Just what are sight hounds…..?…..

It’s a category of hounds in the overall hound group…..

Irish Wolfhounds are among them…..

As far as I am aware…..there are two categories of hounds…..

***American Kennel Club Listing Of Hounds***

There are Scent Hounds…..

…..and…..

***Hounds Explained***

…..then there are Sight Hounds…..

Scent hounds are prey-driven by…………………scent…..

…..whereas sight hounds are prey-driven by…………………(I need a show of hands…..anybody?…..anybody?…..)

…………………sight…………………

The foxhounds I hunt with are definitively scent hounds…..

…..with wonderful voices to communicate what they are smelling…..

I’m sure I’ve said before that Irish Wolfhounds are sight hounds…..

…..and their noses are worthless…..

…..but then…..I must have lazy/arm-chair Wolfhounds…..

…..because they watch the wildlife in the backyard……

They don’t miss a trick…..

…..but they are not “dynamically prey-driven”…..

I’ve left the herd out first thing in the morning…..and stood by them…..while we’ve all watched deer bound out of the backyard…..

They aren’t motivated at all to engage in any sort of pursuit…..

…..occasionally they might half-heartedly bound along after them…..

…..but catching up or actually taking down a deer isn’t a priority for them at all…..

I have defective hounds…..

My older daughter’s manic Jack Russell goes spastic over the squirrels…..

My younger daughter’s lap-perching/Papillon is screeching-ly obnoxious over anything that moves…..

…..no one takes him seriously…..he’s just vocal cords held together with fluff…..

While the pack of seven phlegmatic coursing hounds just plant their butts in the sand and watch the world gallop past?…..

***Lure/Coursing Hounds***

***What’s Coursing?***

(I feel confident that my pack of hounds would fail dismally at coursing)…..

You know that famous painting of the poker playing dogs?…..

…..I think there should be one of a poofy boudoir filled with Irish Wolfhounds languishing on chaise lounges and crushed velvet…..with flutes of Prosecco…..

Hyper-active would not be a word that I would pick to describe my lard-assed hounds…..

…..Counter-Surfers…..Opportunistic Crotch Snufflers…..Cat Litter-Raiders…..Animated/Dusty Throw-Rugs…..Furry Phlegmatists (sp?)…..

…..all those names come to mind…..

…..but Majestic…..Sleek…..Coursing Hounds…..

…..Nope…..not one of them…..