Harrier

About the Harrier

Sitting between the Beagle and the Foxhound in size, the Harrier was bred in England to hunt hare with followers on foot or on horseback, and packs of them were kept in this country for centuries. The name may come from the quarry or from the Norman French for hound; either way the dog was always defined by the job.

Height falls around 48 to 55 cm, with a short hard coat in any hound colouring, most usually tricolour. The build is that of a slightly scaled-down Foxhound, with plenty of bone, deep chest and good feet. The Royal Kennel Club recognises the breed but registrations here are extremely few, and most Harriers in Britain are pack hounds recorded outside the Breed Register, so anyone considering a stud should establish the registration position first.

Ask for hip scores and a current eye certificate, and about the soundness of feet and joints, which is what limits a hound expected to run all day. Ear disease deserves a question in any drop-eared hunting breed. Because the registered population is so small, ask what the breed club recommends, how the two pedigrees relate to one another, and how long the older dogs in the family lived and worked.

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.