Early in the summer of 2017, the Mountain Cur was added to the AKC’s Foundation Stock Service, but while the breed may be new to the AKC, it’s hardly new to the United States. American settlers so valued the Mountain Cur that if the dogs couldn’t be transported on a wagon, horse or donkey, families would carry them in their arms. The dogs protected their families from wild animals or bandits, hunted, and drove cattle and hogs. They were particularly indispensable to pioneers in the Southern Mountains; money realized from fur pelts hunted by curs paid for many necessities facing a family in the 1940s.

That the dog could hunt, herd, and protect is explained by its ancestry. Forbears were most likely dogs brought by Europeans settling in the New World, mostly hounds and terriers. These dogs were crossed with the Indian Cur and other native dogs resulted in a dog that would eventually be named the Mountain Cur. Herding ability is attributed by some to the Beauceron that was introduced in the early years of the dog’s development.

The industrial revolution brought a lot of mountain settlers to urban areas leading to a decline of the Mountain Cur population. In the 1950s, four individuals who became alarmed by the dwindling numbers founded the Original Mountain Cur Breeders’ Association.  Hugh Stephens, Woody Huntsman, Carl McConnell and Dewey Ledbetter had been brought together by their interest in the breed through the Mountain Music Magazine, and it is because of them (and a few die-hard owners who kept some dogs in remote mountain regions of the southeast) that the breed didn’t die out. The Mountain Cur was declared a breed in 1957, and was recognized by the United Kennel Club in 1998.

So what kind of dog did these men preserve?

A gamey, courageous and extremely intelligent dog for whom it’s important to have a job. Curs are a powerfully built breed recognized in six colors and three markings. They have excellent scenting abilities, a loud and resounding bay, and an incomparable hunting tenacity attributed to terrier blood. This isn’t a submissive, “chill” or easygoing dog. They have the toughness and courage to confront an angry big cat cat, and many a Cur died fighting to protect their family from attackers or dangerous predators.

Image of a Mountain Cur found on Pinterest and happily credited upon receipt of information