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Scent hound

Dog type, hunting dog

  • 5 min read
  • 6 chapters
tricolor Beagle
Taz80 / SEDIRI Eddy · CC BY-SA 3.0

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Description

Hounds are hunting dogs that hunt either by following the scent of a game animal (scent hounds) or by following the animal by sight (sighthounds). There are many breeds in the scent hound type, and scent hounds may do other work as well, so exactly which breeds should be called scent hound can be controversial. Kennel clubs assign breeds of dogs to groups, which are loosely based on breed types. Each kennel club determines which breeds it will place in a given group.

Scent hounds specialize in following a smell or scent. Most of these breeds have long, drooping ears. One theory says that this trait helps to collect scent from the air and keep it near the dog's face and nose. They also have large nasal cavities, which helps them scent better. Their typically loose, moist lips are said to assist in trapping scent particles.

Because scent hounds tend to walk or run with their noses to the ground, many scent hound breeds have been developed such that the dog will hold their tail upright when on a scent. In addition, some breeds (e.g., beagle) have been bred to have white hair on the tips of their tails. These traits allow the dog's master to identify it at a distance or in longer grass.

Scent hounds do not need to be as fast as sighthounds, because they do not need to keep prey in sight, but they need endurance so they can stick with a scent and follow it for long distances over rough terrain. The best scent hounds can follow a scent trail even across running water and even when it is several days old. Most scent hounds are used for hunting in packs of multiple dogs. Longer-legged hounds run more quickly and usually require that the hunters follow on horseback; shorter-legged hounds allow hunters to follow on foot. Hunting with some breeds, such as German Bracke, American Foxhounds, or coonhounds, involves allowing the pack of dogs to run freely while the hunters wait in a fixed spot until the dogs' baying announces that the game has been "treed". The hunters then go to the spot on foot, following the sound of the dogs' baying.

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