I had posted this on the book of faces for a couple of catahoula groups that I am in. That is why it has a catahoula lean. Not dogging any other breed of hunting dog. Also I am the one taking the picture. I am a good bit older than my hunting buddies and the dog in the picture with the second hog is not the one that got cut. She is a 10 year female.
In the past I have tried to convey that real catahoulas should be different from other breeds of dogs. I have probably failed more than I have succeeded. Lets start with they are a purebred breed and not a mutt. Nothing wrong with mutts but having spots or webbed toes does not come close to making it a real catahoula. Here is an example from this last weekend. Once you have read it all you can decide if your dogs would do the same. I would say the vast majority of unregistered dogs would not because they are not catahoulas. We had only been hunting for about 20 minutes when the dogs struck hogs. It seemed to be a pretty decent sized sounder as we had dogs on different hogs in about a 100 yard circle. It took a couple of minutes for the dogs to all get together. When they did they were baying a fairly good boar in a washout that ran into a creek. The hog had picked a good place to setup. I am pretty sure he had fought off others there before but he failed to realize that I was packing a 65 athletic bulldog with me. We got the hog caught but it was about 2 miles back to the truck and he was too big to drag out that far so we did out civic duty and went ahead and just killed him. A couple of the dogs were cut but nothing looked bad. Neither were really bleeding or limping. We had almost everything on leashes when I realized that one of my blue gyps has left again. The place we were in was thick and it took about 10 minutes for us to climb back out creek. It was thick and there were a couple of old fences to crawl through. Once we were topside I still could not see or call in Kamikaze. We decided to start walking back out as it was already getting hot. We had to get through another thicket before we would be in a open cotton field. We were probably 20 minutes in when we stopped and I tried calling to the dog again. Then I heard way off in the distance a faint bark. Long story short 30 minutes later we had caught another pretty good hog. No further injuries on this one. On the way out my dog Will was certain Kamikaze was starting to come into heat and tried to breed every time we stop to rest for a bit. Once I got back to the house I noticed that Will was limping a little. Not a lot. I checked him out and realized he was cut worse than I thought. No worries he is patched back up now. I almost never ever keep a catahoula in the house but he needs to restrict his moments for a couple of weeks. The next morning I took him out front to use the restroom and about half way through he stuck his nose in the air and started pulling. I have a deer stand over there and I check the camera and there was a group of hogs moving through there that morning. He has winded them at 150 yards and was willing to go to them on 3 legs. So here is where we are at. Caught a big hog and got several nasty cuts. Still willing to go catch another good hog. With one cut back leg still trying to breed a female. The next day with all of the soreness set in still having the want to to go again. I have often told people that these dogs are designed to be kicked in the head by a cow and to just keep working. I guess my new tagline should be have a leg half cut off and just keep on hunting hogs. If your dog will not do this is it really a catahoula?
-john
In the past I have tried to convey that real catahoulas should be different from other breeds of dogs. I have probably failed more than I have succeeded. Lets start with they are a purebred breed and not a mutt. Nothing wrong with mutts but having spots or webbed toes does not come close to making it a real catahoula. Here is an example from this last weekend. Once you have read it all you can decide if your dogs would do the same. I would say the vast majority of unregistered dogs would not because they are not catahoulas. We had only been hunting for about 20 minutes when the dogs struck hogs. It seemed to be a pretty decent sized sounder as we had dogs on different hogs in about a 100 yard circle. It took a couple of minutes for the dogs to all get together. When they did they were baying a fairly good boar in a washout that ran into a creek. The hog had picked a good place to setup. I am pretty sure he had fought off others there before but he failed to realize that I was packing a 65 athletic bulldog with me. We got the hog caught but it was about 2 miles back to the truck and he was too big to drag out that far so we did out civic duty and went ahead and just killed him. A couple of the dogs were cut but nothing looked bad. Neither were really bleeding or limping. We had almost everything on leashes when I realized that one of my blue gyps has left again. The place we were in was thick and it took about 10 minutes for us to climb back out creek. It was thick and there were a couple of old fences to crawl through. Once we were topside I still could not see or call in Kamikaze. We decided to start walking back out as it was already getting hot. We had to get through another thicket before we would be in a open cotton field. We were probably 20 minutes in when we stopped and I tried calling to the dog again. Then I heard way off in the distance a faint bark. Long story short 30 minutes later we had caught another pretty good hog. No further injuries on this one. On the way out my dog Will was certain Kamikaze was starting to come into heat and tried to breed every time we stop to rest for a bit. Once I got back to the house I noticed that Will was limping a little. Not a lot. I checked him out and realized he was cut worse than I thought. No worries he is patched back up now. I almost never ever keep a catahoula in the house but he needs to restrict his moments for a couple of weeks. The next morning I took him out front to use the restroom and about half way through he stuck his nose in the air and started pulling. I have a deer stand over there and I check the camera and there was a group of hogs moving through there that morning. He has winded them at 150 yards and was willing to go to them on 3 legs. So here is where we are at. Caught a big hog and got several nasty cuts. Still willing to go catch another good hog. With one cut back leg still trying to breed a female. The next day with all of the soreness set in still having the want to to go again. I have often told people that these dogs are designed to be kicked in the head by a cow and to just keep working. I guess my new tagline should be have a leg half cut off and just keep on hunting hogs. If your dog will not do this is it really a catahoula?
-john
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