stock dogs

[D.R. Cattle]

The outfit I just started working at had 81 head replacement heifers in a 200 acre pasture. 50 acres of it was swampy nasty can't get a horse in it stuff. These heifers had never had much contact and definitely not any respect for a horse. We went after em and they just ran back through us like we weren't there and brushed right up. So they decided to bring in a day worker they've known for years with some good dogs. Now I've seen some dogs work on TV but never full blown Florida curs live and personal. We happened up on 50 of them and he put the dogs on right away. There were heifers bucking with dogs hanging off their ears and somehow a flock of turkeys got caught up in the scrap and they were darting all over the place too. It was quite a sight. After about 2 minutes of yapping and scrapping those dogs had all of those heifers hemmed up in a tight little ball. If one of them blew out of the herd we let it go and the dogs made it wish it had never attempted it. As soon as the heifer tried to come back in the herd the dogs quit and left alone. If one of them even stuck it's nose out of the bunch a dog would nip it back into place. So we pushed nice and slow while the dogs kept a tight little ball of heifers. When the ordeal was over them heifers couldn't be pulled apart with a crowbar. Had a few bloody ears, but that's the dangdest thing I ever saw. Can't wait to get into a wild bunch again. Love watching them dogs work!

 

[Caustic Burno]

It is pretty DR

 

[Ryder]

D.R. how many dogs did the man have?

 

[D.R. Cattle]

He had 4 dogs. We had the pleasure of having him over again this morning to go after some of the remaining heifers that were still in the swamp. Hearing them bay gets the old heart a pumping, and a good horse tightens up at the sound too.

 

[Ryder]

Wish I was closer.

 

[cypressfarms]

It is nice to watch good dogs work. We duck hunt a lot and nothing beats a good trained bird dog.

About cattle dogs:

This past August, we needed to seperate some of my heifers from my dad's. Some were a little on the "hot" side. (well, they are brangus) Due to this, we wanted to sell some of the hotter ones, but were having trouble getting all of them in the normal "come to the bucket" way. A friend of the family brought in his dogs. The dogs did work well, but they were real hard on the cattle. My dad lost three through the fence, and one of mine had a calf abort two days later.

 

[D.R. Cattle]

Good dogs are only tough on the ones that break out, but I would definitely say watch the fence when you work with dogs. After your mission is complete, they will usually ball up without dogs. We were sweeping a pasture yesterday towards a lane and the trail boss told me not to open the gate. I didn't ask why but as soon as the cow herd saw us they balled up and headed for the gate. They stood at the gate in tight formation. I rode through them and opened the gate and they just headed for the next gate balled up. They had been dogged and remembered the ordeal. It was a sweet move.

 

[jbar]

there is nothing better than working cattle with good dogs and honest cow horses :cboy:

 

[J. T.]

What exactly IS a Florida cur? Same as a Yellow or Black Mouth Cur?

 

[jbar]

i was on the message board at http://www.cowdogs.com a month or so back and phil phillips a cowman and cur dog breeder thought they might go back to some of the cur dogs he sold in the 1970's that end up in florida. if you want to talk to mr phillps his # is posted on that board in one of his replyes

 

[D.R. Cattle]

What exactly IS a Florida cur? Same as a Yellow or Black Mouth Cur?

Best I can tell they are usually yellow, have a black mouth but come out of lines that have done exceptional with cattle.