# Homestead Dog



## SQHunterGray (Oct 21, 2008)

Hello Everyone:

My name is Marc Gray. I am new to the forum. My fiance, Beth, and I have Mountain (aka Treeing) Feist squirrel dogs. 

Feist dogs and their larger counterparts, Curs, have been utilized as general purpose farm and ranch dogs for centuries...

I was just curious as to what everyone's favorite homestead dog was and why? Also, anyone with Cur or Feist dogs on here? 


Thanks,

-Marc


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## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

Welcome to the forum! I would love to see pictures of your dogs 

My favorite homestead dogs are mine!! lol. I don't have a particular breed that I love the best...I tend to like mix breeds the most. I have an Aussie and 2 mix breeds. Rocky is the Aussie, Shep is Golden/American Eskimo, and Boris is German Shepherd/don't know.
Here they are..
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b...M2bloyYg9vPgY/cC/f=0/ps=50/r=0/rx=550/ry=400/


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## Calvin Wiles (May 14, 2008)

Mine is half Mountain Cur and half Mountain Feist.


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## Rouen (Aug 19, 2004)

my little yellow dog is my favorite. who'd ahve thought it takes a lab, a chihuahua, a cocker, a terrier, and a shih tzu to make the worlds best dog.


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## Dian (May 11, 2003)

My husband and I kept only Mt. Feists for several years. They do make good homestead dogs. Now we have a short legged rat terrier, I really don't see much difference in him and the Feists. Enjoy your dogs!


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## Elizabeth (Jun 4, 2002)

Hi Marc, welcome to the forum.

We have Rhodesian Ridgebacks, which have been likened to curs. Our 8 month RR puppy (so far) has hunted pheasants and an escaped domestic sow and her litter of 9-10 baby piglets. He also tracked a deer after it had been shot. Pup hasn't had much of a chance to be a watchdog yet- he's the little guy in our pack of 3 male RR's and a female Black Lab, but we'll see how he turns out.


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## cur huntin' kid (Apr 15, 2007)

Hey Marc it seems you are everywhere. I am farmboy on SDC,UKC,Coondawgs.com, Foothills, and haters. Ya I have to agree with you about curs and fiest. just moved to Ohio and I am hunting with a guy who has 8 mountain curs and 2 treeing curs. I dont have a dog of my own yet like i have told you both times you had litters of puppies and I wanted one. The guy I hunt with said I could have the one treeing cur but he was never hunted until I messed with him and he doesn't care about **** or squirrel, so I am back to square one with no dog. I will get a dog someday and it will be a cur or fiest. There are some people on here that hunt curs on wild/feral pigs. For everyone else here is Marc's website http://squackerjack.tripod.com/
This is the one treeing cur I am currently hunting his name is Hank








Wheres the pictures of your mountain cur on your website it says you have one under your name on SDC. I was wanting to see it and what is it out of.


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## SQHunterGray (Oct 21, 2008)

Thanks for your replies everyone! You can find pictures of our dogs on my website. 

Farmboy:

Nice to see you here! I am registered on several forums but only participate regularly on a couple. This one is more broad than the dog sites. 

Hope you can get a dog of your own soon...Take your time and research the line and hunt with the dog if you get a started or finished dog.

I found this forum and I was glad because Beth and I are into self-sufficiency/homesteading! We talk about it all the time that we were born in the WRONG century....

We have an 8 week old Original Mtn Cur that we got from the Clark's. She is Beth's dog officially...That is her "non-feist" dog...Her name is Ozark Mtn Rose out of Two-toed Joe and Git-R-Done. My "non-feist" dog is a JRT named Cricket. Beth has always wanted a big dog! Rose is not on our website yet because Beth is supposed to choose which pictures of her she wants on there and hasn't gotten to it yet! 

Beth and I have 4 feist dogs...We have more dogs than we would have wanted because we were forced into it when Trigger went missing...We did not want to lose him completely so we kept 2 daughters and 1 son out of him and Jody. However, we love all of our dogs as they are part of the family and do not just sit in a kennel. We are very blessed to have offspring of Trigger.

We are just about at our limit because we like to give EACH dog individual attention and huntin' time. Beth and I are where we plan to be at as far as dogs for a LONG time. 

The litter we are expecting is a joint effort between us and my Dad/little Sister in VA. It should be a great cross. We are planning on taking a break from breeding for a while after this litter. Beth and I do not run a puppy mill. We are doing the best we can to promote the sport and breed. Squirrel dogs are a passion, not a money-making venture.


-Marc


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## SQHunterGray (Oct 21, 2008)

Dian said:


> My husband and I kept only Mt. Feists for several years. They do make good homestead dogs. Now we have a short legged rat terrier, I really don't see much difference in him and the Feists. Enjoy your dogs!


Rat Terriers are believed to be the result of feist dogs being bred to toy breeds such as: Toy Fox Terrier and Chihuahua.

Rat Terriers are 1 breed within the "Feist" umbrella group. They are a feist-type dog. 

The term "Feist" is similar to "Hound" or "Bird Dog" or "Coonhound", they refer to a type of dog not a particular breed.

"Mountain Feist" is a breed name.



-Marc


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## madness (Dec 6, 2006)

Well, well, learn something new everyday. I had no idea there was a breed "cur" - I've only ever heard the term to refer to a bad mutt mix. Nice lookin' dogs though!


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## cur huntin' kid (Apr 15, 2007)

I am getting a mountain cur saturday. This is her I think I am naming her Sadie but I am not sure until I actually see her she has a half brother for sale that is about the same age. They are in between 4 and 5 months old. 








If you are interested in her brother here is the site
http://keystonestatekennels.tripod.com/scrapperpups.html 
He is the male pup 3 in the litter out of Sierra


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## TedH71 (Jan 19, 2003)

Used to raise and run catahoulas on hogs..then ended up with a Blue Lacy which is under the category of cur dogs. Blue lacys are far more obedient and have more of a hunting instinct than the catahoulas. Catahoulas nowdays, are bred mostly for looks and you do have to look for the ones that want to work for a living. I've been doing research on mountain curs..only problem is I do not want an open on track dog. Some mountain curs will open on track while some won't. The research continues...

BTW, mountain fiests and such are an interest of mine...


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## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

She is a real cutie! So is her brother...I think you should get them both  It would be so much fun to have two!


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## cur huntin' kid (Apr 15, 2007)

Ya I wish but I dont have enough money to feed two dogs. I am actually getting rid of a treeing cur because he doesn't want anything to do with **** or squirrel. He is a nice dog and would make a good family dog, idk about farm dog. He loves people but also loves to chase chickens. So it sucks just dont have the money to feed a hunting dog that doesn't hunt.


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## lilmizlayla (Aug 28, 2008)

Calvin Wiles said:


> Mine is half Mountain Cur and half Mountain Feist.



wow..that dog is really cool looking. never ever have i seen a dog look like that!

arent they good protectors?


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## TedH71 (Jan 19, 2003)

They tend to be. The coloring is called brindle. Lots of mountain curs have that and some blackmouth curs do too. The brindle can be black brindle or regular brindle (which the above dog is) or blue brindle (my favorite). Pit bulls also can come in brindle. There are some cur dogs that are called brindle curs in East Texas that are all brindle..they're not registered but have always been referred to as the brindle curs. I want to get my hands on one. If there was a mountain fiest pup that was brindle, I would snap it up in a heartbreat!


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## SQHunterGray (Oct 21, 2008)

TedH71 said:


> They tend to be. The coloring is called brindle. Lots of mountain curs have that and some blackmouth curs do too. The brindle can be black brindle or regular brindle (which the above dog is) or blue brindle (my favorite). Pit bulls also can come in brindle. There are some cur dogs that are called brindle curs in East Texas that are all brindle..they're not registered but have always been referred to as the brindle curs. I want to get my hands on one. If there was a mountain fiest pup that was brindle, I would snap it up in a heartbreat!


We will just have to see what arrives any moment now! We are unaware of any brindle in our feist dogs. Our MTN Cur pup is Blue Brindle. 


-Marc


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