Registered: Feb 2004
Location: West Kill, NY
Posts: 2047

I keep getting questions from dog rescue people about hounds with notched ears and what it means. I have never known anyone to notch hound ears intentionally. Is this a common practice somewhere or at some time in the past? I have seen tattooed ears occasionally and I have seen hounds that had ear damage that has been trimmed. I have seen hounds with large brands on their sides but never on ears. I have heard rescue people say that fox hunters routinely notch ears to indicate that a hound has hunted (I know lots of coyote hunters but few fancy mounted fox hunters). Sounds like myth to me, but I'm wondering if there's some grain of truth here? Anyone with first hand experience of this?

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esp

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: Freeport,TX
Posts: 2014

Never heard of anyone notching out a hound ear for identification purposes nor for any other reasons...sounds to me they are fishing...and you can bet it isn’t to help the common sense folks...

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Washington, NC
Posts: 3315

Notched ears are usually from fighting, mostly wild game but some times other dogs. I had one split her on a fence.

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Bill Harper
Washington, NC
252-944-5592

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Registered: Feb 2004
Location: West Kill, NY
Posts: 2047

That's what I thought. Ears get torn in fights with other dogs and coons. They get caught on barbed wire. Lots of hounds get ear cruds and crusty ear ends. If there are evenly trimmed notches, it's because someone trimmed out a problem to prevent further damage. Just thought I'd ask a wider variety of people because I don't know everything! Seems to be a widespread fairy tale out there...

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esp

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