Who here has Catahoula's and what do you use them for. My neighbor has a litter that is about ready and I'm wondering if they make good squirrel dogs, no hogs around here. How about temperament, brain power, and hunting drive?

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Hunting buddy has one. He uses her for Squirrels and just and all around dog. Great dog, very good disposition, loves kids.

The "Breed Standard" for all the Cur breeds is in the mind of each breeder or "breed organizations" formed by [mostly] puppy mills.

"Treeing" climbing game is an unnatural trait for dogs and is only achieved by selective breeding, so, if at least one of the parents will tree, there is a chance [NOT 50-50] some of the pups will tree.

Whether true, or not, one persistent "knock" on Catahoulas is that they are dog fighters.

If I wanted a dedicated squirrel dog I would get a mountain cur.

Our Catahoula is a great dog and will really get after the varmints. They will hunt anything you want them to. Ours even retrieves pretty well. They have a lot if gusto and make good pets with proper socialization. They are a bit rough so they take some work to make them good all around pets.

I had 2 that I trained on lions and other predators.

The only rub with them was that once you turned on that kill switch in them, there was no turning it off. Anything was fair game to them.

I gave them to a guy that hunted lions with dogs.

They worked well for him.

It just wasn't a good fit for what I wanted out of a dog.

I had a Catahoula cross( McNab), used him as a brush dog. He would find cattle and hold them up till I got there. He was a little tough on a cow if she was prone to fight. He was a good dog and got along with the rest of my dogs. I gave him to a friend when I changed country ( moved to open country lol). Other than that one dog I haven't had any experience with the breed. I do know a lot of the hog hunters out here use them. Ed

Damn, what happened to American Hoggers? That was a damned good show.

Think about a Blue Tick. They make a danged good family pet IMO.

I used to talk to Ronnie pretty often. Not heard from him in a year or so.

I work with people that use them for hog catching. One of the guys at work catches wild hogs with them , ties their legs together and loads them in a trailer or on horseback sells them to a commercial high fence hunting operation.
As he says for city people to shoot. They are smart tough loyal to their owner dogs. I think some of them tree.
Treeing curs are usually preferred to hounds for squirrels because they don't bark as much trailing on the ground. Squirrels are more likely to go in a hole when the dog barks from a long way off like hounds do.

He was funny as hell, especially when he started pawing at maw. lol

Got a lab for the family pet. She's a big sweetie! Looking for something to either tree squirrels or decoy coyotes. Anybody ever decoy coyotes with a Catahoula?

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Saw him at the LGS in Brownwood 4 months ago. I don't know him but I'm down in Brownwood a lot.

He was probably chasin' the dry cows when you saw him!

Were you in Weakley Watson's Gun Store? I stop in there pretty often when I'm headed to the hill country ranch I manage. Nice little small town store.