I obtained our first pair of yellow Mt. Cur pups in 1973. They turned out to be good tree dogs but lacked the nose to be great tree dogs, so they were sold and replaced with hounds.

Mike Bloodgood with his first Yellow Mtn. Curs in 1973 (Kate & Rusty at 10 months old)

     After owning, raising, and training some outstanding coon hounds under the Black River Kennel name for over 20 years and finding it harder and harder to find good hounds that handled well, we remembered our first Mt. Curs and tried to locate some good Mt. Cur's that could tree every bit as good, but would handle better than our great hounds of that time.

Mike Bloodgood with Black River Rock and two weeks of coon taken in 1977.
Mike Bloodgood with Black River Angel in 1985 with one nights coons	PA State Nt. Ch. Black River Rambler 1986

     In 1987 the Mountain View Kennel was formed in Afton, New York and was owned and operated by Michael and Marie Bloodgood, now of Bonnieville, Kentucky.

     The search for curs that could fit this bill, proved to be a very difficult and challenging task. Always liking a challenge and having a good paying job as an Aerospace Machinist, we spared no expense and tried 56 OMCBA registered Mt. Curs, only finding 6 that we considered to be top tree dogs. We found that 4 of the 6 were of a certain stock or ancestry. When checking our records, we found that half of the 56 Mt. Curs tried were of the same  breeding ( Kemmer bred). That’s 4 out of 28 dogs tried. I know of another breeder in Canada that tried the Kemmer Stock and only got 1 out of 29. So we knew it probably wasn't  just our bad luck.

     We concentrated on these 4 registered Original Mt. Curs,  three females and one young male, because they were all related. One female was removed because her pups lacked brains and ability and in 1991 one female (Mtn. View Gypsie) was culled because of her grand sire was found to be a "Pit bull" and she produced very ill tempered dogs when they matured. This left one exceptional reproducing female (Mtn. View Dance) and one exceptional male (Mtn. View Gold Nugget) the first two corner stones for the  foundation of the Mountain View Cur breed. That’s 2 out of 56 OMCBA registered, or 2 out of 28 Kemmer bred.

H/F CTD Mtn. View Dance See Hall of Fame for a full list of titles erned.

H/F CTD Mtn. View Guld Nugget at 3 months old Treeing! See Hall of Fame for a full list of titles erned.

Later another outstanding  male cousin to Mtn. View Gold Nugget (Mtn. View Buckshot) and an outstanding female (Mtn. View KY Lady) was added because of their outstanding natural treeing abilities, to the breeding program and they proved themselves as great reproducers as well.

H/F CTD Mtn. View Buckshot See Hall of Fame for a full list of titles.

H/F CTD Mtn. View KY Lady See Hall of Fame for a full list of titles.

All of the IPDBA registered dogs today carry all four of these dogs in their blood lines. A few other select good Mt Curs had been test bred, to widen the gene pool, but were all found to be producers of pups that were not of the same high percentage nor quality, so were not added into the breed, with the excepting being Down's Anne who was added to 

     In 1992 the Kemmer Stock Breeders Association Registry was started, and in an effort to keep the line pure as possible, we registered our curs with them. When the KSBA began they started with all pure Kemmer bred Mt. Curs. But many practice breeding non-proven tree dogs (some culls) and continuing to register other stocks of curs (Busher, York, Streak, etc.) regardless of breeding and crossing one stock with another was becoming the norm.

    While serving as KSBA President and Director, I tried to get the club to follow its own Constitution to preserve this breed, but most of the leadership seemed more interested in making  money to purchase land and building  a club house at that time, than in preserving the dogs and improving the BREED.

    We competition them against all breeds and won the National Coon Championship 4 years in a row in four different States, Winning the North Eastern Classic Nite Hunt, Sq. Hunt and Show, Winning the Kentucky State Championship, plus many of our male and female MVC's became NT.CH., SQ.CH., & Show CH.'s as well as Gr. Nt.Ch., as well 1995 Sunshine Mills High Point Male and Female of the Year and much more.  In 12 hunts, our MVC's won EVERY Cast beating every dog they were hunted with and had 9 firsts, 2 seconds and 1 third place. Because of their domination in the hunts, it was clear that we were being taken to brush lots full of rabbits, instead of coon or squirrel woods or corn fields, like other casts. Our MVC's managed to beat every dog in their cast every time no matter the conditions.

     Realizing that the MOUNTAIN VIEW CUR quality was unique from most other OMCBA and KSBA registered dogs and fearing of loosing this natural treeing bloodline and outstanding reproducing qualities if we stayed, eleven dedicated Mt. Cur breeders who all had our dogs and also felt they needed to be preserved them for generations to come, including myself all resigned from the KSBA.

The Mountain View CurTM

     These eleven founders felt that to preserve them from being crossed bred with other Mt. Curs, they should be register as a separate breed and with a registry that would "certify tree dogs" before they would be used for breeding, and would assure us that no other stock could be registered in their breed.

     In  April of 1995 the American Squirrel and Night Hunters Assoc. was chosen to hold the Mountian View Cur registry. The name Mountain View Cur was chosen for two reasons. One was that the founders knew of the great reputation of Mountain View Kennel and it being well known in the cur dog world already. The second reason was that Mrs. Kemmer asked us not to use their name or to give them any credit. Since the Kemmer's didn't want credit for all 28 including the 24 bad ones, the founders could understand why.

     Because of  policy changes after they were registered in the ASANHA to no longer certify tree dogs before they could be used for breeding, the Breed Advisers felt that the Mountain View Cur® should find a registry that would certify the dogs as tree dogs as ASANHA had originally promised, so in the fall of 1996 the Mountain View Cur Registry was formed as a subsidiary of the International Progressive Dog Breeders' AllianceTM (All breed Registry) until enough Mtn. View Curs were registered to be eligible for IPDBA registration. In 2001 Mountain View Curs were then eligible to be registered with the same strict policies of certification in the International Progressive Dog Breeders' Alliance 'IPDBA' registry.  IPDBA recognizes over 500 dog breeds around the world and has over 4 million dogs in it's all breed data base today.

    The MOUNTAIN VIEW CUR trademark is owned by Michael J. and Marie A. Bloodgood, of Bonnieville, Kentucky and  may only be used with their authorization and is not to be use by any other dog registry, or persons without permission.

    Permission to use the MOUNTAIN VIEW CURTM  name has only been given to the International Progressive Dog Breeders' Alliance (Registry) to assure certification will be enforced before any MVC can be used for breeding. The MOUNTAIN VIEW CURTM is an established purebred, no longer recognized as a family line or stock within a breed, but a separate unique breed that will stay a pure unique breed.

    Our motto has always been to "Breed for Quality, not Quantity, on Ability, not Myth".

    Because, the MVC's has excelled in so many canine fields, with many genes being lost and no credit given, the MVCA now allows the following types of Certification for the Mountain View Cur Breed;