My two huntin' dogs

[SWOSUMike]

I have shown you all photos of my male dog, Remington (the darker red one), and now here is a pic of him with my new female mountain cur, River Valley Bell (the blonde one). She is 4 months old in this pic and is already nearly the size of my 1.5 year old male! She is going to be big.She isnow about 5 and a half months old andthey are about the same size. They should both turn into some good squirrel and coon dogs. Rem even points qail. I turned Belle lose this evening with a friend's 9 month old blue tick and they mostly played. They are just pups but should turn out well. I like this pair because Remington is heavy Streak bred, for those that know the big names in mountain curs. Smith's Streak is in his pedigree quite frequently. And Belle's sire is a direct son of Streak and her mother is a granddaughter of Streak. If both these pups turn out how I like them and they hunt similarly with none of the same faults, I think they will make a good cross. I will wait a few seasons to tell. For now I will just enjoy hunting the hair off of them and they will enjoy it too.

[SWOSUMike]

One thing I like about these mountain curs is that they are eager to please and they pick up on things quick. I like that I can take ole' Rem out for a hunt and call him back to me when I want to go home. I don't have to drive to the next section and catch him like some guys with hounds do. Don't get me wrong I would own a hound but I prefer these curs. Are there any other treedog people on here or is it just me? Any squirrel dog guys?

[grizzly190]

I have a Heinz 57 varities dog and im trying to teach him to squirrel hunt. but this is the first dog ive trained and its going pretty slow any advice?

[SWOSUMike]

Well, your dog could very well turn out a squirrel dog. Trytrapping a squirrel(if legal in your state) andsee if the doghasany interest. If so, hoist it ina tree and see if the dog still has interest. Mighteven drag a hide once or twice but don't overdue it. Then itis justwoods time,but I will offer this advice since you asked. You can teach a lot of dogs to bark up a tree at a squirrel, but drive is a different story. A well-bred treedog not only barks its head off under a tree, but it also goes looking, hard, for a squirrel in whatever country you turn it lose in, using ears, eyes, nose and brains. This is harder to come by than a dog that will bark at a squirrel or track one in the yard.

The big thing needed for a dog to squirrel hunt is brains. If you think about it, pinpointing the exact tree that a squirrel is in is quite a task. We have all seen the way a squirrel will bounce off trees, run around and follow an unpredictable path. A dog that can pinpoint the squirrel flat out has brains.Seems I've heard that a lot of dogs will slick tree (or lie about where the game is) nowadays because the desire to tree overpowers the dog's ability to track a squirrel or use it's brain and eyes and ears to locate the squirrel instead of just its nose. I know my male dog has brains because you can often catch him just looking up in trees in the yard or wherever. He did this naturally atyoung age, but all the more since he's figured out that squirrels climb trees. It takes a smart dog to realize that and actually look for one up in trees even when they can't smell one. My female pup has not had the chance to figure this out yet.

The curs and feists are a great place to start if you want a squirrel dog. A cur will also make a great coon dog and combo dog (coon and squirrel), and some fiests probably would, too. A hound may tree squirrels fine, but they have a lot of nose and people I know of have said they are stubborn. I don't think anybody would disagree and some people like that about them.A lot of mountain cur hunters were once hound hunters but found they liked the ease of handling that comes with a cur. Doesn't mean a hound is bad at all, but I don't want one for the reasons stated. I would rather be able to watch my dog. A cur or feist is all the nose and dog you need for Mr. Bushytail.

Good luck to you.