Squirrel Dog!

[Colonel26]

I just made a deal with one of our district maintenance guys to buy a pup of his. It's a feist out of two great squirrel dogs. I'm excited! I always wanted a treeing feist. They should be ready to go next week.

They're all females (what I prefer for a hunting dog) except for the one he's keeping. He says they're already meaner than snakes, lol. They'll growl at him when he goes to feed them, and his big rooster is scared to death of them, lol.

Sounds like they ought to be prime squirrel hunting, rat killing, mole digging dogs. I can't wait.

Any of y'all squirrel hut with dogs!

[RobesonsRme.com]

Most aggressive and effective squirrel dog I ever came across was an American Bull Dog I met along with his master while I was out still/stalk hunting one day. I had no dog. He had the bull dog and a feist. I watched that bull dog practically tear down a small hollow oak tree to get at a squirrel he had been tracking that had sought refuge inside.
Charlie

[Colonel26]

I've seen videos of folks using bull dogs. I've just never been a bull dog fan. Seems a might over kill for squirrels, but what do I know, I'm just getting started.

I would think it'd take a dog with a fair amount of grit though. I sure wouldn't want to pick up a live squirrel that'd been knocked out of a tee.

[RobesonsRme.com]

Oh, I think the Feist is a better choice.

The Bull Dog was working through pure blood lust.

I think a Feist works to please his master/trainer and get the reward for what it does, even if it's just a word of praise and a pat on the head.

Charlie

[TripleF]

Congrats Wade!
Good luck.

[jerryd6818]

I heard my dad, uncles and granddad talk about dogs and call some of them a feist, sometimes penny feist. I just always assumed it was a generic name they used for any small dog of indeterminate breed. Did a little looking after this thread was posted and discovered a whole world of AKC recognized feist dogs. The one that stuck in my mind is the Mountain Feist.

This forum is great. I'm constantly learning something new here and a lot of the time, it has nothing to do with knives. I think I'm going to start calling the web site The College of AAPK.

[Colonel26]

Jerry, that's what this pup is, a mountain feist. Now I'm not sure which strain, that doesn't really concern me as much as the fact that her parents are good.

The two main breeds that are used for squirrel hunting today are treeing feist (of one strain or another) and thedifferent curs. Curs are more hound like and range father. I think a feist will fit me better. Although there are folks crossing the feists and curs too..

[jerryd6818]

C-26 -- Are you ready for all that energy?

[Chief RID]

I was fortunate enough to hunt with a crackerjack squirrel dog for many seasons. We would not start till Jan. after deer season was over and hunted until it was warm enough to fish. Those were the most fun hunting days of my life. The dog looked like a small Spitz but the owner said it was a mountain yellow leg cure. He worked for some water and a half sandwich at lunch. That is all he would let us do before he was ready to go again. We always ended the day cleaning the tree rats by the headlights of the truck. I never minded going deep into a hollow to shoot one he had treed. The squirrel may not be in the tree he was on but he was never more than a tree away. If he could not be located all you had to say was "Rocky. He went in a hole". He was off to find the next one. When we let him out of the truck in the morning or after lunch he would go and sit beside the road and listen. Those radar ears scanning. Directly he would take off like a bullet and be on the tree just as fast. I saw a squirrel grab him by the lip once and he yelped as he grabbed what he could and did his normal head shake as the red spattered across his white face. With the squirrel dispatched he moved on to the next one. Those were the days.

[Colonel26]

Jerry, I have three boys 8,6, almost 3. I have three English Sheperds (one's a pup), 6 beagle hounds between dad and me. I have two houses 8 miles apart, one with right at two acres of hillside to mow. I pastor a rural church of about 100 people, and I teach high school juniors and seniors. I raise about 2000 sq feet of garden plus figs, June apple trees, tame and wild blackberries, and strawberries.

I ain't skert of no feist pup! Bring it on! Lol

Whew, I need a nap now.

Chief, man oh man those sound like some good times. I'm a hoping my pup turns put half as good.

[Colonel26]

Oh, and I'm also married to a woman from the hills of Tennessee! Can't no little yelping, mean feist dog top that!

[Jethro Bodine]

I'd imagine the blackmouth cur would be the popular choice for yer neck of the woods, C26. The Plott Hound is the treeing dog most used round these parts.

[Colonel26]

I've heard those plott hounds are great dogs, don't back down from anything. I've even heard of them being used on bear.

I've never seen a black mouth cur around here. We have some mountain curs, feists, the various coon hounds, beagles, English pointers and setters, trigg hounds and other fox hounds too.

I looked at the curs and the feists for a squirrel dog. The cures tend to be wider ranging and that's not good for the kind of terrain we have here. Plus I like the fact tat feists tend to be varmint and rodent killers extraordinaire.

I'll try to get y'all pics when she gets here.

[muskrat man]

what part of Kentucky you from, I've been trying to fin d someone semi local to get a good feist off of for some time

[Colonel26]

Muskrat, I'm from down around the Glasgow/Bowling Green area. This litter is the first bunch of feists I've ever known around here. I just brought her home today. I saw both parents too, great dogs and full of hunt, obedient, and good mannered. I think she's a keeper.

[PigSticker]

That little fiest is got some sort of collie or shepard bred into it--glass eye and the ticking on it's back and leg tell the whole story-not that it's bad at all.
Fiest is any kind a breed you want--mostly Terrier x'ed up--back in the late 80's they started putting papers on anything that would tree consistently I forget how it went but guy's were breeding anything that looked up and putting papers on Dawgs outta the dog pound.
The fiest I made $$ from the bitches were black & tan and the two males were lemon headed and white no papers--sold every one that would hit the ground--the thing is they make great lap dogs for your wife and kids too. My fiest I could hunt down a railroad grade and kill bunnies till I got into the timber then they'd cross over and go to treeing and it went the same way back to the house--I got $3.00 a squirrel $4.00 on a bunnie $4-7.00 on coon--most went right in the V8 Engine Plant guards at the gate thought I worked there

[Colonel26]

I always heard that feist was more of a type than a breed. I'm sure that back in the old days of long ago folks crossed what worked.

She's changed some from that pic. Her spots stew turning into a brindle pattern and her eyes are brown now. Her MIM is brindle and her dad a blue brown color. I've long suspected that there was a lot of crossing back in the day between the mountain feist and the mountain cur dogs around here, although you'll never get the true believers on either side to admit it

One of the best jump dogs (rabbit) that we ever had was half beagle and half Jack Russell. We killed a pile of rabbits over her. But hard headed doesn't begin to describe her, lol.

I appreciate your insight, feel free to pass on any words of wisdom any time!