Do you remember when I told you about the Boston terrier, which is a totally American-made breed of dog? Well, the Catahoula leopard dog is another all-American breed, but with a funnier name. And the way it got this name is that it came from a place in Louisiana that is called Catahoula Parish. It is probably the very oldest American dog breed except for the dogs that American Indians used to have.
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| Catahoula Parish |
So the way the Catahoula breed got started was that when the Spaniards came to Louisiana in the 1500s, they brought some mastiffs and greyhounds with them. Then when they went back home, they left a bunch of dogs behind. So the native Americans bred the Spanish dogs with their own dogs, and they used these dogs for hunting game in the swamp.
The word
catahoula comes from two Choctaw words. One word is
okhata, which means "lake," and the other word is
hullo, which means "beloved." Then when the French came along in the l800s, they said the words kind of wrong and ended up with
catahoula.
Two famous people who had Catahoula dogs were Jim Bowie and his brother Rezin, who grew up in Catahoula Parish. These two men lived on the frontier and did all kinds of adventurous stuff, and they supposedly slept with their dogs at their feet, which is a good way to keep your feet warm, no matter where you are sleeping. And Teddy Roosevelt was another famous person who used Catahoula dogs when hunting.
In 1979, the governor of Louisiana signed a bill that made the Catahoula the official state dog of Louisiana because of the fact that that breed had been so important in the history of the area. And then in 2007, the Centenary College of Louisiana chose the Catahoula dog as its school mascot.
Sometimes the Catahoula leopard dog is called a "hound," but it is not really a hound, so this is not the right name for it. The "leopard" part of its name doesn't have anything to do with real leopards, which is good, because it would be really weird to cross a dog with a leopard. Mostly, the Catahoula is just called a leopard dog because it has all those spots on it like leopards do.
So now I already told you a little bit about what the Catahoula dog looks like, which is that it has a merle pattern of spots that make the solid colors look diluted. So for example, a dog with a black coat will have patches of grey or blue mixed in. And usually there is some white, too, or maybe even a lot of white. But the dogs that have lots of white are more likely to be deaf because deafness is a health problem that this breed sometimes has.
Catahoulas have all different eye colors, including blue, brown, gray, or amber. Some of them even have eyes that look like cracked glass or marble. And they might have more than one color in the same eye. Which makes them look a little spooky, but not in a bad way.
What Catahoula dogs are mostly used for is hunting game like feral pigs, squirrels, deer, raccoons, mountain lions, and black bears. They are popular as hunting dogs in many parts of the U.S. and they are getting to be more popular in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. And besides hunting, they are also good at herding cattle and pigs. The United Kennel Club recognizes Catahoulas and includes them in the Herding Dog group.
Catahoula dogs make good family dogs if they can get plenty of exercise, like at least an hour of really hard exercise every day. They are smart and loyal and they are good guard dogs. But they have lots of energy and they might want to be the boss of the whole family, so they should probably go to obedience class and then practice their obedience lessons often. Also they can climb fences and some Catahoulas can even climb trees!
The way that Catahoula dogs do herding is very rough, and the way they play with other dogs is rough, too. Besides which, they do not do well with other Catahoulas of the same sex, and if two girls or two boys are alone together, they could get into a bad fight.
So anyway, Catahoula dogs are good dogs for some situations, but not for other ones. If you live in an apartment, you should probably not adopt a Catahoula leopard dog. But if you live on a farm, and you want some help hunting or rounding up your livestock, then this might be the right breed for you. Personally, I think they are really cool-looking dogs, but I don't think I would want to live with one, and Mom feels pretty much the same way!
