ScentHound Dogs

The presence of hunting dogs alongside man has been dated back to Antiquity. They were extremely important for humans since they helped hunting small quarry and found shelter for their owners. The evolution of man was, without a doubt related to their four legged friends.
The first scenthounds to be bred were supposedly the giants mastiff dogs owned by the Celtics. They noticed the dog’s amazing skills to follow trails and started to bred them to each other. They didn’t care for a specific breed, they just crossed them accordingly to their skills. The real breeding work started during the Middle Age in a Belgium monastery called St.Hubert’s. The monks crossed those huge Celtic dogs with shorter, docile dogs and got a slow, medium size, black dog hunter – an ancestor to BloodHounds. As they spread all across Europe, many more crosses were made accordingly to their breeder’s purpose. Amongst small scenthounds the Harrier, a type of foxhound, appeared in 1260 in England. Speed, agility and small this were perfect to hunt foxes in open fields. The French forests are home to many medium sized hounds. The selection was based on the attributes required, and so started to appear dogs specialized in hunting deer or fox, for enduring tough terrains and climates, etc.. The American coonhounds were bred because the foxhounds were considered too slow to hunt red foxes. Different breeds of coonhounds started to appear because of the different terrains and techniques used to hunt. Historically they’ve been capable of contending with wild boars and wolves but in modern times the selective breeding made them one of the most gentle breeds.

Nowadays they are divided into two categories by the United Kennel Club. The first group, the Tree Hounds include the American coonhounds and the European hounds. The second category, the Trailing Scenthounds, include dogs that can track of scents for a long time and are the most common house pets like Beagle and Basset Hound.

Being one of the oldest dogs breeds in the world, scent hound dogs were since a long time as helpers in hunters. They rely primarily on their nose to follow any smell or scent to hunt, since they are known for having the most sensible nose amongst dogs .Most are used to hunt in small packs. Their entire body is made towards relying mostly on their nose, and to endure the harsh conditions when following a track.

Those long droopy ears have a reason for being like that. When the dog has his nose on the ground sniffing around, the ears tend to touch the ground and make a kind of “dome” which helps to collect all of those scent particles and keep them around the dog’s nose.

You should have noticed it, when they are sniffing around, their tails are always pointing up towards the sky. The reason for this is to show themselves to their owner, since many of this breeds have short legs ( like the beagle) and the high vegetation would make them virtually invisible

Have you noticed that they bark with a very deep voice? They use it when running and hunting because those deep wave sounds travel further through the long fields and are easily herd by their owners or other dogs.

They can have short or long legs. The sort legged hounds usually have that big tail pointing up to be seen by their owners who usually follow them on foot. The longer-legged run much more quickly and require that their owners follow them on horseback. Usually the hunters let the pack of dogs run freely until they start to make those loud barks saying that they got something.

Their lips apparently too long to fit in their mouths have a reason to be like that. They’re always with lots of saliva and when touching the ground helps their nose to pick up a scent because it's easier to smell it in humid conditions.

Ah finally the most important one, the nose! These dog breeds have the best and more sensible nose in the canine world. They have big, large, humid noses with huge nostrils that are just perfect for scenting pretty much anything. They can have over 225 million receptors in their nose, comparing to a humans who only have about 5 million receptors.

They don’t need to be very fast but they do need to have a good endurance to follow scents along very long distances, tough terrains and tough conditions. They can follow a scent trail over running water and several days old.

The widely known breeds are the Bassets and the Beagles. But there are also the Petit Basset Griffon, Dachshunds, Harriers, the Foxhound family, the BloodHound family, Otterhound, Rhodesian Ridgeback, and those belonging to the CoonHound family.