Foxhounds

[kirpa]

Hello
Im a foxhunter from Finland Europe. I have been reading this forum for a while and im very interested about american hounds. Our main predator game is a fox and i was wondering what is your definiton of a good foxhound there in states. We have a little populatin of american foxhounds here in finland, but they are a wery messy mix of breeds. There are july, walker, triggs... all types what they can ship over here. These dogs have some problem on my standards. Some of them are tight mouthed or bad trackers. I dont blame the lines, but i dont believe the quality of the breeders here. So im asking you to help me to understand you're definitons of a good foxhound. Is there differenses between oytehounds and foxhounds. Our standard for a good foxhound is that it can track a fox from several hours old track and it barks on a track. It's not too tight mouthed so fox knows all the time where the dog is going and there for it goes quigly in to foxhole. We need individual hounds because we use only one hound at the time.
Do you have some kind of competitions to check your hound skills? and what are the standards? Where can i find info about those tests? And how to read results?
There are some hunters here in finland who are interested to buy a puppy from a litter witch is from parents that meets that descripsion.
We have only one problem. We need to know more about the way you qualitify youre hounds and does youre ways match our way to hunt.

Sorry about my english but hope you can help us.

[Big Horn Posse]

I do not know anything about American Foxhounds, but can tell you the best breed of Foxhounds I have seen are the Harriers when I was in Ireland. They are a medium sized hound with very cold noses for tracking older tracks. I personally would not even waste your time trying to find one here in America when the best breeds of Foxhounds are right there in the EU.

[Larry Emery]

My thoughts about purchasing any of the breeds of running hounds in the U.S. is to find a breeder that mainly runs on the outside, not in the pens where they hold the competitions. There are guys that do both successfully but what I have seen is the outside dogs seem to work out better for most hunters. They are bred to take a colder track, get the game jumped and caught. JMO!

[Dan Edwards]

The running dogs that I use work for me here. I hunt coyotes with them and they can run one down and catch him and if I got a few of them, they will kill him too. I dont see very many good ones but when I get one, they dont leave my yard. My dogs are pretty much still mouthed on the cold track when they are tryin to get the yote jumped but once he is jumped, they give plenty of mouth to suit anybody I would think. Anyhow, they get the job done for me. By the way, the fox and the coyote got very little to do with one another when it comes to running them or catching them.

[Lynxhunter]

Hi Kirpa!
Have you guys taken a look at the Russian hound(Russkaja Gontjaja)? You probably have, just thought I'd mention it just in case.
A friend of mine got a 6 months old pup the other day and it seems like a nice hound. From what he is told, most of them make great fox/lynxhounds to.

Hans

[kirpa]

It's mainly used on hare hunting here. There are some fox/lynx russians but not many. It's also slow starter what i have heard. It takes three years before it's worth of hunting. Idon't know is it right term but here has been imported some american foxhounds(finnish term). Those dogs are walkers, triggs, julys and common term here is american foxhound.
Nowdays there are few hundret registered american foxhounds here. Some imported but most of them are born here in Finland. Because of the breading material is so narrow here there is too much influense if they use some piece of sh.. dogs for breeding. Thats why there are some mute dogs and some boot burnishers (finnish term).
Here is some pioneers that are willing to import dogs from US but our breeding adviser is using only some guy from US that ships some dogs here. So we are trying to expand our breeding material and understand what kind of standars do you have when making the choice between litters.

[STUNTMAN]

[Dan Edwards]

Occasionally one may leave my yard if there is a cry baby sumbitch on the other end of the line needin one in a bad way. There are execeptions to all rules, stuntchump. Kind of like you claimin you are a man but you got an inny instead of an outy. LOL!

Now, go get your shine box!

[stevemac]

I have used english foxhounds over the years with some degree of success. If you are keen on american foxhounds contact the midlands hunt they have a blend of July,fell and Irsh lines.

cheers stevemac

[Dads dogboy]

Kirpa,

The last post gave you a good lead. However Mr. Ben Hardaways Midlands Hounds have evolved into more Coyote, heads up running type Hounds. They are probably not what you want.

To move a track the way you describe, and with what little I know of your terrain and conditions, I would think a hound more like the Jeff Allen, Twist type Nance line of Walker Hounds would meet your needs better. Also the Mike Kemp line of crossbred Trigg Walkers are Hounds that will Hunt more the way you all need!

The Lady from WY gave some good advise on Harriers from Northern Ireland. If you can hook up with a Pack and go hunt with them you might find a Hound who is more plodding than they like who would suite you to a tee. This Hound usually has more Nose than the others in the Pack and therefor tends to move the track slower and on the track rather than heads up running to where the game is going! We found a gentleman to get us a pup out of a Pack in northern Ireland to try here.

Also the French have some darn nice Hounds that they have been breeding for lots of years whose style will fit you all better than most American Foxhounds.

The Penn-Marydels in Maryland from a "Farm Pack" might work. Google Penn-Marydel and you should be able to get info on a Gentleman named Reber in Maryland who has some nice Penn-Marydels or Call his brother Ralph Reber @417-254-1937. Ralph now lives in Missouri and runs Bobcat with his Penn-Mardels but would be glad to help you!

Good Running!

C.John Clay
Dads Dogboy

[kirpa]

Thanks for posts.
Well we have beagles and some medium size breeds here as well. For hare hunting we have the best breed in the world. That is finnish hound (suomenajokoira). Some lines are used to fox hunting, but it has been bred so strong to hare hunting that it's little bit gambling to have good fox hound out of it.
I have dachshund for fox and hare running. So i don't need more small breed dogs like harrier.
I have to confess that i made some my choise and now i have a little plotthound pup in my house. I try this one out and if it doesn't work for fox i try it to other game.
Do you have any experiences for using plott's on fox?

[Lynxhunter]

Good luck with your new pup Kirpa! - Where did you get it from?

I've been running fox with plotts for some time. Not my own, but a friend of mines, because he is not the most active with his hounds, so I've been running them for him. There are reasons why I do not have Plotts, but I'm not on here to "piss people off", so I'll leave it at that.

Really hope yours turn out to be a good one! - Please keep us informed on how it develops.


Hans

[kirpa]

It's from first made in Finland litter. Both parents are from Sweden. Male side is Ursus line and Female side is somewhere wisconsin and swedish kennel is bearclaws.
I put my fingers cross and hope for the best.
Lynxhunter is that plott you have use silent or open on a cold track? I have heard that some plotts in Sweden are slow on track but very open.

[Lynxhunter]

[quote]I have heard that some plotts in Sweden are slow on track but very open./quote]

- One more "very" in that sentece would describe the Plotts I've run pretty good. (Choose where to put it your self.) The Plotts here share the same blood as your pup.

Hans

[kirpa]

Thanks Hans. I will keep informing how we are doing.
I think i know where that word very is going in that sentence .