knew which tool to use in every scenario. Some dogs hunt hard and some dogs know where to hunt. That’s a difference maker.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Reuben]

I agree T-dog…