What happens when you adopt a hound dog

1. Funny, Affectionate, Adaptable

The hound is a good companion for those who are ready for antics. They seem to be in their own world, and to some extent, they are! The parents of the hound need to be willing to enter the world the hound sees and be ready for the trend. The hound is not a serious creature and should not be taken seriously. I mean, look at their ears!

In our local shelter, the hounds that are often ignored look like a dime a dozen, but their personality is really unique. People tend to think they are loud, stubborn and smelly. (Yes, people really tell me these things.) I promise you will be surprised to meet some people.

If you fall in love with a hound at a local shelter. Here are some of the features I’ve always seen in the hounds I work with.

2. Hounds live in their own world

Let me take a minute to explain how your hound came to be. For centuries these dogs were bred to sniff stuff and find stuff. Track whatever the hunter was looking for on that given day. Fox, rabbit, raccoon, deer, boar, or anything else you can think of that lives in the woods. So that is exactly what they are going to do. They are going to sniff everything. Everything you can imagine, and then more.

A dog’s nose is so much more powerful than ours. I use the analogy that we walk into a friend’s house and smell a cake baking, your hound walks in and smells all the ingredients in the cake, your friend’s perfume and the flavor of soap in the bathroom. And that is in the first 30 seconds. This can lead to a dog who can be quickly overwhelmed if new environments are not taken slowly and carefully. Give your newly adopted hound dog plenty of opportunity to sniff the new places you are going to frequent. Sniffing is hard work, let them do it at their own pace.

3. You have to have a sense of humor

The hound will do things you never thought possible. They are problem solvers, and sometimes their problem is their intelligence. I often tell people that if they had a dumb hound, I wouldn’t be in their house. (This is not entirely correct, but it removes the focus.) Jump on the table, open the door, bury the toys, and find the cookies you hid from your husband (is it in my home?). All the things your hound can do. It’s better not to let it affect you. If these are things you want to avoid, be prepared to manage more than you think you need. When your hound finds it, be prepared to change the way you manage it.

4. All the food belongs to a hound

Work with management again. If you leave the food unattended, it belongs to the hound. If you do not want the food to belong to the hound, make sure the hound does not get the food. Ovens and microwave ovens are safe places to store food that does not belong to hounds.

Often, The hounds are locked in a kennel, so some people can compete for resources. People reported that their hounds ate faster nearby and would growl if they stole from the counter. Growling is a perfectly normal behavior of a dog and should not be punished. Instead contact your favorite trainer who is knowledgeable about modern training methods, and they can help you get that under control. Usually this is the only real behavior challenge I see consistently in hounds. Thankfully, with a little consistency and training this is fairly easy to change.

5. Hounds are Easy to Train

Remember all the food for a hound? Fortunately, this makes it easy to motivate them. They are also very motivated by the nose, which some people think is very stubborn. The hounds must smell something, so they often forget that you are talking because they have found something. It doesn’t mean they blow you or are stupid, it just means they need to smell. When you walk into a crowded room, you need a minute to determine your position. The hound needs to smell before it can sound. The more you practice, the less you smell. This is a suggestion for any dog, not just a hunting dog.

Since you know what will happen, go and adopt a hunting dog! They will make your life full of vitality, because of the little things you can’t find anywhere else. Give them time to smell and manage their food, and you will have a lifelong partner. You will want to know why you have never had a good hunting dog!