The Hunter’s Horn
May, 1963 Page Seventeen
“Heads-Up” Hounds Essential on Coyote
My husband and I both enjoy hunting and we look forward to reading the good hunting articles in The
Horn each month. We have good hunting grounds and really enjoy watching the hounds running the
coyotes. We try to breed for dogs that are quick to jump and run to catch and kill.
We have enjoyed following the arguments that have been appearing about the merits of the track dog
and the dogs that run with their heads up. In our country the dogs that run with their heads up are
the ones that catch the coyotes. We see the hounds in the race in the daytime, and you can surely
pick out the ones with the bad faults.
One of the worst faults that we have seen in some of the packs is that most of the dogs depend upon
one dog to do most of the work and they follow him instead of running the game. They are opening
and barking whether they have the track or not—just as long as they are running after him.
Another thing that we see too often is a bunch of dogs running up and down the road trying to jump
into the pickup every chance they get. They go for the ride instead of the hunt. The owner will pick
them up, haul them down the road and turn them out again. But before long, here they are back in the
road again begging for a ride. My husband wouldn’t tolerate this. He would quit hunting entirely if he
had to hunt with such dogs. And still some people keep right on breeding this kind.
The wild runners and cutters do not bother us much here because they are soon out of the race, and
the waiter would starve to death waiting for a coyote to come back, because they usually leave the
country when the hounds are after them.
If people would hunt in the daytime, they would find out a lot of things that they would never learn
when they hunt only at night.
We want to thank everyone who wrote to us in reply to my husband’s article in The Horn about Heads-
Up Dogs. We try to keep good honest dogs that run the line and can turn when the coyote does.
I have learned to enjoy hunting right along with my husband, and we have had some fine times
together following our hounds.
Mrs. Alfred Swaim
Meriden, Kansas