Qualities That Really Make a Hound
The Hunters Horn
March, 1950
Page Twenty-seven
Sugar Grove, N.C. 2-3-50
I would like to say just a few words about what I think it takes to make a real foxhound.
There are five points that the dog must have and they are as follows: 1. He must have a full heart’s
desire for the fox; 2. He must have plenty of fox sense; 3. When he gets the scent of the fox, follow
the line true and be not here and there and everywhere; 4. Have plenty of endurance to stay to the
finish; 5. Have free mouth when in a pack or running the track; one that will not be giving mouth
everywhere, or playing shut mouth and cutting through gaps and over the tops of hills before the
pack. When you see dogs of this latter kind you will find when he is in the chase it will not be long until
your dogs are scattered everywhere and the chase is over. As far as the sport is concerned I had
rather be at home and if at night in bed for I do love to hear the full cry of the pack.
I do not like too fast a dog or one that hasn’t speed enough. Of the two I had rather drive one too slow
than too fast, for when one is too fast, as a general rule he will overrun the track so far that when the
pack comes on there will be such a scatterment with all the dogs and as a rule a complete loss of the
fox.
I have been a fox hunter for forty years or more and have tried and seen all kinds of foxhounds, but I
think to take the Walker he is the best all-round fox hound that there is for the present time. There has
been quite an improvement in the foxhound now from the old ones back thirty years ago. I think the
breeders are now looking too much at the pretty dog and overlooking those five points that I have
mentioned above, but I think that the five points and the beautiful part can go together if we will be
very careful in our breeding. I have heard some of the best foxhounds run, but they were not very
handsome dogs. Now why I am saying what I have said is because I have been coming in contact with
some of the highest bred dogs that there are, that have two bad qualities. One is they run with shut
mouths and the other is that they are so fast that they are always over running and making complete
losses.
G.C. Ward