|
| First Dog | Dog Care | Dog Training | Dog Feeding | Dog Health | Dog Breeding | Dog Showing | OutDoor Dogs | Working Dogs | Careers with Dogs | Forum | Pet Links | Site Map | Home | |
MAJESTIC TREE HOUND |
|||||||
|
Additonal Breeds Starting With Letter:
Pet Sites
 |
The creation of this breed is very recent, but the stem stock goes clear back to medieval northern France and the hounds of St. Hubert. The motives of this breed's creators were much the same as those who sponsor the American Blue Gascon Hound. These hunters wanted to save the large, cold-nosed, methodical working hound as a type in America, but the Majestic Tree Hound's forebear was the working Bloodhound. Big game hounds
of the old Bloodhound/Tal-bot/St. Hubert type inhabited American soil
formany years, and these
were crossed with a variety of other hounds for coldtrailing work. The
Majestic people say they crossed these Bloodhounds with "western
big-game hounds." These dogs may have been of the Gascon type like
the Old Line dogs or even strains from those long ago Porcelaines that
went west with the Rousseau family.
Lee Newhart,
Jr., and several others created the National Majestic Tree Hound Association
in 1980, and registered the first hounds in that year. These are big
hounds with males averaging over 100 pounds. They have the long,
low-set earage (with a minimum length specified), heavy flew and dewlap
of their ancestors from the Ardennes. They carry more excess skin in
general than the American Blue Gascon, and are noteworthy for their
abundant flew and dewlap, as well as facial wrinkles.
Intended for
rugged terrain and long endurance, they are most suited for lion, bear,
bobcat and jaguar, and are able to drive the big cats from their hiding
places. Newhart offers a hunter's account of the scene: "It was
a wild sight. The maddened hounds bayed at the foot of the pine. Above
them in the lower branches stood the big horse-killing cat, the destroyer
of the deer, the lord of stealthy murder, facing his doom with a heart
both craven and cruel."
They also
make superior coon hunters where the speed and numbers treed are not
as important as the skill, voice and persistence of a fine hound.
(This is true also of American Blue Gascon and Plott Hounds, both
big game hunters.) An exquisite nose finds a track where other hounds
would fail, and the coldtrailing ability keeps him on it long after
others would have given up and gone home.
This is
an extemely good-natured and affectionate hound, accepting equally
both praise and correction. He is not quarrelsome with his fellows
and has a noble and dignified expression.
|
