There are a great many worthless dogs, but the dogs are not to blame. I am writing on fox dogs, but it holds good on all dogs. There is always a worthless bitch, and sometimes several of them to be had for nothing, and some fellow who wants a dog but don't want to pay a fair price says, "I'll get that bitch and breed her to that dog down at Graysville. They say he's a crackerjack, and I'll get some good dogs and they won't cost me anything either."
Well, when the time comes to breed it's five miles to Graysville, and the roads are awful muddy, and he concluded to breed to Jim Jones' dog just over the way, saying he ain't much of a dog, and a cousin to the bitch, but his great-grandmother got more foxes than any dog over in these parts, and some of the pups will breed back. He gets eight or ten pups, which he gets perhaps $1.00 a piece for, and it costs just as much to raise a poor one as a good one. The owners spend a lot of time trying to make dogs of them and have nothing at last.
In a running dog these are the qualities I think are needed. First, endurance, because no dog can make a race after a red fox without it. Then speed, a good nose, lots of ambition, good sense and the more of that the better; and will need to be able to hear well to enable him to cut corners if he happens to get behind, as any dog is liable to do.
After the pups are born, don't let the bitch run until they are weaned, for it will hurt both mother and puppies. Should she get very hot and then get to her pups you would likely lose some or perhaps all of them.
Here we have still another favorite breed for 'coon hunting, advanced by an old and tried hunter. Says he: My choice of a breed of coon dog is a grade hound crossed on a bull or one-half hound, one-fourth rat terrier and one-fourth Scotch collie or shepherd or fox hound and beagle.
Says another: A hound to be a fine ranger does not require many years of training if he comes from a sire and dam that were both good rangers and which their own sire and dam and grand sire and grand dam were all good and highly trained dogs. He is sure to hang from them and any sportsman having dogs of that strain will enjoy the use of his dog at once, but where it takes three or five seasons and sometimes more to make a good dog, is when they come from exhibition stock or from stock that have never been broken right. If a hound is wrongly taught to hunt he will always be a crazy dog and will, if bred, give poor hunters exactly like himself.
An Ohio Fox Hunter goes on record thus: In breeding hounds some seem to expect great work on any line they wish to see the hound, not stopping to think everything to its kind and everything to be perfect must be true to his nature. The bloodhound is true to his nature with reasonable opportunity. He is a man trailer, a large, strong dog, built for strength and endurance but not for fleetness which all breeders concede the 'coon dog should be built upon. Strong in my opinion with strong jaws, good size and a good muzzle, a good scent with as much speed and determination as you can inject into their blood.
I am now speaking of coon dogs. They may be bred almost any way and yet be good coon dogs but I find it is just as necessary to have them bred from coon hunting stock as for any dog or animal to be trained for any specific or especial purpose. It must be bred with that object in view and as much of that blood and disposition injected into the veins as is possible to get.
The fox hound is a special or specific type or breed of dog. He is bred for it, built for it, trained for it and if a true type of hound, is it. Not all well bred dogs are fox dogs nor are all well bred horses fast. Only one in many. But in order to have grounds to expect speed, we must have breeding, as the saying goes, "Blood will tell." Some are daffy on pedigree, others must have everything registered, others ask only for the swing and staying qualities of their ancestors, etc.
All breeds of hounds have some worthless, yet some may be fairly good along some particular line and very much at fault in others. Some have speed but cannot be got to use it, will not get in with a pack and run to a finish. Some will run with a slow pack all right but put them in with a fast pack and they will have their gallop out in from one to two hours. They seem to have all the courage necessary but not the speed. Some will go after the first fox trail they ever smell of and others you have to train to follow.