The Hounds

Our interest on this site is the various longdogs and mixed breed hounds as that is what we are currently breeding and running here at the High-Lonesome. Lurchers, longdogs, staghounds and coldbloods continue to evolve and we welcome additional information and stories from readers.

Lurcher

This is the traditional poaching dog of the British gypsy and others of that country who through necessity or love of sport continue to take game in defiance of posted signs and animal rights crusades. I defer to Col. E. G. Walsh in his definition of a lurcher as a cross between a coursing dog and a working dog, sporting dog, or terrier. The most common mixture is greyhound and some form of collie or herd dog, but all manner of creative breeding is done. The result, if it’s a good lurcher, is a dog swift enough to catch a hare or other game, smart enough to do it’s master’s bidding, and a good retriever to boot. Here in the U.S.A., the common cross is a longdog (the offspring of two sighthounds of different breeds or types). The sighthound/working dog cross has not caught on here as in the UK, although I could see a lot of work for such a dog, especially in the eastern states.

Bullet, American lurcher, a rare blue merle, 1/2 coyote hound, 1/4 greyhound, 1/4 English collie. 28” and 75 lbs. A fine coyote hound with surprising speed, Bullet was bred by Ben Hardaway (GA), owned by Charles Smith (MD). Charles Smith photo.

A particularly useful application is for the lurcher to be hunted in conjunction with terriers or dachshunds, dogs that go to ground. The hole dog flushes the rabbit or fox from the hole or brush pile; the lurcher runs it down and brings it back. The clever lurcher catches on to this game and plays it to perfection in the United Kingdom, particularly for rabbits and fox. My guess is they would catch on just as well over here and indeed I know of some hunters on the east coast who have mastered the game.

In Britain, the lurcher is not only a topic of sport, it’s as well a fascinating story of rural culture. Col. Walsh’s Lurchers and Longdogs comes highly recommended, along with Brian Plummer’s Rogues and Running Dogs.

American Coursing Hounds

These are the working hounds of the American West, the assorted hybrids, “cold-bloods“ “staghounds,” longdogs, coyote hounds, et al, that currently outnumber by a wide margin the registered breeds as true hounds of the field. So diversified is their background that they are not a breed or even several strains. But one type at least is tending that way and they may be found in every state from the Midwest to California, wherever there is some open country and a fox, or coyote or jackrabbit that invites some coursing.

Tracing the origin of these dogs is difficult. Since they vary so much according to the game hunted and the locale, there is no common ancestry to be found. Also, with few exceptions, the houndmen who through the years have bred, hunted and developed these dogs, have not kept records of what breeding has been done. So what I am going to say on the subject is the result of some study — some personal experience with these hounds and their owners — and a fair amount of speculation.

Sport, a mixed breed staghound of the strain American coyote hound.

The greyhound is the breed most prevalent in the ancestry of American coursing hounds. Other breeds which have contributed significantly to their development are the Scottish deerhound, Irish wolfhound and borzoi, probably in that order, and more recently the saluki.

These breeds were used during the opening of the West prior to 1900. There are records of this use from Teddy Roosevelt, General Custer, Ernest Thompson Seton and other assorted frontiersmen and observers from the period. In time the use of these hounds spread as they were obviously well suited to hunt several game animals over much of the terrain of the West. These dogs were gradually taken up by settlers, farmers and ranchers, who made the hounds practical adjuncts to food gathering of the frontier family. These early hounds of the prairie were both sporting and functional.

As practical people (a frontier existence required that much) these folks didn’t give a tinker’s cuss for a hound’s pedigree. They wanted a dog that could catch the hare, fox or coyote and they evidently found many of the purebreds lacking in some respects. No doubt they found the greyhound either short-winded, injury prone, or lacking in coat or fight. In comparison to the greyhound they marked the other breeds as slow. They didn’t hesitate to cross breeds, and recross the offspring, in an attempt to obtain hounds better suited to their needs. It should be noted here that none of the registered gazehounds is an American dog and so not specifically bred to hunt the game or the terrain particular to the American West. Understandably, adjustments were sought in hound abilities and characteristics. This pattern of hound breeding continues to the present — the unscientific but ultimately successful method of breeding one good hound with another, field performance being the determining factor as to what’s good in a hound.

So what have we now in the way of American coursing hounds? Well, that depends on what animal is considered as the primary quarry. Among the jackrabbit hounds we have dogs that are essentially purebred greyhounds. These are the “cold-bloods” referred to previously; dogs so strongly greyhound in type and breeding that they may fairly be called greyhounds though they and their offspring will never have the papers to prove it. Sometimes hybrids with a bit of a rough coat and bearded face (“staghounds”) are seen among the other rabbit hounds, and now and again one sees a small jackrabbit hound that seems to be carrying some whippet blood, but the coldblood greyhound weighing 50 to 75 lbs. is still a favored hound among rural jackrabbit hunters.

More recently — in the last 20 years — saluki blood is increasingly finding it’s way into American coursing hounds used on hares. When I was writing the first edition of my book Gazehounds & Coursing in the mid-1970s I was doing a good deal of traveling, researching American hounds and hunters, and the several salukis I traveled with were always a novelty item. The great majority of rural hunters I met were unfamiliar with the breed, and while they were intrigued they generally were not impressed. My hounds were haughty and diffident, they lacked a great sprint and sported that sissy feathering on ears and tail. Then they saw how the “Arab dogs” could take the heat, handle the terrain, and kill strong hares in a long race.

Today, most rural hunters still don’t like the saluki’s relative lack of acceleration, but they have long since caught on to the value of crossing the breed with coldblood greyhound, or sometimes hotblood greyhound, to produce perhaps the best jackrabbit killers in the West. The best of these saluki hybrids have near greyhound speed, near saluki distance, they’re remarkably sound and easy to handle, and have that inscrutable hybrid vigor that gives them tremendous drive and run-to-catch enthusiasm that is every houndman’s dream.

The first cross saluki/greyhound seems to be the most popular. Indeed, a common opinion I’ve heard is that anything beyond the first cross leaves the talents of the original breeds “watered down.” Thus the 3/4 saluki is too slow; the 3/4 greyhound short-winded or too brittle; and subsequent crosses of 1/2 saluki/1/2 greyhound to each other revert to respective breed faults rather than talents. Or so they say. I’m not so sure. I have read articles by British hare coursers who have taken the saluki/greyhound cross down several generations and they feel they are creating a new and better breed, or at least strain, of hare hound. From a recent issue of Earth Dog - Running Dog, in an article entitled, “The Saluki Cross—Future Selective Breeding,” British courser Geoff Ogden comments: “The half cross, the 3/4 saluki, the 3/4 greyhound, the 3/4 cross X 3/4 cross, and so on; what is now becoming apparent over the last five to ten years, is that where you put quality saluki cross to quality saluki cross [the cross being greyhound] of whatever percentage and persevere with it, a better animal will eventually be produced . . .” Ogden adds that such hounds can often take “two out of three or two out of four hares in mid-winter” on “fen land,” a locale in the region of Norfolk noted for its wide open spaces and superior hares. A couple of Odgen’s 2nd generation saluki/greyhound crosses are pictured; they look like smooth salukis with airplane ears; they stand like coiled springs.

Paul Hughes, Chaparral, NM, with Cookie, ½ hotblood, ¼ coldblood, ¼ saluki. In her youth she had blazing speed and could work a jack for two minutes.

I have been running some very interesting saluki/greyhound and saluki/greyhound/staghound mixed bloods myself and find they are often the only dogs that can match the speed and distance of our Chihuahuan desert hares (the Chihuahuan desert is our fen land!). I predict some very interesting breeding, and some fantastic hounds, for the future. The American coursing hound with saluki blood is no longer rare; particularly in north and west Texas and across the grasslands of New Mexico the saluki/greyhound hybrid is challenging traditional greyhound dominance on jacks.

Among the hounds used on red fox the traditional greyhound dominance is also true, though not quite to the same extent. Again the cold-blood greyhound is most common, but larger, longer haired gazehounds are also frequently seen, for the red fox can fight and is generally coursed in winter in the northern states of the Midwest.

It is with the coyote hound that we see a separate strain of gazehound developing. Though greyhounds are used on coyote as are, occasionally, deerhounds, wolfhounds and salukis, the average coyote hound is truly a mixed breed; unmistakably a gazehound but obviously not a recognized breed. There may be some superficial resemblance to the greyhound or deerhound but look closely. Have you ever seen a greyhound of such substance, or with such a stout muzzle and muscled neck? Have you ever seen a deerhound or wolfhound that could run with that black and white, 80 pound, “staghound” from Nebraska or North Dakota or wherever? Ask the owner of such hounds what they are and he’ll say simply, “Oh, they’re just coyote hounds.” Which is about right. You might have to go back 50 years to find a registered ancestor for either hound.

These coyote hounds are not as large as one might expect. Most are between the greyhound and deerhound in size with few weighing as much as 100 pounds. Veteran coyote hunters aren’t much impressed by hound size. They are more concerned with speed, endurance, soundness and fight. The hounds may be any color or color combination. The coat is either the greyhound type, only thicker, or rough and wiry as the deerhound. Almost all these long haired hounds sport a bearded face.

At this time no real effort is being made to breed these hounds true to type and they are currently so diversified that it is stretching things to even classify them as a strain, let alone a breed. But trial and error is gradually producing a type of dog best suited to coursing the coyote and one day an American coyote hound may result.

As for an American Coursing Hound, we may consider that the field is wide open for someone to breed and develop an American breed of courser. So far the American hunter with mixed breed sighthounds has shown little inclination to breed dogs of an identifiable type and with the close bloodlines that would cause that type to reproduce itself; i.e., a new breed of hound. The requirements of a superior jackrabbit hound are somewhat different from the superior coyote hound; while the versatile courser exists it would likely not become a breed. The very best coyote dog is not going to be the very best jackrabbit hound, and visa-versa, though I’ve owned some hounds that were good at both. Most hunters tend to focus on hares or coyote and their breeding thereby produces two different types of dogs. So in theory at least (actually, all this talk of an American coursing hound breed is theory), I can see the prospect of two new breeds, one a specialist on jackrabbit that would carry some saluki blood and run 24 to 28 inches at the withers and 50 to 70 lbs.; the other a coyote hound that would look like a greyhound of larger size and bone (26 to 30 inches and 70 to 95 lbs.) and possibly with a rough, wire coat. Such dogs are running right now of course but they don’t breed true to type — all manner of colors, coat, ear carriage and conformation appear in the same kennel, or even the same litter. Current breeders of American coursing hounds have a strong flair for the practical — they produce dogs that can catch and kill their game. Unlike their earlier counterparts who produced the coursing greyhound, the borzoi, Scottish deerhound or saluki, they have little interest in (or eye for) aesthetics. An American Coursing Hound of an identifiable type, as well as ability and conformation, would be a monumental creative achievement in the world of hounds that hunt. I have made no real effort to breed such a hound myself, but I’ve often thought it would be fun to try.

In conclusion it must be said that these unregistered American hounds, whatever their use and characteristics, are excellent field dogs and worthy of note and study by anyone with an interest in gazehounds. These mixed breeds and cold- bloods are not necessarily any better than the registered breeds. None can match speed with the greyhound or endurance with the saluki, nor are they any stronger than the deerhound and wolfhounds. But they are of a more uniform excellence than any of the AKC sighthounds for they are all agile and capable in the field, almost without exception sound and in movement “easy, active and true.” In addition they are generally tractable, intelligent and amenable to other dogs and people. Use in the field has weeded out the poor, the sorry, the non-functional hound. There is a lesson here for the fancier as this is not necessarily the case with our registered hounds. Among gazehounds these field dogs are as good an example as can be currently found of function equaling beauty.

Loafer (left), a greyhound/saluki hybrid, and Goofy, a lurcher. Jackrabbit or coyote, they could catch ‘em and put ‘em on the ground.