American Foxhound

COUNTRY: USA

HEIGHT: 21-25 inches

COAT: Close and hard, not too short

COLOR: Any color

GROUP: Hound

Because America was a great melting pot for immigrants, it was also a large mixing cauldron for dogs as well. Immigrants from all over the world, if they could afford the passage, brought their dogs with them.

Colonial America was a vast wilderness in which hunting was not only a hobby but often a necessity. Hounds from many countries proved most useful in this young land and, in the spirit of democracy, little worry was wasted about pedigree and purity as long as the dogs were good hunters. Thus, the exact development of the American hounds is only generally known with much overlap, conflict and even fabrication of history.

Since so many of the settlers on American shores were British, it is only logical that the majority of the hounds came with them. English Foxhounds formed the general basis for the American version, but there were Irish, French and other additions as well.

One of the first packs was brought to America in 1650 by Robert Brooke of Maryland. They were black and tan and did well on the slower gray fox which went to ground sooner. Often recorded as English hounds, these dogs now are felt by many to be of the Irish Kerry Beagle type because of their color, size and style of working. With the introduction of the speedy English red fox to America in the 1700s, hunters soon wanted a hotter nosed animal with more speed, so dogs with more of an English type were used. Brooke's line became the basis for the Black and Tan Coonhound, which would be developed later.

George Washington was a dedicated fox hunter and maintained a choice breeding program and good records. French hounds given to him by Lafayette were used for their abilities and their beautiful voices. Many other breeders developed their own strains and types over the years, based on how the hounds were to be used.

Pioneers often hunted the fox with an American Foxhound and a gun, requiring a methodical dog with great nose and persistence. This type of hound was more akin to the French hounds or the German schweisshunds and was often used later for bigger game such as wild cats, boar, coyote and bear. Others pursued the fox, or renard, in a group with a pack of hounds. For the formal style of group hunting, many clubs did (and still do) use purebred English Foxhounds. But others, especially those who liked informal group night hunts, developed their own strains of rangier, leggier foxhounds.

These pack hounds are the closest to what is known by ARC as the American Foxhound. They are taller, a bit lighter boned, and longer eared than their English ancestors, but are close enough to often be mistaken for one another. Other hound fanciers favored competitive events with both night field trials and drag trials being developed. This necessitated the use of hounds that were not only faster and hotter nosed, but were more individualistic and competitive than those who happily cooperated in a pack.

For decades, this whole gamut of early "foxhounds" slowly separated into a variety of breeds and types. Hounds of the slower, individually hunting type developed into the cold-nosed American breeds such as the Black and Tan, the American Blue Gascon and the Majestic Tree Hound, as well as the Plott Hound. From the speedier, competitive dogs came the faster, treeing breeds like the Treeing Walker and the Redbone Coonhound. And from the middle ground, there remained a wide divergence of true Foxhounds.

Various strains of American Foxhounds have persisted over the years. Famous lines such as the Henry Birdsong and July hounds date from the early 1800s, as do the Walker strains from which the Coonhound of that name later developed. Any mixed breed hound that bears the solid tan color is often called a "July." The July-type American Foxhound, often of a solid red or tan color, is still used throughout the country for hunting coyote and other game. Colonel Haiden Trigg of Kentucky developed a renowned strain of blueticked, white-collared hounds in the late 1800s based on Walker, Birdsong and July dogs. The Trigg hound is often erroneously referred to as a separate breed. Modern hunts have developed their own strains, such as the currently well-known black/tan Perm Merrydales.

The AKC American Foxhounds is very small in actual registration numbers, even though the various strains, not registered with any formal body, represent a large population of American practical hunting hounds.