- COUNTRY: USA
- HEIGHT: 21-27 inches
- COAT: Short, hard
- COLOR: Mainly redtick, also bluetick, tricolor with ticks, white-red, white-black or white-lemon; brindle or too much red or black not acceptable
- GROUP: Hound
Tracing back to the Virginia hounds, the English Coonhound was bred to adapt to the rougher American climate and terrain. When the English was first recognized by the UKC, it was descriptively called the English Fox and Coonhound, alluding to its capabilities. In fact, at that time, the dogs were used more on fox than on raccoon. They were also capable of going after opossum, cougar and bear. While the Redbone and Black and Tan were given separate breed status, all other treeing coonhounds were called English after the turn of the century. These included the blueticked dogs, the white tricolors and others, as well as those with redtick markings. There was also great variation in the history and in the style of hunting, from big, cold-nosed, patient trailing hounds to the refined, speedy hot-trailing dogs.
In 1945, the heavily ticked dogs split off from the English, registering themselves as the Bluetick Hound. Later, the tricolored hounds separated into the breed called Treeing Walker Coonhounds. Most modern English Coon-hounds are of the redtick color, although they can be bluetick and other hound colors as well.
The breed :s the extreme of the fast, hot-trailing competitu vtype coonhound. An English named "Bones," owned by Colonel Leon Robinson, won one of the first National Coonhound Championships. The breed is still used by practical hunters and competitive hound owners throughout the USA.