mez, the first Catahoula's we got, we got from Arkansas back in 1964. We started crossing with Rhodesian Ridge Back and Pit Bull. About 16 weeks old we started training the pups with hog skins.At 24wks, we start them in the ring with small hogs. Until we are sure the dogs can handle a hog, we don't take them to the woods.Other than that, just the basic dog obediencetraining.
You have to love the sport to invest many hours of work and training and it might get killed on it'sfirst outing. Wenever lost one, but many did get cut up pretty bad. We always carried a first aid kit in the truckandstitching sucher and needles on us. Even I have gotten cutbefore and I have done my own doctoring and stitching myself.
Yes you're right, there are some dogs that no matter what the blood lines are, they will only make good pets and don't have that hunting interest in them or are hog shy (no courage). I had manyover the years that my son and his friends treated as pets when I was trying to train them and they became pets.When I trained them, I did not want anyone messing with the dogs untill they hadthe taste of hog hunting in the woods. The dogs only understood Spanglish and Itanglish!We always took at least 4 to 5 dogs each. Trail, Bay and Catch.
I quitdog hog hunting in 2000 and gave my6dogs to my partner, due to health reasons. I'm 66 and my partner is 71 and still runs dogs. He has around 20 dogs.He gets $200 for a 10wk old pup. He is from Palm River and I'm in Lutz, about 30miles apart. Eveyone in this county knows Jerry Valdes and me.