If you want to know about the history of pack hounds, as well as their breeding, training, and what happens to them when they are retired, check out the blog Full Cry.
I come from Appalachian fox chasing stock. My maternal grandfather still keeps a small pack of Walker foxhounds, and my paternal grandfather kept a pack of Walkers and Triggs.
Fox chasing is a bit different from fox hunting, though. In the Appalachians, hounds are run at night, and no horse or red jacket is to be seen. A bonfire is built, and the chasers listen to the foxhounds as they run the foxes.
No one would kill a red fox. Their pelts aren’t worth it these days.
And the red fox is not as common in this part of the world as the gray. The gray is not a popular animal for fox-chasers, simply because the gray will climb a tree to avoid the dogs, which ends the chase rather quickly.
That is why the dogs are trained to go for red foxes only.
I’m by no means an expert on pack hounds, so if you want to know more about them, check out Full Cry.
Hello, Retrieverman. Just wanted to thank you for mentioning Full Cry so favorably and adding us to your blog roll! I’m also very pleased to know about the Walker and Trigg and nighthunting connections your family has. There’s a good bit of Walker blood around here in Kentucky, and the nighthunting tradition still survives in this area, as in other places like Texas. And it’s probably still enjoyed by many in Appalachia, too. We’ll have to do a post about nighthunting and the type of hound it produced (“independent” is the word that springs most readily to mind, and certainly the Walkers I’ve know have that trait in abundance).
Glenye Oakford
http://www.houndwelfare.wordpress.org
A very neat website. When I was growing up in midstate N.C., “nighthunting” for fox was very common–many’s the night you could go outside and hear the hounds “working”. And I often found and returned stray fox hounds(they always had I. D. collars) to their owners. These hounds weren’t necessarily lost; just reluctant to stop hunting and return to their masters! I also encountered some of this type of fox hunting when I moved to Western N.C./East Tennessee in the late ’70’s, but alas, it has been many years since I have seen or heard a foxhound hunting outside of a pen. I think development and the automobile has about destroyed this type of hunting……
What a coincidence, Lane. I grew up in Eastern NC, in Greenville. I do think there’s a lot less nighthunting than there used to be, but it seems to be hanging on in some pockets of the country. The hunt I ride with used to have a good bit of Walker blood, but their independence proved difficult when coyote moved in and became the dominant game instead of the slower, circling foxes. We’ve adapted by introducing more English blood, particularly from the ST-Carlow line.
What a small world, it is indeed! Yeah, isolated pockets–I guess I am one of those(although my two hounds do not just hunt fox! We are kinda “trashy”! Have you read my trailhound series on the Steve Bodio “Querencia” blog? My next installment will deal with my secretive, tenuous hunting with my hounds in a civilized, developed and sometimes hostile environment for such!) One question I had for you, houndblogger, is what advantage does the English import stock bring to your hunt? Are they closer rangers, and more obedient? I know when my hounds hit a hot coyote track, they are GONE, across country! My little, aged Black-And-Tan won’t pursue long, though, and drops the trail and circles back to me purty quickly(she prefers to trail fox over anything, and won’t persist long on any trail but fox). My scratchin’gravel, savage Sam of a firy young Bluetick will keep the coyotes moving all night sometimes, which the coyotes often take the time to verbally express their feelings about it!
Your description of your hounds on a hot coyote scent is pretty much what our experience was like when we had a strong Walker influence in the pack, too. I should hasten to say here that I am not the huntsman, so I can only pass along what those who have hunted our hounds say, and what I have seen from being out with them. The English hounds have plenty of speed and strength for chasing coyote, but they are substantially more biddable. We don’t hunt them in a tight squad, which would be difficult in pursuing coyote anyway, I would think, so they can and do range, but they are highly biddable and responsive as compared to the Walker blood. All that Walker independence on a fast coyote meant you could lose them pretty quick.
I haven’t read your trailhound series but will definitely check that out!
Do you call your hounds back with a hunting horn, and do you use different calls to mean different things? I use a horn when the hounds are some distance away(just an old cow horn, but amazing how far that travels on a still night!), and it is just a contact call, more or less–my hounds usually come back in to see what’s up(previous food rewards may be responsible for this reaction!), and then head back out, unless, of course, it is time to head in for the night(and I endeavor to make sure every time I call them in DOES NOT mean the hunt is over!)….And when you check out my segments on Querencia, you will have to go back in the older posts a ways–there are 4 parts so far(I try to get one in a month).
My grandpa has an early nineteenth century hunting horn made from an ox’s horn.
It was originally owned by an early settler to what was then Trans-Allegheny Virginia.
Our huntsman does use a hunting horn, and there are a few different calls meaning different things–which I suspect is as much for the mounted field to be able to know what’s happened! For example, I doubt the hounds know the particular difference between the horn sounding “gone to ground” versus “gone away,” but they certainly do listen for her horn and come to it when they are away from her. She also gives a brief blast when she’s setting off, and they clearly know that means “Gather up and come with me, we’re setting out,” because they immediately pack up and follow. She also uses her voice a lot, and they are highly responsive to that. It’s the same with the beagle pack I hunt with. Hounds that get separated will stop and listen for the horn, then, hearing it, take off immediately toward the sound.
One thing I find fascinating is that hounds seem to understand that the horn is a universal sound for “come to me,” but they also seem to know one horn is different from another. Our hunt has found that with hounds we’ve imported from England, that they seem to find our huntsman’s horn somehow different from the one they’re used to. But they soon decide that, right, that’s still a horn, I’ll run to it. So I suspect they do get accustomed to their particular huntsman’s style or identify with their huntsman’s horn.
Retrieverman, that sounds like a beautiful horn (I guess it’s a horn horn!), and it’s amazing that it’s lasted that long. I did a blog piece a couple of weeks ago about hunting horns made by the famous English firm Keat, and the man that runs it now said one of their biggest markets now is in replacement horns–and these are made of nickel, copper, or silver! It’s amazing, he said, how many ways you can kill a horn. Of course, one of the features of modern hunting that your horn’s owner wouldn’t have faced is the motorized four-wheeler and the hound truck, both apparently major causes of horn-squashing today!
The next time at his house, I’m going to get a photograph of it.
He’s very proud of it.
I hope you’ll post that photo!
Absolutely.