I buried my best buddy, a 14.5 year old yellow lab "Dually" a month or so ago. I think I'm ready for a new friend to help me watch over my family and homestead.

I'm leaning towards a black mouth cur or similar. I live on 7.5 acres, and have other pets, horses etc, perfect for a dog of that type to socialize and be part of the family. Probably also train him/her as an all-around hunter to fetch dove, track hogs, coons, squirrels etc. Not looking for anything too extreme or world class in the hunting skills, just a smart dogs nose and abilities to "hunt" with me and my daughters. Family dog qualities are first, the rest is a bonus.

Anyone have any good breeder referrals in North Texas or east Texas area?

contact tree'em on the forum here, he's got what you need

Thanks Gale. I sent tree'em a PM

I'm sure some will tell me I'm wrong, but I think you're asking more of a BM than they've got to deliver. Good dogs, no argument there, but retrievers? I don't think so.

In addition, and this may not happen with you or your dog, but BMs are natural hunters/herders and will harass or kill livestock if not carefully trained and watched. My neighbor who has owned BMs for many years, using them for working cattle, just shot 5 of his because they helped kill some llamas.

I would make some suggestions but there's absolutely nothing wrong with a BM, but you need to understand the breed.

But I will say this, another lab would not be a bad choice.

There are several strains of Blackmouths that are bred and used for different purposes. Some are big, gritty dogs used for stock and hogs. Some are smaller and less gritty that are used for squirrel & coon. None will reliably retreive. Most will make good companions. Some strains are dog agressive (too much bull dog in them)
Do your homework before you buy a pup and beware of the breeders who claim to have do all wonder dogs. There are a lot of frauds breeding BMCs

Go down near Orlando, Florida and breed Larry Shores to Scott Powell. You'll get just the cur dog your looking for. Big, mangy, fit to kill behind a high fence - just not much intelligence!


"Politicians, attorney's, and shooters of wildlife behind high fences. Take em all down to south Texas, put em behind a high fenced escape proof enclosure without their guns and let the rattlesnakes cull em out."

quote:

Originally posted by Echoanne12:
Go down near Orlando, Florida and breed Larry Shores to Scott Powell. You'll get just the cur dog your looking for. Big, mangy, fit to kill behind a high fence - just not much intelligence!


"Politicians, attorney's, and shooters of wildlife behind high fences. Take em all down to south Texas, put em behind a high fenced escape proof enclosure without their guns and let the rattlesnakes cull em out."

Give it a rest, you moron. In your case it is definitely better to close your mouth and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Try Randy Wright in Bullard TX. Wrights' Curs is his Kennel name. He breeds all around BM Curs with intelligence and working ability.

jdollar,

Your nothing more than another member of the tribe of ignorant posters on AR who can't stand any opinion other than their own with like minded "group think" mentality. Sad, very sad.

jdollar - look in the mirror and you will indeed see a fool looking back at you!

"Politicians, attorney's, and shooters of wildlife behind high fences. Take em all down to south Texas, put em inside a high fenced escape proof enclosure without their guns and let the rattlesnakes cull em out."

Pitiful. I should have known better than to feed a troll. The results are always the same.

I thought I'd provide a follow up.

I found a BMC pup back in September from a cattle wrangler down near Waco, TX. No blood lines, he just bred his working dog sire with another BMC bitch. He's been coming along as a great family dog. The daughter and I caught some squirrels around our pecan tree, so we've been using the tails to train him. We'll work on it some more before next fall.

He's an interesting dog. He definitely bonded and has claimed my 12 YO daughter, he follows here everywhere. He started out (got him at 5 months old) a little skittish, but that's been improving. Part of the skittishness may be that he was put in around cattle as a pup and I think he's conditioned to jump out of the way to avoid getting stepped on or kicked. Like I said, he's been calming down and getting more comfortable around unknown things that move fast or "tower over him".

He has a heck of a deep/mean bark when he doesn't know someone that pulls into our drive, but he's not aggressive towards them, just letting us know someone arrived. He's claimed the back steps as his, and that's where you can always find him. Even if you leave the gate open, he returns to his steps to watch over things. He's definitely a family dog and is very easy going. But he can be a little high strung and get startled. He's smart and he thinks things through.

The BMC is an interesting breed (actually not a breed according to AKC). They have the nose and muzzle of a hound and he's always leading with his nose if he's out. he has the webbed feet of a lab and he swims in our pond. But he also has long toes (freakishly long) like some kind of running dog. He has a real short coat like a mastiff, with almost no dog odor. And he has an extremely long whippy tail like a greyhound.

The only issue we had is we think he might have a food allergy. Within days of bringing him home, he started biting his feet and his feet and tummy were real red. The poor guy was in agony. We started with a chicken based food, then lamb and rice and now he's on salmon and tuna based protein. The last one seems to have done the trick and it's still a Purina feed that's reasonable priced.

So far, he's been a great dog. My girls are training him and he seems willing to learn.

Glad you found a pup.
Forget what AKC says about it not being a breed. They don't make any money off them so they don't acknowledge them. A breed is any type that consistently reproduces its own likeness. BMC's have been doing that for at least a 150 years if not longer.

Some strains of BMC are known to be shy, timid and flighty around people but work well around cattle and hogs. Not much you can do about it, it's in their DNA

Some strains are also known for Red Mange. Again nothing you can do about it, it's in their DNA.

Make sure he knows you are the dominant one around there or he will give you trouble when he gets up over a year old. Also that's when he'll go from growling and barking at strangers to biting them if you don't keep a good handle on him.

It's sort of a crap shoot if you will get a cow bred dog to tree. A few will but most loose interest once the game is up and out of sight. On the other hand, cow bred dogs usually make great hog dogs.

Best training tip I can give you is:
Pin him down on his side/back until he completely submits. Repeat daily until 15 months old then at least weekly until 3 years old. If he offers to bite you, force him down and force him to submit, because if you quit he wins and it is hard to come back from that.

tree 'em
Thanks for the tips. Yes, definitely watching for aggression. So far, I have everyone taking his toys or food away from him when he has them, to make sure he doesn't get snappy. He's been pretty docile, but with the barking at strangers, I could see that turning into something else if we don't stay on top of it. We've been working to socialize him with everyone we can.

quote:

...
Best training tip I can give you is:
Pin him down on his side/back until he completely submits. Repeat daily until 15 months old then at least weekly until 3 years old. If he offers to bite you, force him down and force him to submit, because if you quit he wins and it is hard to come back from that.

I can second this. I got the same advice from the guy I got my 2 curs from. It took a while to get them to admit who was boss, but once they got it they never forgot and would listen better than any other dog I've owned.

Mine were both good coon dogs, and the better of the two would also tree squirrels.

I taught mine that cows and sheep were off limits early on by going into a pasture and making them walk through a herd on a leash, correcting them whenever they showed any signs of aggression. It only took a few times before they'd totally ignore livestock.