Kennel visit...

[Sonic_Boom]

I just wanted to share my first time getting to visit the hunt kennels with all of you who would appreciate it.

About a month ago, I got to hunt for the first time and LOVED it. Though I do not personally own a suitable horse to hunt, my farm occassionally needs some help taking the hunt horses out (I already get on most of them to help keep them fit). So I am thinking of joining the hunt next season. Bitten by the bug in one hunt! Well, that and I do know this is something I would love to do.

Anyway, today I went to the meet with my BO to see them off, etc. She whips and is field secretary for the hunt, as does her husband, and her daughters are very active. I asked if there would ever be a way I could see the kennels, as I really wanted to meet the hounds and see how it all worked, and she took me right then and there!

It was SO very awesome. What beautiful, beautiful hounds! All so sweet, and as the meet was at the kennels today, all quite disappointed THEY were not out! They all would speak now and then, and were as friendly as could be. So keen! The kennels were out of this world, and it was such a pleasure to get to see, if in brief, how the hounds lived their lives and how the huntsman would look after them, etc.

I learned a good bit today and truly enjoyed meeting these wonderful hounds away from a meet. I hope to some day soon get to volunteer to start doing hound walks and such. I would really like to understand more about the hounds themselves and how they work, why, how they are trained, etc. They were all so breathtaking.

Just wanted to share!

[strawberry_roan]

Ah yes, the bug bites hard! Glad you are so keen–hunts need more people like you! :)

[CC1]

When I started hunting about 15 years ago it was a huge hunt and I rarely even saw much of the hounds. Fast forward to about 9 years ago when I joined a very small hunt and started walking hounds and helping to train puppies in the summer. I became very interested and fascinated with how the hounds worked and hunted. We had only 1 field and stayed right up with the huntsman.

I’m now with a slightly larger group again but remain very active with walking, roading and even the occassional feeding the hounds. But, it has taken me 3 years to even get to know half of them by name and sight LOL! And I’m slowly learning personalities and how each one hunts (that will take me about another 10 years!). It has opened up a whole 'nother aspect of foxhunting and increases the addiction tenfold LOL!

[JSwan]

For many people the new season starts the first day of cubbing, or Opening Meet.

For me, the new season starts in April when we start walking hounds. 3 days a week I’m at the kennel and it is the highlight of my day. It’s wonderful to see the puppies grow up into confident, happy hounds.

I’m glad you’ll have a similar experience.

[Little_Valkyrie]

I started visiting the kennels to walk hounds about two years ago and now I am there several times a week and it is such a fantastic experience. It is so cool to be able to look at the pack and tell which hounds are leading and I’m now starting to learn some voices, but I can only tell one or two now. The best thing about this time of the year is the puppies! Our puppies (just weaned, so they are still really tiny)have a blanket they play with and they drag it all around the feed room and out into the yard and it is about the most adorable thing ever. Glad to hear another excellent hound and hunting story!

[LessonLearned]

I am always glad to hear about happy foxhounds! I have a question (and please note, I have no desire to start a trainwreck here). What do your hunts do with dogs ready to retire or those that don’t cut it in the hunt field?

I adopted my foxhound after she had failed out of the hunt and was sent to a research lab to train as a bomb dog (which she also wasn’t so hot at – she wanted to be a couch hound, which she finally got with me).

She was definitely a challenge and had apparently experienced some abuse somewhere along the way, but was a sweet girl and we bonded tremendously. She died of cancer 3 years after I got her.

I know many people say that foxhounds don’t make great pets, etc. Do your kennels every try to adopt out or transition dogs to new lives?

[Sonic_Boom]

[QUOTE=strawberry roan;3727789]
Ah yes, the bug bites hard! Glad you are so keen–hunts need more people like you! :):)[/QUOTE]

Thanks!! Planning to save my pennies to be able to join next season…can’t wait should all work out. But even if for some reason it doesn’t, it sounds like I could still volunteer.

All your experiences are so great to hear…I love to ride obviously and hunting was an amazing riding experience, but I really would like to learn about the hounds and who they are and how they work. There was so much more to it than just being out for a lovely ride! It’s truly fascinating.

I hope some day to know the hounds and understand them like many of you do.

LessonLearned, I don’t speak from a lot of experience, but I know several people who have adopted retired hounds from hunts around here. I myself once adopted a foxhound, but he was not from a hunt and I believe crossed with another hound breed (Beagle was my thinking from his face/conformation). No one knows where he came from, though to me he seemed to act like a hunting dog so at some point I do believe he was trained for that. He was a miserable pet in an apartment, though…MISERABLE. Though he went to the farm with me every day and got lots of exercise, etc., the sites and sounds of people all around, traffic, other dogs, etc. really unnerved him. He found a better home in a much more suburban (almost rural) home…I miss him still, though. I would think hunting hounds would have to be case-by-case as to whether they could adapt to that sort of life as an individual, but I would think they would do well in a less cramped/urban environment than I had my boy!

[LexInVA]

I have a foxhound sitting next to me right now. He’s happy to be here though he hates being leashed and hasn’t quite figured out how to relate to human beings. I’ve been working with him to help him adjust to suburbia and he’s improved quite a lot. He now knows what treats are, at least in his own special way, and will often accept certain kinds from people now. He used to just sniff whatever was offered and moved on until he saw other dogs taking treats and eating them. I believe he came from either a hunt kennel or a small pack of hounds as he absolutely adores other dogs and doesn’t grasp the concept of other dogs not wanting to play. We’re learning quite a lot from one another. Now it’s time to go to the dog park for his play time.

[Elghund2]

We have one of the “that dog just won’t hunt” hounds. It took a while for her to get comfortable but now she has her own room and bed. She is not confined in any way but never ventures more than a couple of hundred yards from the house. She does love to trail ride and go to the barn. She was just not a hunter.

Our hunt does have a retirement program that people can contribute to and a lot of the hounds are adopted out. we have several members with more than one hound.

[Sonic_Boom]

From my hound experience (admitted, not that huge), I find them to be such intelligent dogs that they CAN adapt for sure in the right circumstances. I know the hound I had was a wonderful dog, but I’ve no idea where he came from, other than a very rural part of WV, so that’s a heck of a transition, that to an apartment. He was so afraid of cars, poor sweet guy…I will never forget having to carry him home from a walk one night, and darn if he wasn’t a BIG boy for that! He just had a meltdown at traffic rolling by.

But if I didn’t live in an apartment, I would LOVE to have a retired hound. Never again after the misery my poor guy went through, but if I had a bit more privacy so less to adapt to…everyone I know who HAS adopted a hound from a hunt raves.

[LessonLearned]

Thank you for all of the information. My foxhound was from english lines and while she was eventually a wonderful pet her first 6 months were a challenge – she had major turf battles with my other dog, resisted house training, used creative maneuvers to escape from the yard (multiple times), and gave herself a concussion her first week home when a service man came to the house and she tried to go through a glass door trying to escape from him

Eventually, she and my other dog figured things out and she was a lovely, silly girl to have around. She owned me (and my couch) for 3 years, eventually dying of cancer. Even when she was sick, her prey drive would kick in if she saw an “evil kitty” in the yard (requiring a trip to the emergency vet when she tore off after one post-surgery and managed to rip out 10 stitches :rolleyes:).

Despite all of her quirks I did so LOVE that dog and would take in another foxhound in a heartbeat.

[Beverley]

To the OP- yep, the hounds are the thing. When I whipped in, I was at kennels pretty much every day- it is a year 'round effort that is very rewarding. And- for those hunts who still put puppies out to walk- it can also be great fun to see ‘your’ puppy enter the pack and do well.

Lesson Learned- In my experience, the pack is a constantly evolving ‘organism’- a never ending process for the huntsman. Breeding, raising and entering pups, deciding when an old hound can’t keep up any more, deciding when a troublemaker has to go- all on the huntsman’s mind every day. We used to keep 2 or 3 of the venerable retirees at the kennels (though they typically graduated from having to share the kennels with the younger hounds that might go after them)- they are worth their weight in gold when starting the pups walking out. I have known some hounds to do great retiring to non-kennel settings- and others that, frankly, would rather be dead than away from the pack. So for me, you really have to do what’s right for the particular hound.

Lots of hounds that aren’t working in a pack, for one reason or another, are drafted to other packs and do great. Example- if you are hunting fox exclusively and have one that is just too fast for your pack, it will probably be a great fit for a coyote pack. Flip side- a hound that might be too slow for your taste could be sought after by another pack looking for a good steady ‘anchor’ for the pack.

Hounds that will ‘only’ hunt deer might be given to deer hunters- though I recall a case decades ago where the deer hunter called to complain that the hound would only hunt fox for him!

My favorite book on hound dynamics is Vezin’s ‘Hounds for a Pack’ - slim little book but chock full of info that makes watching the hounds much more fun.