My children, I have always had a dream of having hounds. You must understand that there are many different types of hounds.
Some are warm scent trailing in blood hounds, and some are cold scent as the in the coon hounds. I think that black and tans, blue tick, red bones and Plotts are simply lovely dogs.
Plotts are preferred for bear and cats, which of course is something one could use up your dogs quickly until they learned not to be eaten by the ursus or felines.
My neighbor had a basset hound. I have no time for them as they are so slow that ........well your quarry would die of old age before being caught.
I think I like beagles a great deal as they are such happy little rabbit killers. That might sound frightful, but that is what dogs do. Dogs kill things. Lassie just does not tend sheep, but Lassie kills predators or holds them at bay until the shepherd can come along and kill the killer.
I like wiener dogs too. The real wiener dogs in hunting dauchshounds which were bred for badger work. They always seem so nice to have originated as badger killers underground.
Terriers are especially sprite and attractive to me also, as rat killers and the big terriers killing coyotes are most interesting in what they accomplish.
That is why I adore the wirehaired Irish and Russian Wolfhounds. They are monstrously large dogs and quite fond of humans. A wolf is a beastly animal in able to break femurs on large cloven footed animals, so it is interesting to me about dogs of his class.
I know there are Norwegian Elk and deer hounds, but that has not really interested me, of course it would if I had no firearm in the age ahead, and desiring meat, I would thoroughly appreciate dogs capable of catching and cloven footed creatures.
A relative of my family had a deer hound, and it was a wonder in being able to run a deer down and the grab it by the neck and pull it down. Of course all illegal a generation ago, but that would have been an amazing act of breeding to bring about such a dog.
I have written of Nigger Hounds, and some were of that Mastiff type cross, but on reading of hounds recently, I saw the author from 1900 AD in the year of our Lord, refer to "nigger chasers" in slave owners using fox hounds to locate their property on the loose.
I just do not think I want the true blood hound as they seem so disinterested in life. Granted the idea of trailing fugitives or have a cadaver dog might be some thrill, but the idea of teaching a dog to hunt up the scent of a rotting human is.......I suppose it might be interesting, but I wonder if you can use rotting pigs or if you get some blood and offal of some mortician table as they take out the blood and inerds for the price and then get the get go, from the authorities and then have a go at it in teaching the hound to focus on that.
To make that pay you would have to get like 5000 dollars a day from law enforcement in searching for a corpse as it is not work one could do except a few times a year.
Would not take much training though as dogs love rotten things by nature.
Fox hounds are lovely animals. I would think a fleet footed hound would be much preferred to the English gentry slow footed packs. The Jamestown colony actually imported hounds from the start. America's beloved President, George Washington was a great houndsman in keeping notes on his hunting from horseback.
That would be a most lovely day I would have yearned to have, to have been on a fine American horse with the General and riding like the wind after hounds trailing fox.
Theodore Roosevelt was a houndsman too in capturing coyote, mountain lion, bear and bobcat for his sport which helped the ranchers keep their livestock as should be done today.
A hound should be happy and that is why little Beagles appeal to me, as I would reckon that I could use them on most things. In hunting coons, the Forest Gump off the porch type, one would have to keep a close watch, as the coon will kill a dog if it gets them in the water or chew on them in a fight.
The houndsman I was reading of was a farmer, and twenty years at the profession. He had a lovely black and tan which amused me, as that dog would attack anyone from family to foe who started something with him, and it was a most lovely dog as it would tackle pigs for cutting out and even fetch a chicken for dinner unharmed when pointed out.
That dog required the bajesus being beaten out of it as it would run rabbits when it was employed on raccoon. That accomplished the teaching and the dog was exactly like the dog I would prefer.
We had mongrel type shepherd which would kill anything from horned owls to skunks....take on other dogs and run anyone off the place night or day. Then again we had a lab which would do the same including pounding a beaver once. My setter would take on anything too, but not run people off the place. Setters just do not appreciate that people are evil.
I imagine Beagles would give the same trouble. Although, I do like the German hunting dogs which are not hounds in the shorthair and wirehair, as in Germany one gets into great trouble if you lose any game, so their dogs are bred for all sorts of fur and feather locating from blood trails to cold trails...they do not bay though which is what a hound is.
The Royals of Europe always had hounds of fighting and trailing. The Royals would become quite distraught in their puppies being killed and worried by wolves, boars, stags or bears. I can understand that as I get upset reading of the dogs killed or wounded in Teddy Roosevelt books and the dogs have been dead 100 years.
I think that is about all I desire to indulge in this dream as while I hate coyotes, gaze hounds or as in greyhounds which run them down, are not that appealing to me....probably why I employ trapping. I think I am going to read on mink hounds, as I know of them as the same relative had one of them too.
So many fascinating things in all of this to study and become acquainted with.....
"We walk right up to the skunks and pick them up by the tails; then hit them on the head with a club and kill them or put them in the bag and take them home alive, as the occasion may suit."
"Now I won't tell that I can catch skunks without getting scented, but will say this, we have caught hundreds by the tail, and after lifting them clear off the ground, never have been scented by them. As I said before, I go for the business end of it, and am not afraid to get some scent on me as long as I don't get it in my eyes. If you get it in your eyes, it feels about as if you had horse-radish or hot water in them for the next ten minutes, which is not altogether pleasant."
Oliver Hartley. Hunting Dogs
I was trying to think what stupid person I know that I could convince this was a good idea to show me how it all worked.
I had no idea nor did you that a skunk apparently will not spray if you have it by the tail and off it's feet. I have never been stupid enough to experient due to rabies to find out if they bite when holding the tail.
I place a medicinal remedy for dogs below to close this out as I am always helping people. The black gun powder is just potassium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal, so do not get all bent about that even if it will explode.
I do not know if he means powdered sulfa as in pine tar or sulphur, the lard of course is lard as it is a good medium for absorbing into the tissue.
"The best cure for dog mange in black gunpowder, powdered sulfur, lard, all mixed together and rubbed into the sore. It is said a definite cure to kill all the germs if properly applied."
I think I shared my skunk neutralizer recipe but will post that here again in I think it was a bottle of peroxide, some dish soap and baking soda all mixed up. It works with the overt scent, but when puppy gets humid you will still pick up that skunk scent for about 6 weeks.
The Aristocracy used to all be afficiandos of the hound in all classes, as did the caste of peasant who employed them as rat killers against plague and against those damned predators eating the chickens.
I think I am more of a Beagle person as I like to cuddle my puppies, even if I like wolf hounds who appear to like to cuddle humans a bit too much.
I wonder when the regime starts demanding payback for all that welfare handed out, if Congress would put in a clause where blacks could work it off in being run by hounds, so that dogs could get the thrill which is bred in them in tracking people. The Afroid is a million dollar genetic athlete and the best choice for giving a dog a good work out.
Just saying I am sure many people would pay top dollar to run Barack Obama's image, even if it is Asian and not Negroid.
Oh I found a note in the Scotch Terrier and the Beagle make the best mink dog, so much information to keep in mind.
agtG
