mez

I would like to know a little more about your dogs. The pics you post they are good looking dogs. How do they hunt, they " go yonder" dogs or do they stick close? Bark on track or silent till looking at the hog. Do you guys use catch dogs? I would guess those dogs are faily gritty and would catch. Suppose a lot depends on the personality of the individual though. Not seen any crossed like that and was just curious about them.

Rebel Hog

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.

mez

Thanks Rebel. I don't own any dogs but hunt just about every weekend with a group of guys that have dogs. I love it. They are all getting older so I get to catch and tie all the hogs. Works good for all of us. One of the guys is really into the bay pens and he only uses Catahoulas. They are good dogs but are really catchy so we have to be careful with them. When they are down itisn't uncommon to hear the squeal before you hear a bark, problem is they don't know the difference between a shoat and a bad boar. The rest of the dogs are a mix of Black Mouth's and hound blood. There is really an assortment of types of dog and it works well for us. We have the catchy dogs that we will ususlly keep in the box until we have a running shoat that won't bay or if we get into a bunch of sows and pigs we'll turn them in after the first bay. Have a few go yonder dogs that when you put them down you won't pick them up unless you can catch them crossing a road or they have a hog bayed. They usually get turned out mid day when the hogs are laid up. Have 2 dogs that are really good at winding the laid up hogs and three more that are really good at sorting out old tracks. We ususally put 4 bay dogs down at a time and lead in 2 bulldogs. The guys I hunt with usually bring 8-10 bay dogs each and 2-4 bulldogs each. Enough that we can keep rotating and hunt all day or all night if needed.
We don't get a lot of bay dogs cut up. We are pretty careful about what and when we turn loose. Like you said, alot of work and time go into a dog to get it stuck. We sew up the bulldogs occasionally, a hazard of their job. All of the bulldogs are pretty seasoned and we usually only get one cut if they miss the catch and the hog breaks and they catch it again before we are close enough to help right away. I'm a veterinarian and one of the fellows I hunt with is also a vet so the stitching up part isn't a big problem for us. We have lost 2 dogs to heat strokes, that seems to be a bigger problem for us than getting them cut up, especially the bull dogs with vests on.
I have yet to get cut. Had a sow bite my foot and ended up under a big boar hog but the dogs had good enough hold he couldn't do much to me except stomp all over me. One of my hunting buddies got his leg chewed on pretty good by a sow, she got him above the boot and wouldn't let go, had to use the breaking stick on her. One of them got tossed but no blood no fowl. Nothing has gone really bad since I have been hunting with them but oh do they have some stories. Great sport but not for the faint of heart.
I have hunted with a guy from around Tallahassee. You close to there? He is probably in his 60's, his first name is Edgar and I'll find out his last name for you. He is retired and drives all the way over here to hunt with us once in a while. He's friends and trades dogs with one of the guys I hunt with.

Rebel Hog

My first cousin and I have hadadjoining properties for the last 40yrs. He has the Biggest Veterinary Clinic in Tampa!

No, Tallahasee is about 4hrs from me, but that's the area I hunted for years. Can't say I know him.

mez

Does/did your cousin hunt with you or did you have to haul the dogs in to get fixed up? Kind of handy to know a vet with this hobby. Do you hunt anymore. I know you said you got rid of your dogs but do you still tag along? Do you guys follow on foot or use ATV's? As thick and wet as Florida is I would guess you walk a lot?

Rebel Hog

On foot, even thru the swamps!