Editor’s Note: Throughout the history of America, dogs have played a major role in the everyday lives of explorers, early frontiersmen and Native Americans and continue to do so today. When families first settled here, everybody able in the family had to work the family farm. So, they used a different kind of babysitter. The teenagers and the adults would leave the children playing in the front yard and their dog on the porch, watching and protecting the children and the house, while Mom, Dad and the older kids plowed, planted and picked crops.

People raising sheep used Scottish collies, which were considered very intelligent, to guard and herd their dogs. Southerners liked cur dogs to catch wild cattle and pigs in the swamps and palmettos of the region and bring them to catch pens.

The Civil War’s Dogs:

At Camp Sumpter, a Confederate prisoner of war camp for Union soldiers, near Andersonville, Georgia, soldiers used dog packs to track and maul escapees lead by two bloodhounds descended from Spanish dogs in Cuba first brought by explorers. According to eyewitnesses, these dogs  were, “like wolves.”

Dogs throughout history have been an integral part of civilization since the beginning of time. As Tim Cosby reports, “This country homed native dogs in the beginning, and the dogs brought by immigrants to the U. S. bred with the native dogs. My cur squirrel dog Mig has ancestors among the first dogs in America.”

Know about the Domestication of Dogs from the History Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCLQ_8I1paY

Learn Your Dog’s Ancestry:

Do you own a mixed breed dog that worked for and lived with the early frontiersmen? You can find out by having your dog’s DNA tested. According to many veterinarians, these are the top two companies for testing your dog’s DNA:

* Embark Dog DNA Breed Identification Test – https://embarkvet.com/ – Embark delivers a detailed family tree, as well as shows a dog’s wolf percentage and also offers a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I2ngxIk-gc.

* Mars Veterinary Wisdom Panel 3.0 Breed Identification – http://www.wisdompanel.com – This DNA test checks for over 250 types of dogs and shows three generations of ancestry.

Also to learn more about dogs’ DNA, go to the article, https://wiki.ezvid.com/best-dog-dna-tests?id=adw&gclid=Cj0KEQjwrYbIBRCgnY-OluOk89EBEiQAZER58sPlgXVUkdt6f5V3h10OTFpiNw2L7pHf40qExghLF2MaAs9o8P8HAQ

Visit the Registry of Curs and Feists:

These associations today register curs and feists:

* the Original Mountain Cur Breeders Association – http://www.omcba.com/

* the Kemmer Stock Breeders Association – http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/k/kemmerstockmountaincur.htm

* the American Treeing Feist Association – http://www.americantreeingfeist.com/

Curs and feists are registered too by the National Kennel Club (http://www.nationalkennelclub.com/) and the United Kennel Club

(https://www.ukcdogs.com/).

Wage War with Dogs:

China, Mongolia, India, Japan, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe all had long traditions

of using dogs in war. The Egyptians did too with dogs resembling mastiffs portrayed in 5,000

year old hieroglyphics.

See Cur Videos:

* “Tim Cosby with His Dog Mig and the History of the Cur Dog” – https://youtu.be/Fx1kCAYQjkk

* “Curs and Feists Helped to Provide Food for the Frontiersmen and Their Families” – https://youtu.be/4gavWLNn770

* “The Difference Between a Cur Dog and a Feist Dog” – https://youtu.be/2Fh9wU8emCo

To learn more about a wide variety of outdoor subjects, in Kindle eBooks and print and Audible books including hunting, fishing and cooking, go to www.amazon.com/author/johnephillips.