THE AMERICAN FOXHOUND 3 



BREEDING AND TRAINING FOXHOUNDS. 

 By W. F. Sturgill, M. D., Ceredo, W. Va. 



To begin at the beginning, tbe training of foxliounds, as with 

 all other breeds of dogs of which much is expected, should start 

 several generations prior to their birth, i. e., no time should be 

 wasted on hounds whose ancestors for at least three generations 

 back have not been good performers in the field. It is impossi- 

 ble to develop a high -class foxhound by any amount of training 

 if descended from worthless ancestors. "What I consider a well- 

 bred foxhound — one worth training-^is a hound whose every 

 ancestor for not less than four generations back, and the farther 

 back the better, was a game, reliable runner. Some may not 

 have been as fast or as wide hunters as one would desire, but all 

 must have been game. Gameness, as I see it, is the one great 

 essential without which no foxliound is worth the straw he 

 sleeps on, and I might add here I have seen the blood of one 

 quitter render worthless a majority of otherwise beautifully 

 bred hounds for a number of generations. Some breeders of fox- 

 hounds liken the breeding of hounds to the breeding of race- 

 horses, claiming that a well-bred hound as is sometimes the case 

 with a well-bred horse, although a poor performer himself, may 

 produce high-class offspring. I agree that this sometimes 

 happens, but as a rule, especially with the foxliound, the reverse 

 may be expected. Were the conditions under which they per- 

 form similar, and the handling of the two the same, then one 

 might be justified in applying the same rule in breeding, but 

 such is not the case as all must agree. Given a horse with suf- 

 ficient speed and endurance it is possible to force him to make a 

 creditable race by the free application of the whip and spur, but 

 not so with the foxliound. If there is any method by which a 

 hound can be induced to run when he doesn't want to I have 

 never discovered it. The whip and spur cannot be brought into 

 play with anything but disastrous results with the foxhound. 

 If he does not want to he won't, and that is the end to it. So 

 much then on the training of foxliounds before they are 

 whelped. 



Puppies should be fed well and given plenty of exercise in the 

 open air, that they may grow strong and rugged, and when six 

 months old they should be allowed to follow the trainer about 

 the neighborhood over which they are expected to hunt later on. 



