| THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH COONHOUND
A person could almost say that the history of the English Coonhound is the history of all coonhounds - and he wouldn't be too far wrong. With the exception of the Plott Hound, all the U.K.C. breeds of coonhounds have a common ancestry that is deeply rooted in the English Foxhound. The English was first registered by U.K.C. in 1905, under the name of English Fox & Coonhound. In those days the dogs were used much more on fox than they are today. The name also reflected the similarity that the breed had to the American Foxhound and the English Foxhound. The variation in color brings us to another aspect of the English Coonhound history. Both the Treeing Walker and the Bluetick Coonhound were originally registered with U.K.C. as English. The Walker was recognized as a separate breed in 1945 and the Bluetick a year later. To this day there are still tri-colored and blueticked English hounds, though redticked dogs predominate. The first mention we have of hounds in America appears in the diary of one of the men of the explorer DeSoto. He also mentions that the hounds were used for the hunting of Indians rather than fox, raccoon or rabbitt. In 1650, the Englishman Robert Brooke brought his pack of hounds with him. Thomas Walker of Virginia imported hounds from England in 1742, and in 1770 George Washington, an avid fox hunter, had hounds imported from England. These dogs were the foundation of the "Virginia Hounds", from which our present day English Coonhound developed. It was, however, for the Americans to adapt these animals to the much rougher American terrain and climate. And it was the Americans that, through careful breeding practices, adapted the hound to American game, the raccoon, opossum, cougar and various species of bear. English hounds have excelled in both performance and conformation. The first major coonhound Field Trial of all time, the first Leafy Oak, was won by an English dog called "Bones", owned by Colonel Leon Robinson. |
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