ON Sunday, July 2nd, hunt supporters from all over Ireland will gather for the National Hound Show at Stradbally, Co Laois. Generously hosted by the Cosby family, the finest hounds in Ireland will be produced in front of internationally known judges who will consider the result of their breeding programmes.

When you see these hounds floating across the ring, the spectator is witnessing the product of many years’ breeding. What have they done to produce such hounds to the Stradbally standard? How do the hunts get started breeding?

GETTING STARTED

Let us look at what they do to produce fun – which is what hunting is all about. Before attempting to breed a pack of hounds, it is necessary to secure the support of the person looking after them. If he or she is not on side, the breeder is wasting his or her time. The programme requires an accurate kennel hound list by age, sex, sire and dam. The person looking after the hounds (in most cases the Huntsman, who may be the breeder) will need a list of all the bitches showing their date of previous ‘seasons’ and the date each bitch is forecast next to come into season. It is no good having a panic at the last minute when a potential brood bitch comes into season.

Next, the hunt must maintain their hound pedigrees to at least six generations. Some may wish to visit the British MFHA Hound Breeding website (www.mfha.org.uk > On Line Stud Book) and learn to use the ‘trial mating’ option. All foxhounds bred in Ireland are in the British maintained studbook and this ‘trial mating’ is a handy tool. The foxhound tradition of the kennel, ie Modern or ‘Old English’ foxhound, is important. If the hunt has a custom of a certain type of hound, the breeder would be unwise to change that. It should also be remembered the thoughts in this article are confined to the Stud Book Foxhound although the principles apply to other types of working hounds.

Many hunts select a good doghound and a good bitch and use them. This method can produce an odd good foxhound but it is ‘chance breeding’. You end up with a pack of individuals and their conformation faults mean more lame hounds and the pack tends to be less effective in the field. The breeder wants to produce a pack of hounds of uniform make and shape that are athletic and work as a team. Hound colour should play no part unless the kennel wishes to maintain a ‘colour’ tradition. Good conformation makes the exertion of hunting easier for the hound. Therefore it is able to continue effectively when other hounds are tired often producing successful hunts at the end of a long day – the ‘4 o’clock fox’.

The breeder should use hounds with qualities of nose, cry, stamina, fox sense, temperament and drive and this requires breeding from known hounds with these characteristics. Such athletic hounds have the ability to hunt two or three days a week and rarely go lame. Hounds of good conformation have an economic advantage as fewer need keeping. There is no point in having a hound that can only go out once a week. The way to produce this all round athletic team of hounds with good qualities hunting two or three days a week is by line breeding, not chance breeding. It takes years to get this right and a pack can be ruined in days so continuity in hunt management is an advantage.

WHAT IS LINE BREEDING?

Line breeding is a form of closer breeding therefore great care must be taken. When you find a hound you want to use, the breeder must be sure the same name (or brother/sister) does not appear closer than four generations and at six generations the more appearances the better. How do we go about doing this? The most important part when selecting a hound is that he/she and all the family must be good workers. Go and see the hounds hunt and hear their voices. It follows that kennels should not breed from a hound that is too young (nor too old).

THE BROOD BITCH

The first step is selecting the brood bitch. By November, most kennels will have a good idea which bitches they wish to use. Forward planning is vital and size important. A kennel list of the bitches is essential showing when they are due to come into season based on previous showings. Having selected the potential brood bitch, her pedigree must be studied. The bitch is the key to any breeding and a good brood bitch is the hardest hound to breed.

THE STALLION HOUND

Next is the selection of a suitable stallion hound. The breeder should check the pedigrees of both the bitch and the stallion to ensure the kennel are not going any closer than the fourth generation. If the breeder doesn’t get this right, the kennel is heading for problems and is unlikely to produce a fox-catching team which is fun to follow on foot, by car or horse. If the breeder does get this right, the result (eventually) will be a level pack of good working quality that can drive on together during a hunt. Such hounds will arrive at a check as a team and are less likely to divide or split. Remember a good hound on one side will not correct a bad fault on the other side.

Having selected the sire and dam, it is worth remembering late litters should be avoided. The sensible breeder does not put a bitch to the chosen stallion hound after May 1st. Late litters hardly ever catch up and can be at a serious disadvantage in the all important autumn hunting period when educating the young hounds is vital.

FAMOUS HOUNDS

A good hound is a good hound in any country but careful breeding has a better chance of getting the right hounds for the right conditions of modern foxhunting. The best of the past and present should be bred back to – such is the care taken with the foxhound over two centuries. A list of such well known foxhounds is on the IMFHA website (www.imfha.ie) where the subject of foxhound breeding is examined in greater detail.

That website list includes Modern foxhounds, ‘Old English’ type foxhounds, ‘modernised Old English’, Welsh & Fell. The Modern foxhound was the result of several outcrosses (notably by ‘Ikey’ Bell MFH of the West Waterford) and so successful was his experiment with Welsh bloodlines that few packs today do not have the value of his ideas in their pedigrees. Examples of three types of successfully line bred foxhounds are shown in the photographs.

This Irish MFHA website list of famous hounds is only a selection; there are many more hounds whose presence in a pedigree would delight any foxhunter. All these hounds were reported as excellent by the huntsmen of the day. They were robust, road/track hunters, had fox sense, great cry and drive, and possessed stamina. Some were ‘no changers’. Many were of good temperament. Doubtless they had many other welcome characteristics; needless to say they were all loved.

When hounds are shown at Stradbally, the judges are assessing how successful the breeder has been in securing good conformation. Some practice at other shows is useful. Unless the hunt has exceptional circumstances, hounds should not be shown until late May. After mid August huntsmen will be concentrating on chasing their quarry. Three appearances are enough for most kennels; hounds are not show horses. They do not benefit from being hawked around too many shows. Hound shows are a valuable summer pastime but ‘pot hunting’ is harmful.

We all enjoy seeing bold, well looked after hounds galloping freely across a ring. If the watching breeder has tried to line breed for work and voice, breed more than is wanted to allow selection and has them as good looking as possible, the hunt can ask for no more. Come and see these Stradbally hounds on Sunday, July 2nd starting at 10.15am and see the successful Irish foxhound breeders in the 21st century.