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producing the best breed documentaries on YouTube.
(dog barks)
- [Miguel] I first got into the Dogo Argentino
looking for a protection dog for my house.
And I researched plenty of breeds,
but the Dogo pretty much had everything I was looking for.
I needed a intimidating looking dog,
I needed a dog that had drive,
'cause my lifestyle was hiking,
and I needed a dog that was good with the family also,
and the Dogo had all of that.
(upbeat electronica music)
My name's Miguel, and I'm here, it's Sunday,
beautiful, beautiful day in Southern California.
I'm here with couple of my dogs,
my friend Jose from Esparza Kennels,
my kids, and we take 'em out.
We like to take our dogs out regularly,
about once a week,
to give them a little bit of work,
to kind of simulate the hunt that they would do in Texas.
You know, about a five mile hike on these trails.
Here in California, we're very limited into
what work we can give the dog as far as hunting.
So, what I like to do is do stuff like this
out on trails that kind of simulates a hunt,
but I also like to go out with other hunters
that track down raccoon with their dogs.
It's a good fight for the Dogo.
I've been out with hunters that track down bear.
Of course, every time I go we've never had any luck.
They tree the bears.
And I like to take my dogs, because running with the hounds,
and it's all great training and exercise for them.
There's other big dogs out there,
there are bigger dogs out there,
but none of 'em compare to the Dogo Argentino.
The Dogo Argentino has the elegance,
has the drive,
has the temperament,
is good with the family, loves kids,
good with other dogs, tolerable of other males,
loves people,
and at the same time will protect you.
I've found a breeder that had a
really good working line here in the States.
Build a good relationship with the breeder,
and that same year I was taking my dog
out hunting with that breeder.
And ever since then,
I do about five trips a year down to Texas.
When I bring my dogs outdoors,
they immediately know they're gonna have fun.
And I can't bring all of 'em all the time,
so I try to bring an adult dog that knows what to do,
and then I try to bring a couple young pups.
But they already know,
they already know where they're going,
they already know what they're gonna do,
and sometimes, whether we take the long drive to Texas,
they know there's gonna be a peak,
so they get real excited about that.
The reason why we're not out here with hogs today
is because it's not allowed in California.
So, all the hunting that we do here,
that we do, is out in Texas.
It's a 20 hour drive
that we do about five times a year,
but if 20 hours, if that's what it takes
to get our dogs work, we do it.
So, it's a mission.
Texas is not ... it's not in our backyard,
but we do it to test the dogs out,
and to get 'em as much work as possible.
The run down in Texas is, we load the dogs in the truck.
Once we get to the location,
we find a good spot where to start
and we let the bay dogs out.
Now, we're side by side with the bay dogs,
either walking or in a truck.
Now, the dogs stay in the truck.
Once the bay dogs pick up a scent, we carefully listen.
When we hear the bay dogs, we release the catch dogs,
and the catch dogs go straight to where the noise is,
and they bite.
So, as a hunter, you wanna get there as quickly as possible,
because every minute with the boar
that might weigh 300-400 pounds,
your dog's life is at risk.
So, a Dogo is also a smart biter.
Now, it doesn't just bite a hog
and just try to destroy it like if it was a fight.
Like, a Dogo should bite and hold,
so it'll save a lot more energy that way.
If it's just trying to tear up the hog,
it's energy expenditure is too much,
so you try to get there as quickly as possible
to dispatch of the hog.
A lot of people think that the Dogo kills the hog,
and the Dogo does not kill the hog.
The Dogo just catches it, and it holds it enough
for the hunter to get there in time to kill it.
What I like to take out to Texas, the Dogos that I like,
good size, but you don't want them overly big.
You've gotta remember that the Dogo is gonna be out running,
out running, tracking for miles,
so you want a good size dog, but you also don't want 'em
too big where they'll tire out too quickly.
Like many working dogs,
the Dogo Argentino's form leads to its function.
He's a catch dog, so as a catch dog,
a very important thing it needs to have all its teeth.
The Dogo has 42 teeth,
maybe 43, 44 on bigger mouths,
but 42 teeth is what you want.
You want a complete mouth, 'cause that's
where it's gonna have all its power.
Now, you want a good size mouth in a Dogo.
Not too long, like a Great Dane,
but you also don't want a Boxer mouth either.
You want a nice one-to-one ratio
where the mouth is the same length as the head.
That's ideal for the hunt.
And that has a nice,
you know, lung capacity.
And how does he have that? With nice big open nostrils,
big chest, big cavity for breathing.
You also want the dog is ...
the dog is, it's gonna run, so you
want them to be as straight as possible.
Straight stance, slight angulation,
and a well defined muscular tone.
Well, I prefer males around 110 tops, lean,
and females around 100 lean.
That's for full grown, full grown adult Dogos.
When hunting boar, you want at least
three seasoned Dogos out there with you,
and maybe one up and coming one,
as well as the bay dogs, you know,
the bay dogs also help with that.
The bay dog is a dog that will pick up the scent of a boar,
and will make loud barking once it bays it,
and it does that so the Dogo could hear it,
or the hunter could hear it,
and the Dogo will go straight to the bark.
Any time you run Dogos, you want to take bay dogs.
It's gonna make the work for the Dogo a lot easier.
In Texas, we run Catahoulas,
and what's interesting in Argentina,
they don't necessarily use the Catahoula mixes.
They mix Dogo with greyhound,
and they've mixed Dogo with pointer,
to create a different type of bay dog.
Now, that bay dog doesn't necessarily just bay,
like, that bay dog will bite as well,
but it's a more versatile dog that has a better nose.
So, they use those as bay dogs out there in Argentina.
In Texas, it's just straight Catahoulas,
and it's hard to get one of those to bite first.
Usually, the Catahoulas in Texas,
they'll wait for the Dogo to get there.
To me, I like to start the dogs out
with hunting as early as possible.
So, if I go to Texas and there's
a pup that's three months, it's going.
If I go to Texas and there's a pup
that's six months, it's going, too.
Like, I don't waste any opportunity
when I go to Texas, since we don't go that often.
The young pups that are learning, they go with me.
When they go with me, they don't necessarily
go out on the full out hunt,
they just go in the dog box,
get used to being with the other dogs,
they get to, if there's a hog out there,
if a hunter's caught a hog, we let them
do a little pin test with the hogs.
A pin test is where, you know, get a hog their size,
it's not gonna hurt 'em, and let them
build their drive on it, let 'em chase it around.
The Dogo, I would go as far as saying
that the Dogo is the ultimate dog.
It could do pretty much anything you want it to do.
If you want it to hunt,
the dog could hunt.
Now, how well can it hunt?
It all depends on you, how much work you put in,
and depending of if you got a good bloodline.
They adapt to any type of situation.
I've seen 'em in apartments,
I've seen 'em in the snow,
I've seen 'em in the, you know, the desert, in the heat.
They adapt to all of that.
And really, the Dogo is what you make of it.
It's a very versatile dog.
The Dogo Argentino's temperament is outstanding.
At home, they will sit next to you,
they adore your family.
And then when you take 'em out on the hunt,
they hit a switch, they know it's pig catching time,
and they have the drive,
they have the fearlessness to do that.
And you could take 'em right out of there
and back to the family setting,
they hit the switch, right back.
Just because it's a hunting dog
doesn't make it a dangerous dog.
A Dogo Argentino is really only one.
It's a dog that you could take on the hunt,
and after it's proven itself in all of that,
you take it out in the show ring
to show its beauty, to show its elegance.
A Dogo Argentino should be able to do all of that.
Every time we go out on a hunt,
there's always a story to tell,
and there's always a bond that
gets closer depending on that dog.
There's been times where I've thought a dog was lost
and it wasn't, it was out holding a hog
for about 10 minutes 'til we got there.
And those are the stories that go as closer
with those dogs, with the dogs,
the stories that we build every time we go out.
Every hunt is memorable,
and it builds that bond between the Dogo and you.
I wouldn't hunt if it wasn't for the Dogo,
and I wouldn't want a Dogo now if I didn't hunt.
So, hunting with the Dogo is what I like to do.
And I've been hunting without a Dogo,
without a dog of my own, and it's not the same,
I'm not into the hunt.
When I take my own dogs, I'm, like, engaged, you know.
It's all about seeing how well they bite,
seeing how well they follow directions.
I'm more engaged.
I wouldn't go out hunting now
if I don't take one of my own dogs.
They're just not as fun, they're not as exciting.