The Mountain Cur is a type of working dog that is bred specifically for treeing and trailing small game, like squirrel and raccoons. They are also used for hunting and baying big game like bear and wild boar as well as being an all-purpose farm dog. The Mountain Cur was brought to America nearly two hundred years ago from Europe by the settlers of the mountains in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, then later Arkansas and Oklahoma, to guard family and property as well as chase and tree game. These dogs enabled the settlers to provide meat and pelts for personal use or trade, making them valuable in the frontier. With the advent of World War II, many of the families who had bred them left rural areas to work in factories in the war effort.