You could be forgiven for thinking that these puppies were yellow Labradors or Labrador crosses.
They are blackmouth curs, just without the classic black mask.
Here an adult maskless blackmouth cur. It very strongly resembles a yellow Labrador:
The typical coloration for this type of cur isn’t pure yellow. Normally, it is a sable or clear yellow dog with a black mask.
However, they also come in brindle with a black mask and solid black. A solid black one would be very hard to distinguish from a Labrador or Labrador mix.
There are several different strains of blackmouth cur, but I am not going into it for the purposes of this piece. They vary greatly in appearance and size, with the smallest individuals weighing about 30 pounds and the largest approaching a hundred pounds.
There are several different strains of cur that are native to the US, all of which are in various stages of standardizing into definite breeds. The blackmouth variety is native to the Gulf Coast states from Florida to Texas. These are true landrace dogs, which descended from English curs dogs, various shepherds and mastiffs, and perhaps the dogs of the Native Americans.
It is very hard to classify the cur. They can be used as stock dogs, feral hog dogs, coonhounds, squirrel dogs, and just about anything else one can image. I believe some of these dogs have retrieving instinct and could easily be turned into decent bird dogs.
Curs are not mongrels, but they weren’t exactly breeds as we know them until recently. Different strains and types interbred, and different families established their own strains. Curs were the dogs of the common people, and these dogs were generally not considered for registration into the large kennel clubs. The term “cur” came to reflect a dog that was owned by the blue-collar set, and it got mixed up with the term mongrel.
These dog are generally very biddable and eager to please, although each dog is an individual and certain strains may have not been selected for trainability. And they are generally good with children.
Curs were the dogs of English settlers to the North America. These dogs were particularly common in the North of England and the West Country, which is also where many English settlers to the South came from. The West Country is also the place where many Newfoundlanders of English descent settled.
It seems likely that one of the dogs that the English in Newfoundland would have brought would have been working cur dogs. These dogs likely were ubiquitous across the English colonies in North America.
In Newfoundland, the dogs crossed with various other strains that managed to make it in Newfoundland, including water dogs from Iberia. The dogs were put to work setting nets and hauling lines.
If the yellow coloration were endemic to English curs, then this breed is a likely source for the yellow color in retrievers. The yellow or red coloration occasionally popped up in various dogs with origins on Newfoundland.
Because of the addition of other breeds and because working in the water off the coast of Newfoundland requires a different coat from dogs working on farms in the subtropical South, the St. John’s water dog evolved a much thicker undercoat.
The dog below is Nell, a St. John’s water dog who was born in 1856 in Scotland. Her ancestry was solely from Newfoundland.
And she does bear a resemblance to the blackmouth cur dog, just she is predominantly black in color.
Therefore, it may be more instructive to think of the St. John’s water dog as the endemic cur of Newfoundland that unfortunately went extinct. However, this cur breed went on to found all the extant retriever breeds.
Mark Derr was the first person to postulate this classification for the St. John’s water dog. He suggested this classification in Dog’s Best Friend, and even though I read that book years ago, it has taken me years to finally accept the merits of classifying this extinct breed as a cur.
In the end, I resisted this classification because of my own biases. Subconsciously, I was harboring a bias against dogs that were native to my own country but were not being maintained in an actual registry. But once I’ve pruned away these biases, I think this classification works.
So the St. John’s water dog and the ancestral Newfoundland were the curs of their island homeland.
As far as general body type and proportions, head type/shape, and many other characteristics — these are common to many varieties and breeds of dogs. For instance, Dalmatians, Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Catahoulas, a number of hound breeds, and many others, with minor variations. Even some of the Anatolian Shepherd dogs look very much like this, just larger. And like the present-day Labrador, all descended from basic all-purpose canine stock and have not been subject to extreme modification of that basic, normal canine, form.
…well, aside from some of the overdone, short-legged Labradors, perhaps.
Some of the blackmouths are more heavily boned:
According to Mark Derr, in Dog’s Best Friend, many people who run stock dog curs want a dog that “rank” (tough and high couraged) and “raily “(longer legged and wiry).
I would contend that the Rhodesian ridgeback actually fits into the cur family as well.
Dalmatian, I don’t know. The real origins of that breed are very hard to tease apart. Lots of fantastic claims.
My comment wasn’t really about origins, just about “basic canine” body/head type common to so many breeds.
One thing I’ve noticed about Cur-type dogs in the U. S., is that, general all-purpose dogs that they are, they still tend to be bred and selected for two main purposes–hunting and herding. Although Catahoula Leopard Dogs(claiming a Louisiana origin) are great hunters of all types of game, no doubt they have had a bit more selective influence in the herding department(although “herding” the half wild cattle and hogs that they are famous for is rather more like hunting than the refined herding that, say, Border Collies do!). The Leopard Cur(claiiming a North Carolina origin), though amazingly similar in appearance to Catahoulas, have undoubtedley had more selection in hunting, though they, too, exhibit some basic herding skills. Plotts, also originating in North Carolina(with an admitted cross to Leopard Curs in their development), used to be more of a Cur-type breed, before becoming the “houndy” breed they are now(although some Cur-type Plott lines do still exist). Plotts today are fairly exclusively used for hunting. My own Catahoula had great herding instincts, and a natural interest in working cattle and hogs, though he had zero interest in my sheep and goats! A Plott I had had zero interest in herding anything, and was a pure hunting scenthound, through and through. I agree that Rhodesian Ridgebacks are South Africa’s version of the American “Cur” type dog–developed exactly the same way by early pioneers as an all-purpose breed, with the emphasis more on hunting(and as watch dogs) than herding. Something a lot of people into curs don’t recognize is the very cur-like natures and abilities of Germany’s all purpose hunting types–the Weimaraners, German Short-Haired and Wire-Haired Pointers, etc.. These dogs were bred also as all-purpose hunting dogs, which is often forgotten and neglected in America where they are viewed as exclusively Bird Dogs by most. Though competent bird dogs, they can be so much more. I got my present Weimaraner preciseley to be an all around cur-type woods companion–he hunts ANYTHING I am interested in, is quite obedient, stays very close and is quiet in the woods(an excellent “tresspasser’s dog”!), retrieves, is a great water dog, and is very protective–all the things expected of most cur-types. I have read of Weims used this way in Africa and Australia as all-around “Bush Dogs”, whereas in this country, they are unfairly and stereotypically considered mediocre bird dogs at best, and fashion accessories for models, artists, and conformation dog showers! What a waste of the “forester’s dog” of Germany!…And in regards to the Dalmation’s origin(another all-purpose dog wasted on most people), I have become enamored with the theory that the name “Dalmation” did NOT come about because they originated in Dalmatia(as most conformation breed folks like to maintain), but is a SLIGHT corruption of a French term for “Deer Dog”–“Dama Chien”–which makes way more sense as to their origins and original use as hunting dogs before they became the “Coach Dogs”……
Can anyone answer this question for me….where do you find them????
Back in 2003, we saw a guy giving away pups in the Wal-mart parking lot (this is a common Saturday morning thing in our town). I got one, he told me it was a cur dog and she definitely was a maskless blackmouth cur looking at this article. I loved that dog, she was a great dog, but she got out of our back yard (because our other dog dug a hole under the fence) and got hit by a car and broke her back. Long story short, we had to put her down about a year and a half later (end of 2005) due to complications from the back injury.
I haven’t been able to find anymore puppies like this and I have no clue where to look. I’m in Southeast Texas. Any ides would be greatly appreciated!
Here’s the breeder’s list: http://www.blackmouthcur.com/BreedersList.htm
Several breeders in Texas.
i have a southern black mouth cur i was curious if you knew what combo of dogs make up the black mouth cur definetly couldnt ask for a better dog
The combo that makes them is whatever dogs could live on the frontier, which were selected by the climate and parasites of the South and whether they could do what was asked of them.