wkfii
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Independence, Kentucky
Posts: 1348 |
Re: The last 20 years
quote:
Originally posted by starplott
I have owned and hunted cross bred, grade, and registered dogs. It all boils down to what you really want. A hound is a Hound is a HOUND when it comes right down to hunting it. I personally have seen more grade dogs and mixed bred dogs that were culls than registered dogs, but that is simply because there is a vast majority of hunting dogs here that are NOT registered. Just because a dog is mixed or registered seems to have no real value to the equation. There are a LOT of dogs that are good hunting dogs that cannot reproduce themselves in all three catagories just as there are culls in all 3.
To be honest we really don't have much on this planet as far as domesticated dogs that are purebred. ALL the coonhound breeds are a product of mutts, mixed bred, etc. This is true for almost all of the regististered breeds today. Without people mixing breeds we would not have coonhounds or bear dogs, let alone foo foo mutts and kick me dogs.
However cockapoo and such are not a 'breed' cockapoo is 50% cocker and 50% poodle. you breed a cockapoo to another with more poodle than cocker do you still have a cockapoo or do you have a poo poo cock???
Me personally, I won't own an unregistered dog anymore. This has NOTHING to do with registered dogs being superior over mixed bred dogs when it comes to catching game. You will hear it over here that papers don't fill the freezer with meat and they don't catch game. That is the truth. I have my reasons for having a certain bloodline exclusively of papered hounds. If I JUST wanted to catch game I probably would still have the dogs I started with in the begining.
Miss Starr, like I said there is a balance that can be achieved. You know the Walkers of today look more like what English Foxhounds looked like 200 years ago than the EF looks today.
One of the reasons for this is that the English screwed up the breed in the early 1900's by breeding English Bulldog into the breed and linebreeding that cross. Good example of a cross that should never have been made. To remedy the problem they bred in terrier blood and rough coated Welsh Foxhounds.
The reason why I think that our hounds are more houndy looking, and probably acting, is that we have some ancient and deep sources of hound blood that we went to- St. Hubert descent hounds (i.e. Bloodhound) and Gascon hounds, i.e. Bluetick. Probably a little beagle and harrier as well. LOL Your Plotts are of St. Hubert descent- at least primarily.
That is not to say that the old English Foxhound blood is not there in modern coonhounds, it is. These Walkers with the grey coloring can probably trace their heritage to Bluecap, circa 1759. Bluecap had feathers on his legs and a flag tail though.
The coloration of the coonhounds can be traced to the sources I cited. Redbones and Black and Tans get their coloration from the St. Hubert. The English is the Gascon and Foxhound mixed. Walker is foxhound and/or harrier. Bluetick is Gascon. Plott is a variation of St. Hubert as well.
We need to keep the balance and breed for performance.
Last edited by wkfii on 10-18-2004 at 10:49 PM
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10-09-2004 06:41 PM
