Reading Hounds Is Essential

Whether you hunt to ride or ride to hunt, the ability to read hound body language and to understand what hounds are doing when they speak certain ways will enhance your enjoyment and knowledge.

You'll find trying to figure hounds out and thinking about what they're about to do next both exciting and fulfilling. You'll experience pleasure through sight and sound that will enhance the moment and help you understand hounds.

Once you learn to understand hounds, you'll enjoy hunting more and are more likely to stay with the sport. It can make a bad day good and a good day fantastic.

Once you learn to read hounds' body language, it adds a new dimension to foxhunting, stimulating your thought process and turning what some would consider a boring day into an exciting, suspenseful day.

To be a successful whipper-in, reading hounds is essential. You can't react quickly enough or learn to anticipate if you don't understand hounds or are unable to read their body language. Huntsmen like Larry Pitts of the Potomac Hunt (Md.) believe that understanding what hounds are doing is the hardest thing a whipper-in must learn.

Hounds are like people. There are good ones and bad ones, smart ones and dumb ones, sensitive ones, bold ones, fat ones, skinny ones, cheaters, liars, skirters, show-offs, complainers, dwellers, stars and lovers.

Hounds are athletes bred over hundreds of years for speed, courage, drive, stamina, nose, cry and biddability. Those are not the traits of your average housedog, but they are the ingredients for great hounds.

If you, as a whipper-in, learn individual hounds' personalities, you will be more efficient. Observing them in kennel and when they walk out is the best way to learn their personalities.

Hounds voices tell us a lot. Their voices, just like ours, are distinct and recognizable. With practice and a lot of exposure, some huntsmen and whippers-in can tell you which hound it is just from the voice, which is not hard for those of us with a couple of dogs but amazing with a pack.

The various barks, yips, whines, squeals, hollers and the pitch of delivery all mean something. Changes in the pitch of a voice can indicate switching to another quarry, riot or getting close to the game. Young hounds have immature voices. Bitches are usually higher pitched than dog hounds.

Hollering can mean, "I'm lost, hurt or caught." The frequency of the voice or bark can indicate how strong or weak scent is. From full cry to no cry could mean they caught the quarry or lost completely.

If you listen hard enough, you'll learn the music and language of hounds and be able to piece together what is happening or what has just happened without actually seeing it. During my interviews preparing for this book, the overwhelming number of whippers-in said they depended on their ears more than their eyes to get the job done.

Communicating Without Words
When a hound cocks his head and stops, he's usually trying to figure something out. Young hounds will often stop and look for you (or the huntsman) before they do something that they're not sure about or if they are thinking of mischief. If you catch the moment, you can encourage them to continue or stop it with a glance. Hounds will frequently look you directly in the eye and hold your gaze. Gifted hound men seem to know what they're thinking and communicate with the hound without words.