Dear David,
Hello to you down under.... Glad to see you take the time to write me. Your question-- " do catahoulas have a exceptional nose, are they fast, do they have stamina, will they bail (I think that means "bay only")? Good question, our terminology is different, but I think I get the point your question. You mention as you drive along and they jump off, well if you have the dog on the hood or on the box we call this over here eiether hood hunting or rig hunting. you mention--"they are trained to not run anything else" we refer to this as a dog being "Trash broke" you mention---"scent finding dogs", this is referred to over here as a dog being "Hot Nosed" which means the track or scent is real recent and fresh,,,, or we refer to it as a dog being "Cold Nosed" which means a dog will run a track that is several hours old sometimes even up in the teens. Now, in reguards to your question. A catahoula is one of the versital cur dog breeds we have over here. A well bred one from the right kennel or owner will have agility, speed and stamina. Will ALL OF THEM bay, find, or catch hogs? Of course not. Thats why its important to get one from a hunter with a good reputation for raising and breeding hog hunting catahoulas. But if you can find a good one, you will have a good dog. In reguards to the trailing ability.....hope I dont step on any toes by saying this..... but USUALLY and PREDOMINITLY these dogs are hot nosed dogs and will not stay on a track or bay a hog forever, an hour or so tops. There are exceptions of course. Thats why i say predominitly and usually. They usually hunt for 30-45 minutes and check back in with you like most curs do rather than the long ranging that hounds usually do. But as I said, there are exceptions, as there are in all breeds. An example would be that all bull dogs dont catch, most do, but some dont. If you were a close friend of mine and asked me for a dog with "exceptional scenting ability" (Cold Nosed in our U.S. terminology), I would suggest a hound. There are basically 6 breeds of hounds, and each breed has strains that are bred for big game, such as bear, lion and wild hogs. There are some cold nosed curs out there with long ranging ability, that are full curs, but they are far and inbetween. This is one of those questions thats a little touchy to answer since so many people hunt with good catahoulas or cur dogs. Most of my dogs are hot or medium nosed cur dogs also, but I also hunt with silent running hounds with cold noses when the tracks are not fresh. Hope this helped.
Good hunting,
Jim