Best hounds?

[power napper]

I suppose most of us have a dog or dogs. Everone thinks that their pooch is the best of the best.

Stories abound about how the dog knows just what the hunter will be hunting by which gun or what hat the dog sees.
Beagle , Terrier, Blue tic, Redbone Mongrel, Mutt etc.

Just what is your favorite dog and why do you feel that way?

[Sungold]

Over the years, I have had the good luck of owning several real nice dogs. Both companions and hunters, but the one who's hunting instincts/abilities stand above the rest is my little American Water Spaniel. This guy was born to hunt and he knows it. All I had to add was some basic obedience training.

[peggjam]

My Blueticks.....my favorite because they are an all around useful hound.

[riverrat]

got to say I wouldnt trade my great dane for any other dog. She is a gentle giant of a lap dog. Shes a good ole house dog. Unllike my wifes retarded shitzu that try's to eat my bees.

[Joel]

We have an 18 yr old female Austrialian Shepherd - Mckenna - Mick for short. She by far has been the best I've had or seen. Highly intelligent, exceptionally loyal, protected the kids from a slew of wild animals over the years, including landing a bite on the rear of a large boar black bear, kills mice in the equipment yard with a vengence and has made nearly 200 trips to NYC. Never a negative moment with this dog.

Jim, those Blueticks are good unless your trying to keep up with them in the woods in the middle of a fall night!

[Karl]

Hunted raccoons for years with Blueticks. Loved those dogs, then got my first yellow Labrador. Hounds are great but Labs have a lot of intelligence going for them.

[RAlex]

I have had Redbones, Blueticks, Redticks, Walkers and Black Tans but the best was a 1/2 Plott 1/2 traveling salesman . I used to handle my friends Grand Nite Champion in competition but my plott was every bit as good. She`d run in front of the truck on rainey nite only leaving the truck trail when she winded a coon and stay treed till morning or I got there. On the best nites we used to go to McD`s for cheeseburgers after a hunt. She would take a bobcat once in awhile but wouldnt stay on it . She was scared of anything that smelled like our nanny goat. After nite hunting for 25 years when she got hit by a car I quit nite hunting and havent had another hound . Ginger was the best that ever was ....Rick

[peggjam]

Hunted raccoons for years with Blueticks. Loved those dogs, then got my first yellow Labrador. Hounds are great but Labs have a lot of intelligence going for them.

My BT's are pretty smart, just gotta work'em a bit.

"im, those Blueticks are good unless your trying to keep up with them in the woods in the middle of a fall night!"

Ain't that the truth. Especially when they hit an old boar's tracks, and head fer the far end of the county. But I love the music of a good hound drifting on the clear, crisp air of an Oct night. Nothing like it in the world, unless it's standing in the center of a swarm of bees.

[TwT]

I am surprised no one has said catahoula Curr yet, growing up we coon hunted all the time in Louisiana, we has Blue ticks, walkers and catahoula curr's, I big bore coon could whip them blue ticks and walker but them currs was the meanest thing on wheels, example: one blue tick and two walker hounds had a bore coon cornered and that coon about whipped them all, turned that curr lose and all heck broke lose, after a minute that coon was doing everything he could to get away from that curr, they just good hunting dogs, got to love them currs. I dont have a hound dog now, all I got is a dog named dukky because all she does is eat and dukky , she's a year old pitbull, about the friendless dog you will ever see, good around all people, kids, cats , and other dogs... thats how I like all my dogs...

[Barry Digman]

The best dog ever was the malamute/shepard mix my wife had when we met. Fiercely protective, very gentle with the kids when they came along. Smart, loyal, well mannered(the dog, not necessarily the kids..). Very graceful at 105 lbs.

Worst dogs ever were the matched pair of Afghan hounds I paid a small fortune for in Las Vegas. They're the Paris Hilton of dogs as far as I'm concerned. I had them when I was young and stupid, and it was a match that did not do either of us any good. Now that I'm older and stupid, I love the plain heeler mix that has no pretension about who she is and what she's supposed to be doing and tolerates my shortcomings with a wagging tail and a warm nuzzle.

[peggjam]

I am surprised no one has said catahoula Curr yet, growing up we coon hunted all the time in Louisiana, we has Blue ticks, walkers and catahoula curr's, I big bore coon could whip them blue ticks and walker but them currs was the meanest thing on wheels, example: one blue tick and two walker hounds had a bore coon cornered and that coon about whipped them all, turned that curr lose and all heck broke lose, after a minute that coon was doing everything he could to get away from that curr, they just good hunting dogs, got to love them currs. I dont have a hound dog now, all I got is a dog named dukky because all she does is eat and dukky , she's a year old pitbull, about the friendless dog you will ever see, good around all people, kids, cats , and other dogs... thats how I like all my dogs...

We grow tougher BT's up here than what you had............ My old BT male could whip the meanest boar coon with most of his teeth tied behind his back. Haven't seen the coon my Itty dog will back away from either. Youse couldn't had a BT.

[TwT]

We grow tougher BT's up here than what you had............ My old BT male could whip the meanest boar coon with most of his teeth tied behind his back. Haven't seen the coon my Itty dog will back away from either. Youse couldn't had a BT.

now the old BT was tough but nothing like the Curr, the BT was the smartest dog we ever had, we used him to train all the pups, My father won a couple competitions with him. but when it comes to being mean and tough guest you might not never seen a Catahoula Curr before, well you might, you can never forget that one or two glass eye's that looks like they are looking right through you, that was one of the best times I had growing up we would go down the dirt roads, get on back in the swamps or woods, let dogs out of the back of the truck, dog would go to the front of the truck then we would idle down the road with dogs running out front, when they hit a hot trail, pull over till they treed and then grab the rifles and go, my old man had a air horn on top of the truck to call dogs back with, but like most times, the blue tick would come back every time and we would have to hunt the walkers and Curr, some times all night, I think one time or maybe two they all came back, sometimes a couple days or get a call saying we got your dog, use to be people like that out but would be afraid to lose dogs now days...... Some hunters can go a life time and hear about them cur 's but never see one , they are beautiful dogs

look at this site
http://www.bulldoginformation.com/ca...a-leopard.html

[NeilV]

We have an Ozark Mountain Squirrel Hound, so I'll pick that breed.

They weigh about 70 pounds, long, brown black and white coat, are obtained from an animal rescue society, are pesky, find food in unexpected places (and learn where every cat food bowl is located in the neighborhood), absolutely refuse to poop in their own yard, are scared of cats and are obsessed with catching squirrels, never catch any live ones and will eat any dead squirrels (fur and all) found in the road, no matter how old or rotten.

P.S. Ozark Mountain Squirrel Hounds might really be Burnese Mountain Dogs without papers, but its fun to tell people who ask that "She's an Ozark Mountain Squirrel Hound."

[Michael Palmer]

My Blueticks.....my favorite because they are an all around useful hound.

You bet pj. I love my 4 Blue Ticks. Just the nicest dogs. They're such a close family...parents and two pups...they lick each other off after a rain or snow storm, clean each other's ears, etc. Always happy and smiling.

My first, Charlotte...gone now...spent every day with me in the bees for 10 + years. She'd get stung so bad at times, she'd foam. Next day, she wanted to do nothing but go to the bee yards. She knew which yards she was allowed to run it...no roads with traffic. She'd make her rounds, and wait on a high spot for me to finish my work. Then, give a whistle, and off we'd go to the next yard.

Of course, maybe it wasn't me or the bees she loved. Might have been the "first and last rule" that we followed every day. She got the first and last bite of my lunch. :-) Gosh, I miss that dog!

[peggjam]

My BT pups used to help in the beeyard too. They couldn't resist sticking their noses into the open hives. They learned real quick that under the truck was the best spot to lay when the hives were open.

[dragonfly]

We have an 18 yr old female Austrialian Shepherd - Mckenna - Mick for short. She by far has been the best I've had or seen. !

We had an Aussie male that was psychotic. He was a gorgeous dog, and came from championship lines, and the vet wanted us to put him on Prozac. He was highly intelligent and fiercely loyal and protective, but had this problem of occasional psychotic breaks when he forgot he was our friend.

The best dog I ever had was a female German Shepherd/ Dobie mix. She was the sweetest dog in the world. I could have taken food from her mouth and she wouldn't mind. She slept at my feet, and alerted me to anything she perceived as a danger. When I lost her, I mourned her like my child.

We had to have our Aussie put down about a year ago because he had such bad hips and lower spine that he couldn't get up anymore and he stopped eating. Our next dog will be some kind of mix that just happens to drop into our lives. No more pure breeds, just mutts. Kind of like me

[Michael Palmer]

Our last litter (10) was about 2 years ago. The last pup to go was a grey male...there are two color phases...grey and blue. We called him Spot, because he had a black spot on top of his head. I had my doubts about the family that took him. Sure enough...

I see a picture ad from the humane society about a year later. I'd recoginze that goofy head anywhere. It was Spot. Wish I could have taken him, but we already have 4. He got adopted by a deaf woman. The humane folks told me he was already responding to hand signals before they left the building.

Blue Ticks want nothing more than please you. They learn fast, and are clever in the way they figure things out. But, you can't treat them like Spot...in his first life. You have to spend time with them. You can't just boot 'em out the door. They love to run. They love to have fun. You can see where I'm going with this? They're hounds!

Imagine...I had two that constantly were getting loose, for one reason or another. We have a cat that opens the front door, and lets the dogs out. Let one go...no problema. Let more than one go, and they're out the door, off into the woods...Yee Haa! Well, we have an animal rehabilitator about 1 mile from us, through the woods. 1 mile? That's nothing for a couple hounds. So...she has raccoons in cages on her lawn. And young deer and moose in pens. I'm soo glad she moved back to West Virginia.

[peggjam]

I have a real nice 2yr old female that I let run once in a while. She loves to clean out my shop. Anything she can get, she'll haul out an take back to her kennel. She's the one that helps in the beeyard. Their're all great dogs, but they do need alot of work.

[Trapper]

Mountain Cur,


Closed mouth on trail, they tend to hunt close so you can hunt the smaller woods, good on squirrel and coon. Also very good around kids. Jim

[LEAD PIPE]

In my 23 years in LE I have seem many highly trained tracking dogs, mostly sheppard’s. I always like it when a bloodhound shows up. First because I know I'm not going to get bit by accident and second they produce. We were looking for a body in a good patch of woods for a few days the, sheppard’s were worthless. A trooper showed up with a bloodhound and started to toss a ball into the woods and the dog would retrieve it. After a couple tosses the trooper pointed to the woods and gave the simple command "find the dead guy". Now most of the sheppard handlers would run into the woods with their dogs, not this guy. He sat in his car with the door open sipping his coffee. After about 5 minutes you heard this goofy howl coming from the woods. The Trooper walks over and says you can call your detectives he found your guy, sure enough.