Archertl
Senior Member
@hickslawns It very well could be; he looks like one. Rescues and shelters normally like to label dogs as being at least part something. Tan pitt bull mixes look at lot like curs. Cur outside of the hunting community is another word for mutt anyway. Inside the hunting community curs are general purpose hunting working dogs going back to the frontier days. Frontier people took the breeds of dogs they immigrated with and bred them to their needs on the frontier. In the lineage of most cur dogs you will find the blood of french beauceron, english hounds, welsh lurcher, native american dogs, spanish breeds, irish pit bulls, german bird dogs and more. Pretty much every region of the country has their own version of the cur dog. There are probably 20 different breeds of curs in North America. Plott hounds were called plott curs until they became a AKC breed 25 years ago. Same with leopard curs becoming leopard hounds more recently.
Black mouth curs is the Alabama Arkansas and Mississippi region version of the cur dog. BMC trend to be pretty quite unless there is something to bark about. The inside of their mouths tend to be black. They should have good hot noses and be good tracking dogs. Traditionally they were used to tree, track, gather stock and gaurd the homestead. They make pretty good watch dogs as they are very alert and will let you know if they see somthing out of the ordinary. They also put on a good show of force if a stranger is on your property but probably won't actually bite someone unless you bite trained them. I owed two and have been around plenty of others to say they work as advertised. Both my dogs were from ladner lines. When my catahoula cur Lacey passes on I will probably get another BMC.
As for this individual dog test his nose and see how he tracks. If you like him keep him. He is plenty young enough to learn a job. Happily call it a BMC if you like.
When I was younger I was more apt to say "this breed of dog should do this; that breed of dog should do that." After dealing with lots of dogs and training dogs to herd and track for other people my opinion has changed some. Also have had foster dogs of my own. i have come to general conclusion that all breeds of dogs are pretty much dogs. As long as an individual dog has prey drive, a nose, some intelligence and are stuborn you can train them to do some kind of work. Some breeds are no doubt more naturally suited to some work than others. i think you would be surprised by what you can get a dog to do if you work with them.
When i was in NZ the border police were using kelpie's (a herding breed) as nose work dogs at the airport. Those kelpies were doing a fine job as nose work dogs. I recently met a guy who lives in the John Day area that has a gsp that herds sheep equally well as most ranch border collies. On the weekends he hunts upland birds and does pretty good at that too. I have seen a doberman used to flush pheasants and mountain grouse. My most recent foster dog was a border collie that could have easily been trained to become a champion herding trial dog. I would have kept him myself if I didnt already have three dogs. I couldnt find that border collie a herding home, so now he works for the WA Dept of Ecologly as a nose work dog detecting endangered insects. I know a little female pit bull that earned an AHBA Working Trial Champion title too.
Black mouth curs is the Alabama Arkansas and Mississippi region version of the cur dog. BMC trend to be pretty quite unless there is something to bark about. The inside of their mouths tend to be black. They should have good hot noses and be good tracking dogs. Traditionally they were used to tree, track, gather stock and gaurd the homestead. They make pretty good watch dogs as they are very alert and will let you know if they see somthing out of the ordinary. They also put on a good show of force if a stranger is on your property but probably won't actually bite someone unless you bite trained them. I owed two and have been around plenty of others to say they work as advertised. Both my dogs were from ladner lines. When my catahoula cur Lacey passes on I will probably get another BMC.
As for this individual dog test his nose and see how he tracks. If you like him keep him. He is plenty young enough to learn a job. Happily call it a BMC if you like.
When I was younger I was more apt to say "this breed of dog should do this; that breed of dog should do that." After dealing with lots of dogs and training dogs to herd and track for other people my opinion has changed some. Also have had foster dogs of my own. i have come to general conclusion that all breeds of dogs are pretty much dogs. As long as an individual dog has prey drive, a nose, some intelligence and are stuborn you can train them to do some kind of work. Some breeds are no doubt more naturally suited to some work than others. i think you would be surprised by what you can get a dog to do if you work with them.
When i was in NZ the border police were using kelpie's (a herding breed) as nose work dogs at the airport. Those kelpies were doing a fine job as nose work dogs. I recently met a guy who lives in the John Day area that has a gsp that herds sheep equally well as most ranch border collies. On the weekends he hunts upland birds and does pretty good at that too. I have seen a doberman used to flush pheasants and mountain grouse. My most recent foster dog was a border collie that could have easily been trained to become a champion herding trial dog. I would have kept him myself if I didnt already have three dogs. I couldnt find that border collie a herding home, so now he works for the WA Dept of Ecologly as a nose work dog detecting endangered insects. I know a little female pit bull that earned an AHBA Working Trial Champion title too.
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. It’s been an absolute joy watching him grow into a proper canine citizen. Happy birthday Jax 
