3 SPRINTHUNDS
DAW - does DAW go back to before there were dogs, to when wild canines began to radiate out after on ice age?
.. . . continued from dash terriers..
3) SPRINTHUNDS
A) TRUE SPRINTHUND CLAN:
Hardware: medium to bigger dogs.
The hardware of sprinthunds is more important for them to succeed than with most other categories.
The dogs must have good eyesight both to spot a moving rabbit at a distance, and to run full speed through the woods without running themselves into trees.
They must have an ectomorphic form with long legs and a long neck. This usually produces a long muzzle, long but not wide head, long tail, and long toes - because a major switch has been thrown which elongates the total form.
The dog should not be so over elongated that it a caricature, or like a stick figure..
Software: the desire to sprint after small things that run away. The instinctual skill of the 'quick kill' where the prey is killed with one quick shake..
Uses: to catch and kill rabbits, hare, and small prey like antelope.
Bio: the stage of growth in wolf cubs where the long bones grow. The cub stage where the cub hunts little things for himself, like grasshoppers, mice, young rabbits..
B) STAGHUND CLAN: (includes deerhunds, wolfhunds & boarhunds)
Hardware: bigger or giant dogs. They differ from the sprinthunds in being larger, a bit heavier built, and having a heavier neck which is not as elongated as a sprinthund's..
Software: the same as that of sprinthunds, but a willingness to hang onto a large animal as well.
In the US, most of the desire to hunt big prey has been damped down in these dogs.
A dog with strong instincts will look for something to use those instinct on - this would be too dangerous in a dog of this size, bred to go after large animals, so it is rare to find one with old instincts fully on..
Use: Traditionally used to hunt deer, elk (moose), wolf, and boar, from the time people hunted these animals with spears. Some varieties retain both the form and the instinct to enable them to course and catch hare, coyotes, or kangaroo..
Bio: these are a cusp category, really mostly a giant sprinthund for large prey.
Today some of the show varieties sometimes almost seem like an attempt to be a cusp breed between the non-adjacent categories of Bulldoggers & Sprinthunds - a dichotomy that can't balance in the breeding over time - instead of an overlap of sprinthunds and tracking hounds.
.. . . next the tracking hounds.
(Cusp breed here is the Great Dane)(note: the Great Dane is an interesting breed, not one easy to pigeonhole).
Built like a sprinthund, mannered like a tracking dog, but heavy and jowly headed like a mastiff.
Unlike today, where dog breeds are usually kept sexually isolated from each other, in the past, any breeder could cross any dogs that he thought might make for better working puppies.
Of course, it isn't just which dogs reproduce, it is which puppies find homes, survive, and raise puppies of there own..
There is an excellent photo of the kind of Great Dane that I like. The photo shows Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis when she was a very little girl with a Harlequin Dane that looks very nice.
I don't like the head and drooly lips that are on today's show Great Danes in America. And today's Great Danes are too large. A big dog is one thing, but let's not overdo it please. .IMO, the old 28 inch (on females) measure was good.
. . .next the tracking hounds..
