Tracking Dogs Training

Many a tale was told of feudal castles and forays across border lands with dogs in pursuit of man, but the use of dogs as man-trackers was born of grim necessity. They were used in Ireland and against the Clansmen in Scotland, as well as in the border country. Here raiders worked in bands, seizing anything upon which they could lay their hands.

Two famous black ST Hubert hounds, 'unmatched for courage breath and speed', were brought by pilgrims from the Holy Land. Other dogs of the same name were larger and pure white, while another similar dog was a grayish red. Most probably, Bloodhounds of the present century carry the blood of many or all of these varieties. St Hubert was the patron saint of hunters and his own dogs are believed to have come to England during the Norman Conquest, the dark dogs becoming known as Bloodhounds and the white, as Talbot Hounds. However, it is possible that the ancestry of the Bloodhound goes back further than the Norman period because, even before Christian times, Sleuth Hounds were imported from 'Britain' into Gaul, although 'Britain' may in fact have been Brittany.

Henry VIII used Bloodhounds in wars against the French, while during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, 800 Bloodhounds apparently assisted in suppressing the Irish Rebellion. In later times Bloodhounds created terror in the minds of deer and cattle stealers, as well as poachers, since they were kept on large, important estates to track j trespassers down.

Bloodhounds in the service of man
In 1805, an association for the prevention of felons in Northampton shire provided and trained a Bloodhound for the detection of sheep stealers. In order to demonstrate the capabilities of the dog, a day was appointed for a public trial and a great crowd assembled the criminal among them. Eventually the dog was slipped and ran tip to a tree in which the man had taken refuge, this some 24.15 km (15 miles) from the starting place of the test.

The Cuban Bloodhound, more akin to the Mastiff and Bulldog than to the Bloodhound, was employed to track down runaway slaves in Jamaica and on the slave-holding estates of America. It was likened to the Mastiff in bulk, the Bulldog in its courage, the Bloodhound in scent and yet again, the Greyhound in agility, gaining a reputation both for sagacity and ferocity.

Use in the pursuit of poachers and criminals has caused the Bloodhound to suffer prejudice. In a Sussex village, around the turn of the twentieth century, local people believed that Bloodhounds would attack and were likely to devour any children with whom they came into contact so Bloodhound owners had constantly to be on the lookout for poisoned meat. In country districts public sentiment was certainly against the idea of the police using such hounds.

Crime-busting dogs
Before the First World War, Lieut. Col. E. H. Richardson, who was a renowned dog trainer, kept a number of Bloodhounds. He was sometimes Bed upon for the service of his hounds for tracking work by the police. At least one murderer was apprehended in this way, the dog tracing the complicated tracks to a railway station where the murderer had boarded a train.

Richardson found Bloodhounds especially useful in tracking poultry stealers, Rick burners and poachers, as the hounds would trace the culprits to their homes. A Bloodhound which went to the owner of a large property tracked a gang of poachers for 14.4 km (9 miles) across country, helped by the keeper who set the dog on the trail before the sun and wind had obliterated the scent. Dawn and the evening hours were the usual time for working the dogs as this was when the scent laid best, the trail usually being across open country or 'woodland.

Fearsome trackers
Dogs thus used were concerned only with tracking and were rarely savage, displaying no evil intent towards their quarry, but the very name. Bloodhound, carried with it dread and superstition, a powerful deterrent. The deep, bloodcurdling bay of the hound would put fear into the person being pursued, though it was music to the handler, an indication that the dog had discovered a sure scent.

Occasionally Bloodhounds were dangerous. These dogs appear to have had ancestry going back to the Cuban Bloodhound with crosses having been deliberately been made among savage strains to track runaway slaves on the plantations. In the early twentieth century slightly lighter but very similar hounds were still used in America for tracking escaped prisoners.

Bloodhounds may have been associated with tracking more than any other breed but several other dogs are also used both in work and in sport for tracking of various kinds.