Hound pack

“ When the season is over, the best of the young hounds should be taken into the pack, and the draft of old ones exchanged for them. Many must be bred to enable a sportsman to take in twenty couple of young hounds every season. It will always be easy to keep up the number of old hounds, for, when your own draft is not sufficient, drafts from other packs may be obtained, and at a small expense. When young hounds are hunted together for the first season, and have not a sufficient number of old ones along with them, it does more harm than good.”—Vide Beagle, Harrier, Fox and Stag-hound. ”

“ The man who hunts the hounds should always feed them; not because feeding them makes them any fonder of you, but because the huntsman knows, or ought to know, how much each hound requires. Never let them eat to repletion; if you do, what is the result? In every pack there are some slow, shy feeders: while these are playing with their food the greedy ones are fairly gorging themselves. The next day’s hunting will find the light feeders some two or three fields ahead of the gorgers, to the detriment of the looks and sport of the pack. Years ago hounds were always washed after hunting. ”

“ As he proceeds, his wind, but not his courage, fails him, until, on the pack approaching him, though any one of them would have yelped piteously had but one of his toes been caught in a trap, yet, so soon as the leading hound comes up, he pitches into him, and when the infuriated pack rush in upon him, he invariably dies in the midst of them, without the utterance of the smallest moan, sigh, or sound. ”

“ A moment’s delay for pleasant greetings between all and sundry, and the hounds are quickly thrown in for business; their tails, and little more, wave above the long ling and the tall bracken. The whips gallop to their points of observation. Presently a whimper or two is heard; then the deeper tone of an old hound takes it up; the rest rally about him, and soon the whole pack join in full chorus. A halloo is heard from a ride, as the fox crosses it ”

“ Now we will suppose that the hounds are kept in their kennels always throughout the summer; then the new Master can be with his hounds all the summer and good blood can be got in the pack by sending bitches to well-known beagle packs, and in time a very good strain could be got. All the puppies would be sent out to walk till they are twelve months old and fit to join the pack. I don’t think there would be any difficulty in finding either boys or farmers to walk the puppies, and a small challenge cup could be given, as in other packs, for the hound best walked. ”

“ The grey hounds are the swiftest of dogs and a pair of them are invariably to be found in a pack, the balance being some heavier and fiercer breed of dog, such as the blood hound, fox hound or a cross of the two. It is the grey hounds that run the game down and hold it until the arrival of the balance of the pack, the heavier dogs doing the actual fighting. ”

“ Delmé Radcliffe very truly observes that the feeding of hounds, as regards their condition, is one of the most essential proofs of a huntsman's skill in the management of the kennel. To preserve that even state of condition throughout the pack which is so desirable, he must be well acquainted with the appetite of every hound; for some will feed with a voracity scarcely credible, and others will require every kind of enticement to induce them to feed. ”

“ The pack now in the kennel is as near perfection as can be attained for elk-hunting, comprising ten couple, most of whom are nearly thoroughbred fox-hounds, with a few couple of immense seizers, a cross between bloodhound and greyhound, and a couple of large wire-haired lurchers, like the Scotch deer-hound.
In describing the sport, I must be permitted to call up the spirits of a few heroes, who are now dead, and place them in the vacant places which they formerly occupied in the pack. ”

“ I soon, however, discovered that Foxhounds were not at all adapted to a country so enclosed by forest, some of the hounds were lost, others I parted with, and their progeny, crossed with Pointers, Bloodhounds and other [Pg 384] breeds, have proved a useful stamp for Elk hunting.
"It is difficult to form a pack for this sport which shall be perfect in all respects. Sometimes a splendid hound in character may be more like a butcher's dog in appearance, but the pack cannot afford to part with him if he has really proved his value in work. ”

“ If a hound hangs back in covert after it has been drawn blank, ride in and give him a hiding if you can, but never hit one and cut him off from the huntsman after he is outside. Hounds that habitually hang back in covert should be drafted speedily.
Always be attentive when the pack is travelling along a road to prevent their picking up anything, and always be ready to open the gates in turn. ”

“ There may be places, especially in very hilly country, that a small hound is best. In this section, give me a good, medium large dog, say from 22 to 24 inches at shoulder and built in proportion with from 16 to 18 inches earage. Color is a matter of taste. I believe that our English cousins breed them so straight that the spots and marks are stamped on all alike. I have heard it said so much that a stranger could hardly see any difference in a pack and when the American breeder gets to giving so much attention to their breeding, then we will soon have a true type of hound. ”

“ A few of the principal packs hunt five days a week, and sometimes even six, and for such an establishment not fewer than seventy-five couples of hounds are requisite. A pack which hunts four days a week will be well supplied with anything between fifty and sixty couples, and for two days a week from twenty-five to thirty will suffice. The young hound begins cub-hunting when he is some eighteen months old, and as a rule is found to improve until his third or fourth season, though some last longer than this. Often, however, when a hound is five or six years old he begins to lack speed. ”

“ And now the reinforced party reach the meet below the grey ivy-tangled rocks, and Solomon pulls up at the accustomed spot to give his hounds a roll, and let the Major receive the encomiums of the encircling field. Then there is a repetition of the kennel scene: “Lovely! Lovely! Lovely!—beautiful bitch that—Chaunter. Chaunter! Chaunter!—there’s a handsome hound—Bustler, good dog!” Only each man has his particular favourite or hound that he has either bred or walked, or knows the name of, and so most of the pack come in for more or less praise. ”

“ Five-and-twenty gates to open, a treatise on scent, the pedigree of every hound in the pack, and some weak sherry-and-water, hardly compensate one for missing one of the best things of the season. By gad, we never saw hounds from the time they found till they killed, and yet to hear the woman talk, you would fancy she was in the first flight all the way. Look out, she is bearing down on us ”

“ Young hounds, when first taken to the kennel, should be kept separate from the rest of the pack, otherwise there will be frequent and dangerous quarrels. When these do occur, the feeder hears, and sometimes, but not so frequently as he ought, endeavours to discover the cause of the disturbance, and visits the culprits with deserved punishment; too often, however, he does not give himself time for this, but rushes among them, and flogs every hound that he can get at, guilty or not guilty. ”

“ Of course, to get a good and well-bred pack would take about [123] twelve years; but we all hope at some future time or other to see the E.C.H. entered in the stud book, and to see the first prize at Peterborough won by a hound belonging to the E.C.H. There is no reason why all this should not take place, provided a good kennelman is kept, and the Master devotes heart and soul to his hounds, and is careful to get good fresh blood in the pack.
If all this be taken into consideration, I am sure you will find that as good sport is shown by the smaller and level pack, and as many hares killed. ”

“ Thus in the Piedmont pack they breed for a red hound with white markings, so that the pack may have an individual appearance, but in all packs a great effort is made to secure even speed, for a slow hound lags, while a fast one becomes an individual hunter. ”

“ Suffer not your huntsman to take out a lame hound. If any are tender-footed, he will tell you, perhaps, that they will not mind it when they are out: probably they may not; but how will they be on the next day? A hound, not in condition to run, cannot be of much service to the pack ”

“ To jump properly a hound should be short-coupled, compact in build, and have his ribs carried well back. You find this to more perfection in a small hound than a big one. The short-coupled hound can get his hind legs much further under his body, and, in consequence, clears an obstacle with far less strain. Jumping off a wall, too, the light-built hound experiences less jar on landing. At the end of a long day, the light-built hounds of a pack will show less signs of fatigue than those of greater weight, and will return to kennels with their sterns gaily carried. ”

“ Fifteen couple of such hounds in full cry put him at his best pace, which is always tried to the uttermost by a couple or two of fast and pitiless lurchers who run ahead of the pack, the object being to press him at first starting, so as to blow him at the very commencement: this is easily effected, as he is full of food, and it is his nature always to take off straight UP the hill when first disturbed. ”

“ And therefore a pack, 16 inches, having been hunted year by year together, and got fit and properly kept, will go far faster than a pack straying for 50 yards or so, with a hound 20 yards or so ahead of the rest, etc., of 18, 17, 16, 15 and 14 inch hounds. ”

“ Always keep a watchful eye on the hounds when you have them out, and never let them break away if you can possibly help it. If, however, such a thing does happen, it will add greatly to your comfort it the ringleaders be transferred at once to another kennel. At the same time when on the road, or out for exercise, you should give hounds plenty of room, for it is bad for them and certainly does not look well, to have them packed close round your horse's heels.
Never under any circumstances take a pack into the field before you are sure that their discipline is perfect. ”

“ Some are much more voracious than others, and will require a greater portion of food; others look and work well, with half the quantity: the eye of the huntsman should discriminate between the opposite descriptions; in want of which attention, the pack will never be of equal appearance. When any of the hounds are observed to be low in flesh, off their appetites, bad feeders, or kept under by the old and master hounds, it will be matter of advantage to draft them, and let them feed under less restraint. ”

“ It is a well-founded opinion, that every kennel should have a proper annual supply of young hounds; if this is neglected for two or three seasons, the pack will soon be overloaded with old hounds, and suddenly fall into decay. Industrious, hard-working hounds, seldom continue in full vigour and speed longer than five or six seasons; though there are not wanting instances of deserving favourites having continued the crack hounds of the pack for eight or nine years in succession. ”

“ A severe loss through distemper or other causes is more to be feared, as it takes time and patience to fill the gaps thus made in the pack. All the fell packs are small, and seldom, if ever, have hounds to spare, and few outside packs possess hounds of a type in the least suited to the country; so the fell-country Master has to rely on hounds of his own breeding. There is one temptation to which fell hounds are more liable to fall than low-country hounds, i.e. sheep worrying. It may be a wild, windy day, and hounds are on a catchy scent, and eager to be pushing on. ”

“ On the care in the kennel depends the sport in the field, and without health and condition in the hounds you can hope for no good days. Far better to have a less well-bred pack, or an inferior country, than hounds which are out of sorts and condition. ”

“ This is my kind of a dog for coon, but he would not be in it with an up to date fox hound on a fox chase, but running fox and coon are different, and I want a different kind of a hound.
We have made a success in raising bear hounds, and find the only way to get a good pup with the hunting habit, is to have it bred in them first, says a California Brother. One has to have good parent hounds, and while the mother dog is carrying the pups she must be worked on whatever you want your pups to run. For instance, we have a black and tan long eared bitch, bred her to a good hound, one quarter stag. ”

“ The veteran hound is one great record of a thousand fights, his tawny hide seamed and knotted with the marks of many a tusk, but he is as reckless now as he was when a puppy; and dearly as his master loves his old hound’s pluck, he would give a great deal to see a little of that discretion mixed with it which might save his favourite from an untimely end. ”

“ It is a curious fact, but I have constantly observed that when, as there often are, among the lot ‘down’ with the disease, a young hound or two which, by reason of size or some other cause, are useless, and for that reason get no extra attention and no physic; these pull through without difficulty, whilst the pick of the entry, with every care bestowed upon them, die off wholesale. I am quite sure the distemper one gets in hound-kennels is quite different from that which the ordinary cur dog gets. ”