hunting dogs

[TexasHogDogs]

Its all about stacking the odd's man .  Then its all about stacking the gene pools to help your odd's.  There is no garentee on anything you just stack it and play the cards .  If you get a Royal Flush and you got three of a kind which hand are you going to play ?  Thats right the Royal Flush same with the dogs !

[KevinN]

if you have to cull  alot to start with you have a long long ways to go with a  very  big maybe attached to get to a consistancey.....  90% of breedings are bred on looks .....only way to get away with breeding that way is to have extremely line bred dogs to start with ....

Mr. Parker.....I have a question and by no means do I want it to sound argumentative or any thing along those lines. It's just a question and you've got a lot of knowledge so I would like your opinion.

I KNOW the best way to produce quality hunting dogs on a regular basis and in a short amount of time is breeding best to best and if you have a good line going then line breeding is the way to go.

My question is this:
Do you think all hunting breeds were started by the above mentioned method and the way they turned out (color and confirmation) was just a by product of the way they were bred, just luck of the draw perhaps? Or did they get bred in the above methods but at the same time considerations were taken and breeding partners were chosen not just concerning abilities but color/confirmation as well?

[T-Bob Parker]

I can't answer for Larry Parker, but I will answer for Terry Parker, 
Plain and simple, form follows function.

  Breed to the highest standards you are willing to keep and don't let pretty cloud your mind and after a long enough period of time, form follows function.

Let's say my English and Irish peasant forefathers needed dogs that were silent, super fast and all bidness in order to aid in the survival of their families by way of catching rabbits and other small table fare that could be quickly aquired, skinned prepared and eaten. This was the case becuase in the feudal system all game belonged to the nobility and poaching was highly frowned upon.
Now, knowing what he needs his dogs to be capable of and knowing which dogs in the lords lands are the best coursers, it would make since that he and his fellow peasants were breeding best to best and eventually a certain conformation came about.

What if the men of old really really liked the look of the big fat blue bullies of today back then and decided to try to make their dogs achieve that look? Would they still have churned out the greatest high speed Poaching dogs the world has ever seen? Or would they have been sitting there spinning their wheels and not getting anywhere because no matter how much you want it to, function doesn't follow form. Form follows function.

Bob Owens says Pretty is as Pretty does, once you understand what that old timer means by that phrase, all this nonsense becomes common sence.

[T-Bob Parker]

Heck I'll go you one deeper, catahoulas. (yes, mass produced blackmouths too in my opinion, but let's stick to an easy one)

I'd bet ya 20 years ago you could have picked 10 different guys who kept and worked cats, grabbed a pair of pups from each of them and two years later you'd have 6-10 pretty decent hog dogs.

Then the catahoula craze came about and everyone started breeding for form and in reality were breeding dogs who were pretty and better behaved yard pets, because what non hunting breeder wants a terribly behaved dog who's always digging out and killing the neighbors kitties?
Those crap dogs that got produced still made their way into the hands of hunters who didn't know there was better to be had. (like myself 10 years ago)

Fast forward to now and you get a pair of pups from the first ten litters you come across and two years from now you may have a dog or two who gets it done.

Breeding dogs is super duper easy, breeding perfomamce dogs, not so much.









And to the original fella, there are some things you can train into a dog, like sit stay and what animal you want them to hunt, but you can't train hunt, nose, bottom, speed or intelligence. Disagree, that's fine, but it is what it is and when a fello figures that out he's finally at the starting line.

[justincorbell]

Heck I'll go you one deeper, catahoulas. (yes, mass produced blackmouths too in my opinion, but let's stick to an easy one)

I'd bet ya 20 years ago you could have picked 10 different guys who kept and worked cats, grabbed a pair of pups from each of them and two years later you'd have 6-10 pretty decent hog dogs.

Then the catahoula craze came about and everyone started breeding for form and in reality were breeding dogs who were pretty and better behaved yard pets, because what non hunting breeder wants a terribly behaved dog who's always digging out and killing the neighbors kitties?
Those crap dogs that got produced still made their way into the hands of hunters who didn't know there was better to be had. (like myself 10 years ago)

Fast forward to now and you get a pair of pups from the first ten litters you come across and two years from now you may have a dog or two who gets it done.

Breeding dogs is super duper easy, breeding perfomamce dogs, not so much.









And to the original fella, there are some things you can train into a dog, like sit stay and what animal you want them to hunt, but you can't train hunt, nose, bottom, speed or intelligence. Disagree, that's fine, but it is what it is and when a fello figures that out he's finally at the starting line.

I agree with you 100% Terry, very well stated.

[parker]

 i'd say 70 % is bred on looks  ....

[t.wilbanks]

I can't answer for Larry Parker, but I will answer for Terry Parker, 
Plain and simple, form follows function.

  Breed to the highest standards you are willing to keep and don't let pretty cloud your mind and after a long enough period of time, form follows function.

Let's say my English and Irish peasant forefathers needed dogs that were silent, super fast and all bidness in order to aid in the survival of their families by way of catching rabbits and other small table fare that could be quickly aquired, skinned prepared and eaten. This was the case becuase in the feudal system all game belonged to the nobility and poaching was highly frowned upon.
Now, knowing what he needs his dogs to be capable of and knowing which dogs in the lords lands are the best coursers, it would make since that he and his fellow peasants were breeding best to best and eventually a certain conformation came about.

What if the men of old really really liked the look of the big fat blue bullies of today back then and decided to try to make their dogs achieve that look? Would they still have churned out the greatest high speed Poaching dogs the world has ever seen? Or would they have been sitting there spinning their wheels and not getting anywhere because no matter how much you want it to, function doesn't follow form. Form follows function.

Bob Owens says Pretty is as Pretty does, once you understand what that old timer means by that phrase, all this nonsense becomes common sence.