Trail Hounds
Originally, hound dogs were fell foxhounds. Over the years, selective breeding has been used to improve the speed of hounds used in the sport. The Hound Trailing Association has stated that foxhounds can no longer be accepted as participants in trails due to their relative lack of speed. However, foxhounds crossed with trail-hounds are acceptable as a way of improving the stamina of bloodlines. A foxhound trail-hound cross will take roughly three generations to regain the speed required to be competitive.
Retired hounds, hounds that interfere with other hounds in races and hounds that are naturally too slow to be competitive can be retrained as pets and rehoused.
Read more about this topic: Hound Trailing
Famous quotes containing the words trail and/or hounds:
“The trail of the serpent reaches into all the lucrative professions and practices of man. Each has its own wrongs. Each finds a tender and very intelligent conscience a disqualification for success. Each requires of the practitioner a certain shutting of the eyes, a certain dapperness and compliance, an acceptance of customs, a sequestration from the sentiments of generosity and love, a compromise of private opinion and lofty integrity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flewed, so sanded; and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook-kneed, and dewlapped like Thessalian bulls;
Slow in pursuit, but matched in mouth like bells,
Each under each.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)