Anyone here have a feist squirrel dog?

[Triggernosis]

Thinking about getting me one in the next couple of years....

[Hobie]

There were several members with one at one time...

[86er]

I don't have one currently but I have been seriously looking at the padderdale (patterdale) terriers lately. Can be used for treeing squirrels and also tracking shot big game.

[pdentrem]

Border Terrier. About 10 squirrels per year!

[Dave]

I used to have a mountain cur but got to where I could not hunt him enough to be fair to him so he moved to Mississippi. A feist is a good dog to have. You can check out Squirrel Dog Central. They are the real thing over there.

This pic is a morning hunt with the two curs in the pic. The red dog was an ace dog let me tell you. The man kneeling with the red dog is the owner of those dogs and I can not remember his name now. He is a friend of the older guy in the pic who I know. He organized the hunt.

A dog is a lot of work but a lot of fun. If you live somewhere the leaves all come down early in the season that is perfect for a dog.

A buddy recently got a Decker Rat Terrier and it is making a good squirrel dog. It is so fast though he often catches the squirrel.

A feist is a good choice since they don't need as much exercise and aren't as scrappy as a cur. Next time I will likely choose a feist.

[Warhawk]

I don't have one currently but I have been seriously looking at the padderdale (patterdale) terriers lately. Can be used for treeing squirrels and also tracking shot big game.

Joe, My coon hunting buddy up in Kansas had a little male Patterdale. That was the gamest dog I've ever seen, his mother was a three legged dog and we had to hear the story. The guy raised Patterdales and Pit Bulls, this Patterdale was an escape artist and often got out of her pen. One day the owner got home and heard a big commotion at the dog pens. Went back to find the little Patterdale female in the pen with one of the pits. She apparently went in there to eat some of the pit's feed, which it took exception to and the fight was on. The Patterdale had a front leg hanging on by a little skin only. He got her back in her pen, and was getting the pit bull put up when the Patterdale came back and started the fight up all over again, a 10# dog on three legs taking on a pit bull!

My buddy named his pup "Hammer" and he was always with us on coon hunts, nuisance animal trapping, etc. He was worth his weight in gold on the nuisance animal trapping. The ground hogs were in deep do-do if Hammer went in the hole after them.

Your boys couldn't have a better dog, Hammer was just a friendly and docile as any lap dog. One night he got into it with another boar coon, one we had caught in town and were releasing in the woods. My oldest son was about 10 or 12 then and was holding the dog watching all this. The dog got loose and lit into the coon as soon as it was released from the box trap. It was all two of us could do to get them separated without getting cut to ribbons. Hammer was pretty chewed up and bleeding in several places, but he jumped up in my son's lap in the truck and rode home looking out the window like he didn't have a care in the world.

If and when things slow down and I'm home more, I'm going to get another dog and it will likely be a Patterdale.

This is him, covered in mud, after going into a beaver hole on a creek bank after a 25# boar coon.


This is the hole with him still in it, fighting the coon.


Then my bluetick got loose and went in the hole and grabbed the coon


Drug it out and killed it

[Scharms]

One of the best hunters our group had was an old J.R. Terrier. He died a few years back & is sorely missed. Herby was a hunting machine, he loved squirrels & rabbits and wasn't afraid to take on coons either! I have a 6 month old female J.R. that I'm going to attempt to turn into a squirrel dog (when it warms up a little).

[Blaine]

Terrors are some of the bravest and toughest pooches out there. My Boston is 22# of pure muscle, and he has stood toe to toe with 140lb labs and such, and never gave an inch. When he clamps down on something, it stays clamped until he decides different. He wupped up on a heeler that growled and snapped at me. Fast is an understatement for a good terror.

[Rusty]

I've been thinking for a while that a good squirrel dog would be a great thing to have. It's just that it's almost a thing of the past. Heck, around here there's not even that many people the hunt anything except the biggest buck in the county.

[Dave]

I've been thinking for a while that a good squirrel dog would be a great thing to have. It's just that it's almost a thing of the past. Heck, around here there's not even that many people the hunt anything except the biggest buck in the county.

You are right that squirrel hunting isn't as big as it was when most boys could go with their friends within walking distance of the house. Lots of guys still have dogs though. If you get a well breed pup and get behind him a lot you can have a lot of fun. This website has a lot of good info about dog handling and they can help you find a pup too.

http://www.sqdog.com/

[Windjammer]

My cuz in Kentucky had a feist, a good one. This was 55 years ago. When we went squirrel huntin' we took his sister along.

She was so ugly she would scare the squirrels to death. We didn't have to shoot 'em.

[3leggedturtle]

My cuz in Kentucky had a feist, a good one. This was 55 years ago. When we went squirrel huntin' we took his sister along.

She was so ugly she would scare the squirrels to death. We didn't have to shoot 'em.

good thing i swallowed my pop b4 reading this comment

[damienph]

Terrors are some of the bravest and toughest pooches out there. My Boston is 22# of pure muscle, and he has stood toe to toe with 140lb labs and such, and never gave an inch. When he clamps down on something, it stays clamped until he decides different. He wupped up on a heeler that growled and snapped at me. Fast is an understatement for a good terror.

We have a seven month old Jack Russell female; yesterday evening, I went out to see what the commotion was on the porch and Bunny (the JR) was dragging our 4 year old Red Heeler female (who is pretty fearless herself) backwards by the tail. She is not afraid of anything, although she is learning that that while it is great fun to chase the barn cats, the fun stops abruptly once they are caught.

We also have a 10 year old Chocolate Lab female and a 5 year old Pit Bull male who both give the JR as wide a berth as possible.

There is no animal on our place that she cannot catch.

[Blaine]

Terrors are some of the bravest and toughest pooches out there. My Boston is 22# of pure muscle, and he has stood toe to toe with 140lb labs and such, and never gave an inch. When he clamps down on something, it stays clamped until he decides different. He wupped up on a heeler that growled and snapped at me. Fast is an understatement for a good terror.

We have a seven month old Jack Russell female; yesterday evening, I went out to see what the commotion was on the porch and Bunny (the JR) was dragging our 4 year old Red Heeler female (who is pretty fearless herself) backwards by the tail. She is not afraid of anything, although she is learning that that while it is great fun to chase the barn cats, the fun stops abruptly once they are caught.

We also have a 10 year old Chocolate Lab female and a 5 year old Pit Bull male who both give the JR as wide a berth as possible.

There is no animal on our place that she cannot catch.

When I retire, I might get a JR for Thor to have a buddy, and sadly, his replacement.

[L_Kilkenny]

I have a Fiest and also a German Jagdterrier. My fiest is a weird little dog but a pretty good hunter with good treeing instincts. I mainly used him on coon with the curs I used to have and my Jagd.

86'er........Pats are some of the toughest dogs I have ever seen. They are great, prehaps the best, hole dogs going but not a lot of tree in em and their tracking ability isn't so great either. They are great at winding critters in holes and behind wall but thats a different ball game.

For working above game a fiest or cur is the way to go. For a combination above and below ground work and for grit a Jagdterrier is tough to beat. Save the pats for below the ground work where they are without a doubt the finest, toughest hole dogs going.

LK

[Rusty]

My cousin in WV tried taking his wife out hunting so she could scare the squirrels down but she messed 'em up too bad.

There used to be no work got done in WV on the first day of squirrel or trout season, everybody was in the woods or in the water.

I was looking into a JRT when Jr. was younger. At the time there was a TV show called "Wishbone" about a dog by the same name. When I started doing research on them I found that once they start after something they won't give up till they get it. Around here we have gopher turtles. They dig large burrows in the ground and I could just see my new JRT going in a burrow after a gopher and never coming back.

[Triggernosis]

I'm leaning towards a feist right now. Curs are too big for me and jack russell's irritate me in general.

[Barcelona Rick]

Over the years I have owned (they really owned me) a feist/terrier mix and 4 Rat Terriers......they were all excellent dogs that loved to hunt.....they are also great family pets.....

rick

[Blaine]

Reminds me.....A friend has a little Rat Terror and if she puts him on a fly in the room, he'll stay after it forever, or until he gets it, or is released. Amazing concentration.

[DerekR]

I grew up hunting squirrels behind a feist and a rat terrier. The feist was a tenacious a treeing dog as I have ever seen. The rat terrier
wasn't quite as good, but made a better pet around the house. Squirrel hunting with a dog is great fun....it's a shame more people don't do it now. It is a great way to spend the day in the woods with a kid.

[Rusty]

Is anyone a member on that SDC forum? I found out you can't view the forums unless you're registered and they want name address and phone number to do that.

I don't want to borrow money, I just want to read the board???

[Triggernosis]

Rusty, I'm a member there but not a paying member. A non-paying member is limited to only 1 post per 24 hrs., but you can read all you want. Yes, you do have to provide your name and phone #, but I think that's a way of keeping out the riff-raff.
There appears to be some good folks there, much like here, but there's not a ton of activity.

[Rusty]

Thanks

[L_Kilkenny]

Keep in mind that "fiest" is kinda a generic term without much of a breed standard. They run the gamut from glorified rat terriers to small versions of curs. With all sorts of personalities and abilities. They can be laid back or yappy little dogs. They can handle good with lots of drive to please the handler or they can be as big a handful as any hound or hard hunting terrier. It will take lot's of research and wheel time to find what you want. Make sure to see the parents in a pet environment and in the timber.

Don't discount the curs either. IMO, they are little more consistent in their handling abilities and there are some lines that run less than 30-35 lbs. I've had 2 kemmer females, one would be lucky to tip the scales at 35 and the other at 40. Where as my fiest, while over weight, will tip the scales well over 30 lbs and if he was in hunting shape he'd be in the 28lbs range I'd guess, although much shorter and not nearly the legs a cur will have.

LK

[Triggernosis]

Thanks for that info, LK. So are you saying that, in general, I'd be more likely to find a mellow cur that would be more suitable for a pet than I would with a feist?
I think wheel time visiting different breeders would indeed be the best way to find the right one, though, regardless of what it is.

[L_Kilkenny]

I guess that would be it. Maybe mellow is the wrong word though. A fiest might be more prone to be terrier like while a cur is more "farm dog" like. Of coarse, none of that is written in stone. I've seen some curs (generally very tightly bred dogs) that were crazy and my fiest isn't a bounce off the wall kinda dog.

Fiest:


Jagd:


Bad quality and a few years old but you'll get the idea of what my dogs look like.

LK