History of the Breed

The English Coonhound is without a doubt the oldest of the six breeds. Sound familiar? I have read the history of all six breeds and each of them claims to be the oldest. I am not talking here of dogs registered with U.K.C. The order in which these dogs came is fact and cannot be questioned. I am talking of records which claim to go back as far as 1000 AD.

I’m sure if I looked further, recognition would be claimed even earlier by some breeds. I am not interested in establishing the fact that we are the oldest; this battle will never be won. I simply want to give you an idea of where our English hounds came from and familiarize you with the names of the men responsible for giving them to us.

All the hounds we have today are ancestors of hounds from the Eastern Hemisphere. In analyzing the life style of these early settlers, one would have to come to the conclusion that these men were interested only in ability and barred no breed from their strain of hounds if it was good. Color was of little or no significance. A bench show? Unheard of.

Conformation was let fall where it may. These men were interested in one thing: hounds that would produce game. If pure blood was imported from the East that was good and could produce, it was used on everything that had produced. This was to the beginning, the earliest history of our English hounds.

The first records to be kept were the results of two men’s efforts to keep ability at its peak. As you will see, color was of no importance to either of these men. Dr. Thomas Henry, a grandson of Patrick Henry, and Col. Larry F. Birdsong were the first men in this country known to keep records on their hounds. Dr. Henry’s records date back to the year 1860 and were founded in Virginia. The color of his dogs was black, black and white or cream. Some hounds being imported from Ireland. Col. Birdsong started keeping records of his hounds about the same time.

His hounds were mainly red, and were later crossed with the Henry hound which was to become known as the Birdsong strain. The Walker hound was founded by a family by the name of Walker who lived in Kentucky. The color of these hounds were black, black and white, tan, lemon and white, and red and white.

The July hound was developed in Georgia. The individual dog whose name was July was exceptionally speedy and dingy black in color. Though no records were kept, the Trigg hound was developed around 1845 in the South and was later crossed on the Birdsong and Walker.

The Buckfield, or Bluetick as we know it today, were a northern strain used principally for driving deer on the runways. They were mainly blue and red. The Galoway hound was developed by the Galoway family from Ireland. They were redtick in color and later believed to be crossed with the Buckfield. The Shaggies were from the northern states, were brindle in color, and were noted for the bushy legs and wavy backs.

The Gosnell hound from Maryland, of which very little is known, were crossed with the July hounds. There is also very little known of the Maupin hound other than he was crossed with the Walker. Whether these last two were separate strains or crossed among some of the others is not known.

These are the hounds and the people who owned them and gave us the dogs we have today. As you can see, each strain had a phenotype (physical characteristic) which identified them from the others. If a man had hounds, raised and bred them for his own use, these hounds then reflected on that man. They were given that man’s name for identification purposes, as a strain of dogs. Through many years of breeding, all of the dogs mentioned here were at one time or another crossed on each other and were finally to become known in 1903 by U.K.C. as the English Coonhound.

When these dogs became known as the English breed, standards were set: height, length, color, ear length, etc. Breeders started to follow this standard which was set up by the U.K.C. and the breed association. After seeing what they were capable of producing, houndsmen started to breed for certain colors.

By 1943, the breed was producing four different colors of hounds. The original English, which was white and any good hound color (may I add still remains so today); the solid blue dog (Bluetick); the tri-colored dog (Walker); and the Redtick hound.

In 1945 the Bluetick and Walker separated from the English breed and were chartered by U.K.C. as separate breeds. We then had six breeds of coon hounds. There was a Redtick association formed, but never developed into its own breed. A lot of breeders will state they have a strain of Walkers or Blueticks that is pure. The truth is, if they go back five to seven generations in the pedigree of known ancestry, there will be some or all English hounds.

Someday they will be pure, perhaps some strains are now, but if so, I am unaware of it. Yet, I am sure, there is one thing we will all agree on – at least the breeders who are interested in breeding coonhounds, not show dogs, will agree when you breed for color you’ll loose ability if you become too selective, just as sure as you’re reading this. If I have learned anything from the research I’ve done by writing this article and was asked to put it in summary, it would have to be – never knock a man’s method of breeding as long as he is breeding for ability; be it breeding genetically or simply the best to the best, whatever strains they may come from. If he is wrong, he will eventually realize it. If he it right, you will eventually realize it.

Clarence Pfaffenberger who is the author of “The New Knowledge of Dog Behavior” wrote that one man in his life time hasn’t enough years to create a new breed of dog. He can only hope to improve certain strains within breeds we already have.