Blueticks

I want to get another dog in a couple of years when Sam is grown and since we got her I am just in love with the hounds dogs. I was thinking about a blutick coonhound. I was reading up on them and I am confused. Is that a breed or just a color of coonhound? The way I understand it it's a breed. Anyway what do you guys know about the breed?

Sparks and Puckstop have a beautiful bluetick named Belle. I have a Treeing Walker named Uncle Fred. If you want to see pics of all six breeds of coonhounds go to ukcdogs.com and check out the bench show results for various nite hunt competitions. I think the most recent might have been Plott Days.

Their message board is also a good place to get your questions answered, just be aware that they're not real thrilled with pet owners. I'm biased, but I think the coonhounds are about the most underrated dogs out there. Anything you want to know about life with a coonhound, I'll be glad to share. It's just hard to get me to shut up once I get started!

What do they have against pet owners? I am not up on all this kind of information. I know they are normally hunting dogs but why would somone be opposed to a person spoiling their dog and making it a family member?

They are a breed. I am personaly going to be getting a Black and Tan Coonhound in the next 5 years (LOL) from a breeder in Oregon (sp?).

Some people think that like BC's they should not be pets and only be used exclusivly for what they were bred for (ie Hunting).

But why do they think that? And can a hunting dog not double as a pet. Do they believe you absoutely are not supposed to fall in love with your hunting dog? What qualifies it as a "pet"? My dad's squirrel dog is also his pet. Haven't these people seen "where the red fern grows"?

They have nothing against spoiling dogs. In fact they have threads on their site about who has the most spoiled dog. They don't want pet people breeding their dogs for something other that the working qualities they value so much- they are afraid of their bloodlines getting diluted into show dogs. They have point- look what akc breeders have done to most sporting dogs.

So they think it's ok to OWN one exclusively as a pet, though?

Usually they do, especially if it's going to a kid. Maybe they hope the kid will get into hunting it eventually, I don't know. They don't think much of dogs that are "just" pets and don't hunt. I can't get too mad at them though, because these are truly wonderful dogs, and have about the most stable pemperaments I've seen in any dogs, so they must be doing something right somewhere.

Neither I nor Sparks got our coonhounds from breeders though, they are both rescues. There always seem to be purebred coonhounds available in rescues, they are prone to getting lost when hunting. Something you should consider. These are both beautiful dogs. Try petfinder too.

You need to look up "coonhound", "hound", "foxhound", and even "beagle" on petfinder. Shelters don't always know what they have.

Yeah I don't even know where to begin finding a reputable breeder so adopting is always my preference. I am not going to hunt or show so I don't see why I would choose to spend a fortune and search the world for a good breeder when there's a puppy in a shelter needing a home. The only thing is that I prefer to get my dogs under a year and sometimes thats hard when adopting. But I live in Arkansas. I have no problem finding purebred hounds in shelters. Many are retired hunting dogs who are "discarded" once they are too old to hunt. It's so sad. But again living in the south there are whole litters of puppies found dumped out in the "boonies" that end up in rescues. That's how we got Sammie.

Sam why do you care if the people think that having one as a pet is bad? If you can provide a good home for the breed then go for it. Dont let someone say that just because you dont hunt you cant own one? That would mean I couldnt have Jazz cuz I dont work her.

If you get on the ukcdogs.com message boards and follow them for a while you can figure out what the bloodlines are and where to get a good puppy. They also put out a magazine called Coonhound Bloodlines. In addition there are a few people who are into showing only, and they could help you.

Coonhound pups are surprisingly inexpensive. The litters seem to range from 9-14 pups and you can get a pup from a reputable breeder for $250 to $500. This is true even if the parents are hunt or show champs, or both.

You won't believe how cute the pups are, either- we're talking giant ears and wrinkles.

http://forums.ukcdogs.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=163699

Above is a bookmark to an example of an ad for some really nicely bred pups. Brussel is not only a nite champ, but also impressively trained in obedience. The problem is convincing them to let you have one of the pups. Cute, huh?

Oh no I am going to get one no matter what. I was just interested in the viewpoint. I didn't know that. I wanted to know what their arguement was for that opnion. I just like to hear all sides of everthing and educate myself on every point of view before i make decisions. I have learned a lot by asking people questions about their opinions. You don't understand. I didn't know ANYthing about breeding and where to get dogs before I came on here. I thought if you wanted a dog you look in the newspaper. I didnt know about puppymills, petstores, or backyard breeding. I didnt know the difference in pet quality, or breed standards. All i knew was that there was some controversy and I just adopted because that's what I wanted to do. I am still learning. There are things I still don't understand. I just like to ask lots of questions.

And here's a link where you can see good examples of all six coonhound breeds, and they're fully labeled. It took a while to find one with all six, and labels that were the whole names and not just abbreviations.

http://ukcdogs.com/HPCoonhounds.htm

Drat- that still doesn't work. You have to go to the link and then scroll down to "1/07/2007 Grand American Bench Show." Sorry