Hello Andy,
Thanks for taking the time to write.
Your questions seem to be this 1. can i hunt and catch hogs with three dogs? 2. What breeds should the other dogs be that can hunt and help the bull dog in the catching dept.? Well, the first question is easy. Yes, you can catch hogs with three dogs. You can catch em with one dog if you have the right dog. But he has to be a dandy. You didnt mention if you could use a gun or not or for that fact even if you want to. I have a good friend of mine that hunts by his self mostly and does it and has done it for years with two dogs, but he lets the dogs bay up the hog and then goes in with a 22 or 22 mag to harvest the hog. He uses blackmouth cur dogs or cur with a bit of hound mix. It gets to be a hand full if you have several dogs and hunt by your self some times. In reguards to your second question----what breed should the other dogs be to go along with you bull dog on the 3 dog maximum you mentioned you can kennel. Well, thats like opening up a can of worms with some hunters...hahaha Ive seen message boards on the net and talks around the campfire "come alive" when the "what breed is best" question comes up. Its always been my contention that its not the breed, its the dog and if he hunts like YOU AS THE OWNER of him/her like a dog to hunt. If the dog hunts like YOU WANT, it doesnt make any difference if hes a Heinz 57 stray off the side of the road. But since you want me to be more specific and are asking me what hotnosed breed "I would choose" with the same senerio, I would have to say one of the cur dog breeds, such as the blackmouth, catahoula, or even the tennesse brindle. These are the cur breeds that are around where I live. There are LOTS MORE BREEDS of cur dogs around the country. The cur dogs are predominately a hot nosed dog, and predominately a shorter ranging dog. But how ever there are those that will have cold noses and range longer as in any breed of hunting dog. If I was looking IN MY AREA for dogs as you described that your wanting and what your wanting to do and ones that would also catch, I would be looking for a cur dog with some bull dog in him, maybe as much as 1/2 bull dog. Where I live, alot of hunters have 1/2 cur and 1/2 bull dog hog dogs. But each area has its own type of rougher type dog. The down fall to having rough cur dogs is the rougher they are the easier it is to loose them to a hog. Dont get me wrong, I love to see a rough dog work and usually bring along two I refer to as the "calvary" to use as "stop dogs" when I hunt. But my main strike or find dogs arent real rough, they will catch when the bull dog does and will stop a hog. But I want a dog that will run quiet, has a medium to cold nose, with alot of hunt in him/her. But that type dog doesnt fit everyone. I just know that your "MONEY" dog, is the one that can find the hog,,,and I want him around alongggggggggg time.... I would suggest to not mess around raising two puppies in hopes that they will be what your after, bit the bullet, find you a hunter that has a couple of dogs for sale that seem to fit your bill, go hunting with him and watch those two dogs work BY THEM SELVES with the catch dogs on a leash.... Buy em in the woods and not over the phone is my suggestion....
Hope this helps, and good luck finding you the right dogs that will fit your hunting style.
Jim