Foxhound

About the Foxhound

The English Foxhound was bred by hunts rather than by kennel clubs, refined over three centuries for stamina, nose, voice and the ability to work as one animal within a pack of forty. That origin matters enormously to anyone thinking about a stud, because the great majority of Foxhounds in Britain are recorded in the hunts' own stud books and are not on the Royal Kennel Club Breed Register at all.

A hound stands around 58 to 64 cm, powerfully built with heavy bone for its size, a short hard coat and any recognised hound colouring. Royal Kennel Club registrations are a tiny fraction of the working population, so a dog offered at stud on a pedigree service needs its registration checked before anything else; a hound that is not on the Breed Register cannot sire a Royal Kennel Club registered litter, however good he is. Temperament is uniformly friendly, but these are hounds bred for kennel life and constant company, not for a quiet house.

Health questions should start with hip scores and a current eye certificate. Ask about feet and joints in a hound expected to cover long distances week after week, and about the working record of the dog and its parents, which in this breed is the most honest measure of soundness anyone can offer. Longevity in the line is a fair question too.

Health & breeding

We check every hip, elbow, eye and DNA result you give us against the Royal Kennel Club’s public records by hand, and we record who checked it and when. The Royal Kennel Club’s public records may not include all the screening a dog has had, so a dog with no Royal Kennel Club record showing is not necessarily untested.