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The short answer for Mountain Curs is that barking rates 4 out of 5 in the breed record, and lived experience matches the number: this is a dog that announces visitors, narrates the walk and files reports from the window. The breed behind the voice is a medium Non-Sporting dog of 30 to 60 lb, standing 16 to 26 inches, with a lifespan of 14 to 16 years, so the voice is a decade-long arrangement, not a puppy phase. A Mountain Cur is rarely barking at nothing; it is barking at something it considers worth reporting, which means the owner's job is less about silencing the dog and more about shortening the report and rewarding the quiet that follows it.
Puppies are bright, keen charmers; adults are devoted, capable companions. Mountain Curs are intelligent, tough and deeply devoted, with a pioneer's versatility and a family's sweetness. Fourteen to sixteen years is among the longest spans in this index for a dog this size. United States produced the Mountain Cur, a medium sized scent hound bred to follow scent trails for hours, on game from rabbits to boar, baying so hunters can follow. Food motivation is total, which helps training and hurts waistlines.
It helps to see the rating in its cluster. The Mountain Cur's record reads Good with children for children, Good with dogs for other dogs and Friendly with strangers for strangers, and a dog's barking is mostly aimed at exactly those three audiences: the family it lives with, the dogs it meets and the strangers it announces. The barking score of 4 out of 5 was assigned inside that picture, not in isolation: breeds developed to work at a distance from people often kept their voices, breeds developed underfoot often lost them, and the Mountain Cur still carries whatever its own history decided about the value of being heard.
Expect the voice at transitions. A Mountain Cur barks when the day changes gear: people leaving, people returning, the lead coming out, the car arriving, another dog appearing at the park fence. Add the door, the doorbell and the evening settle that never quite settles, and the pattern is complete: this is not a dog barking at nothing. It is a dog with a 4 out of 5 voice living in a world full of things it considers worth a headline, and the owner's work is editing the list, not burning the newspaper.
It rates flats as possible with the full woods program genuinely delivered. Treeing is bred in; the owner's curriculum is manners, a settle, lead manners, recall proofed with hunting honesty (secure areas and long lines in game country), and cooperative care.
The rest of the record rounds the picture out. The record's color line for the Mountain Cur reads: The standard accepts a range of colors and patterns, and individual markings vary a lot. The coat is described as Short, dense coat that may be smooth or rough, lying close with a softer undercoat beneath, with grooming effort rated 3 of 5 and shedding at 3 of 5. The breed's known health watch points, Hip dysplasia, Eye conditions and Weight management, quietly shape the noise question in the senior years, when senior status arrives around age 8 years and hearing, joints and routine all change how a dog experiences its street. The barking verdict on this page describes the typical adult; the whole record describes the dog whose barking it will actually be.
The comparison set on the record sharpens the picture. The Mountain Cur's closest matches here, the Cantabrian Water Dog, the Portuguese Water Dog and the Anglo-Français de Petite Vénerie, carry their own barking scores, and the spread across that shortlist shows how much the voice can move inside one build and coat type. Cross shoppers get more from comparing the full records side by side than from any single number, which is why each name on the shortlist carries its own page on this site.
Be honest about the environment, because it is half the instrument. A Mountain Cur left facing a busy pavement through glass will bark at the pavement; the same dog with the blinds drawn at peak hours and its exercise done is a different neighbor. Sound masking helps at night, distance from the fence line helps in the garden, and a household rule of never opening the door mid-bark, waiting for the pause and rewarding it, slowly teaches the dog that quiet is the key that opens things. Then teach the two cues that matter, a settle that means the show is over and a recall away from the window that pays better than the street does. Reward quiet in the seconds after a bark rather than shouting over it, because a human shouting reads to a Non-Sporting dog as joining in, and this breed takes encouragement seriously.
Senior status arrives around eight for this long lived breed: twice yearly checks, joint friendly exercise and continued gentle rambles. Puppies need socialization, gradual exercise building and training foundations in short sessions.
The numbers an owner plans around: a Mountain Cur stands 16 to 26 inches, weighs 30 to 60 lb and lives 14 to 16 years. Its exercise need is 60 to 90 minutes a day, and that line is the single strongest predictor of tonight's noise level in most homes. Barking 4 of 5, energy 4 of 5, trainability 3 out of 5. A small dog's 4 out of 5 and a giant dog's 4 out of 5 are different acoustic events, which is why the size lines belong on a page about noise: pitch, volume and the neighbor's tolerance all scale with the dog producing them.
Sometimes, and sometimes it gives you stereo. The Mountain Cur's own numbers frame it: shedding at 3 out of 5, grooming at 3 out of 5, and a height of 16 to 26 inches, which is the household this voice has to fit into. A companion can drain the boredom and loneliness out of a Mountain Cur's day, and boredom is a common fuel for barking in a breed needing 60 to 90 minutes of exercise and company to match. But dogs also learn each other's songs: pair a vocal dog with another vocal breed and the duet is a real risk. Choose the second dog for its own record, its bark score included, and introduce it as company, not as a noise treatment with a heartbeat. Owners describe a dog of antiquity and quality: the original American cur, the dog that helped settle the mountains and never asked for anything but work and family.
Read two lines of the record together: barking at 4 out of 5 and apartment suitability rated With enough exercise. For the Mountain Cur specifically, a Non-Sporting dog whose exercise needs run 60 to 90 minutes a day, that plays out in daily routines rather than in occasional big fixes. A low score with a good apartment rating is the easy yes. A high score means the honest answer depends on your walls, your neighbors and your willingness to run the management program on this page every day. What never works is hoping the dog did not get the memo about its own breed: a Mountain Cur will be exactly as vocal as its record says, in whatever building it lives in. Owners describe the complete frontier dog: the animal that did every job a new country could invent.
Often, yes, and the record's dog rating, Good with dogs, frames why. In the Mountain Cur's case the setting matters as much as the rule: this is a breed with high energy and a bark level of 4 out of 5, so its voice is heard against a fairly specific home backdrop. Barking at dogs is usually one of three things: a greeting that overshoots, frustration at a lead or fence that prevents a greeting, or a warning to keep distance. The Mountain Cur's score, 4 out of 5, predicts the volume of whichever it is. A dog that is exercised, 60 to 90 minutes a day for this breed, and taught to settle and look back at its owner owns a volume control that an under exercised dog simply does not have.
Last updated: November 11, 2026