hogdog history question

[djhogdogger]

Please correct me if i am wrong....but its my understanding that a hundred years ago, they didn't use catch dogs. They would use a few bay dogs to herd the hogs into a catchpen to be worked and earmarked. Any dog that would "chew" on a hog (as they called it) would be harshly corrected or culled. So i am wondering when all of that stopped and the catch dog was introduced. I guess thats when rough bay dogs were introduced as being tollerated as well.

[chainrated]

dj, I think you are correct for the most part.. I'm sure not everybody did it the same ,just as it is today, but most of the stories I hear are about like you described.. I think the rougher dogs were introduced when hogs started running..

[matt_aggie04]

dj, I think you are correct for the most part.. I'm sure not everybody did it the same ,just as it is today, but most of the stories I hear are about like you described.. I think the rougher dogs were introduced when hogs started running..

chicken or the egg  ....

[djhogdogger]

 That is an age old dispute i think....what came first?...The runners or the cd's?  Did they bring in cd's to catch runners or did the runners start up when dogs were allowed to put their teeth on a hog?  hmmmmmm

[sfboarbuster]

Why does everything have to be about runners?

[djhogdogger]

Because they really tick people off!     But this post is more about the introduction of catch dogs.

[hogzilla24]

i have heard stories from older men of using pitts and pitt X's to catch wild or crazy cattle back in tha day when thats what they did but they also used them with their cur dogs. i got no proof only an assumption but i think some of those men may have ACCIDENTLY started catching hogs and may have thought it might have been easier to work and mark the hogs this way. like i said i dont know that i just figured some of it may have started that way.

[machine73]

I've read of large Mastiff type dogs being used by the Romans to catch boar. So the use of "catch" dogs is ancient. The use of dog and knife... spear what have you... predates firearm technology by a hoop.

I am only guessing here, but early settlers to East TX probably couldn't afford to keep a single purpose catch dog around. All their dogs probably had to serve multiple roles. With working stock probably being the most important. I'm purely speculating but I'd bet a bulldog just didn't suit their lifestyle at that time. Even if I am right on that I am also sure there were probably exceptions.

I don't know, maybe I'm just full of Congress.

Sean

[cward]

I used and work with guys that NEVER had a catch dog!!All the dogs caught on comand!!If they had a bad hog bayed these guys would ride in on there horse and stand in the saddle and jump on the hog this would make the cur dogs help!!  I was introduced to a catch dog in 1996 a pit named lacy she had 3 legs but could run!! I started useing one because of the clear cut thickets that were so thick you could not see and the curs could not work the way they needed I have had a catch dog ever since!!If I get in the right place I still like to do it with just the curs and still try to teach them to catch on command!!! I still like my dogs to back up and not be rough!!!

[Rockin-P-Ranch]

I dont know when the pit catch dog was added to the mix on catching hogs for sure. But as a kid will say this we did not have one. The cur dogs that where used where just like Cward has talked about. They would hold one or 50 till you got there. We shot the ones we wanted then called the dogs off and left to go pen the cows. With the same dogs. I know this does not answer your question DJ cause I do not know to be sure.

[bolo]

i'm 62 yrs old & started hog hunting as soon as i was big enough to go(had to ride behind my daddy on his horse). the woods were much more open then & we usually hunted 1 dog. when you bayed hogs,you whould ride up & look the hogs over to see if the hogs had your ear mark on them. if not your hogs, you would call the dog off & go on. if the hog had our mark, dad would catch & mark any & all  that weren't marked.he would do this with a rope on larger hogs or a piging string on pigs & shoats.he always had a sack of corn on his saddle & would always throw the hogs  a few ears of corn before he called the dog off & rode on. he cut & marked every boar he found, either roping it or making his bay dog catch it.a dog that caught a hog before he was toid to do so was not tolerated. you could bay up a few hogs & you would see other hogs coming TO THE BAY! nowdays when i bay the woods are so thick you usually can't even see what you have bayed so you send a catchdog in.my point being:in the old days hogs weren't chewed  on by the dogs and nowdays they know they are  going to get eat up if they can't out run the dogs. i still cut & mark & hunt with with bay dogs, not with rough dogs.i stop a lot of hogs that will stand and bay & rally.still have to catch with bulldog most of the time because woods are so thick you can't see what you have have bayed.  just one old mans opinion.

[bigo]

My Grandfathers family ran stock on open range in the Big Thicket from the 1850's untill they closed it in the 1950's. I can remember the open range but was too young to get in on the work. From the stories I was told, they marked hogs year round, just like bolo described. They pened them in the fall after they fattened on the mast crop. Some were picked out to butcher and some to drive to market. Some of these drives would take two or three days. I think people started using catch dogs after all the hogs were gathered and all that was left was the wild and spoilt hogs.

[skoalbandett]

Good Post Mr. Bolo...

Hey BigO… Bolo is from Boyce La.. Wonder if he every fought a chicken at the pit in Boyce back in the day, If I remember right Archie took us down there a few times and I think that is where I sort of kicked that man’s chicken  tryin to leave the pit.. 
 

[Rockin-P-Ranch]

Skoal I went there as a kid with one of my uncles years ago. Had some game cocks up to about 5 years ago.

[Mike]

Bolo, that's how my kinfolks did it out of Winnfield, LA. for generations. I can remember back in school in the 80's spending summer vactions up there listening to all the old timer's stories. I guess about that time, they did away with the range laws and it was open season on hogs. They all used big, block headed catahoulas... "cur dogs" as they all called them. Them dogs gathered hogs and they used them to coon and squirrel hunt also.

[skoalbandett]

Skoal I went there as a kid with one of my uncles years ago. Had some game roosters up to about 5 years ago.

That was some place to go if  you wern't a Cajun at least till they got to know ya.  .. BigO and I are brother in laws, we use to  raise and fight some chickens back in the 70's and 80's. .. We  have a good friend  named Archie Dore from Natchitoches  La. He  owned the pit in Coushatta back in those days. We were friends and partnered up with him once in a while, he introduced us to Boyce.. Archie is his 70's now, we still hunt and visit together. He is probably the best dog man I ever knew.. He's a coon hunter and a walker dog man. Won about everything a man can win with them including breeder of the year.
Little story about that kickin deal.. Lucky we didnt start a battle royal down there that day.. These two fellers just pitted a couple rooster and one of them top knotted chickens got poked and dunhill. As he came by me  on his way out of the pit, I droped kicked the rooster back into the pit... BAD MOVE, LOL   I just figured if it was my rooster I wouldnt care if they shot him on the way out..  But that cajun said.. hey, that dude will figure out he's in a fight in a minute and put a hellicopter move on that other rooster.. hahahah  All I could say that day, thank goodness we were with a cajun who vouched for us or we'd been fighting our way out of there.. 
Down the road in time, even the old boy who's chicken I kicked loved to tell the story and laff about it..   

[cajunl]

Sad the days of messing around with rosters is/has coming to an end!

[Cajunjag]

The post brings back a lot of memories!!!! I am 42y/o, born and raised in south LA all my life. I can remember the days as a kid with my grandpaw- race horses, fighting roosters, and good whiskey! I try to explain to my kids the things we used to do, and they look at me like I am crazy!

Now we chase wild pigs in the marsh in airboats, when we used to do it on horseback. Never had a catch dog back then, just a rope. If it was a sow for butcher, or boar that needed to be cut, we used a rope and the bay dogs caught as soon as the rope hit the pig w/o telling them a word. If it was a barr hog, we would call them off w/o even dismounting and move on to the next one. Funny thing was we used the same dogs for everything, hogs, cows, barn yard protection, varmit control, etc.etc.......And they seemed to know exactly what we had planned for the day within minutes of leaving the barn. How was that possible?? We never went work cows and had a dog chase a pig, or vice versa! Those dogs were never on a cahin, just hung out around the back of the house and barn. When my grandparents were home they would bark if someone arrived, until the people were greeted, then they shut up and never went past the fence. If no one was home, you best stay in your vehicle because they would eat you up! And I can't remember them getting any formal training from my grandfather. Weird, they just knew.

[cward]

The post brings back a lot of memories!!!! I am 42y/o, born and raised in south LA all my life. I can remember the days as a kid with my grandpaw- race horses, fighting roosters, and good whiskey! I try to explain to my kids the things we used to do, and they look at me like I am crazy!

Now we chase wild pigs in the marsh in airboats, when we used to do it on horseback. Never had a catch dog back then, just a rope. If it was a sow for butcher, or boar that needed to be cut, we used a rope and the bay dogs caught as soon as the rope hit the pig w/o telling them a word. If it was a barr hog, we would call them off w/o even dismounting and move on to the next one. Funny thing was we used the same dogs for everything, hogs, cows, barn yard protection, varmit control, etc.etc.......And they seemed to know exactly what we had planned for the day within minutes of leaving the barn. How was that possible?? We never went work cows and had a dog chase a pig, or vice versa! Those dogs were never on a cahin, just hung out around the back of the house and barn. When my grandparents were home they would bark if someone arrived, until the people were greeted, then they shut up and never went past the fence. If no one was home, you best stay in your vehicle because they would eat you up! And I can't remember them getting any formal training from my grandfather. Weird, they just knew.

Yes Sir!!!!!!!

[djhogdogger]

Thanks guys, this thread is full of more information that i could have ever hoped for. I really enjoyed to stories of past.