The Hounds

The hounds are hunting dogs that track and pursue prey tenaciously to round them up. So keep the prey until the hunter arrives and kills him. In some cases, however, the beagles can end the life of the cornered prey.

Although there are many breeds of hounds, generally have similar characteristics except for size. Dogs are exceptional sense of smell far surpasses that of other breeds of dogs and, therefore, are widely used as search and rescue dogs, narcotics dogs, dogs and other explosion-proof specialties which require dogs can detect concentrations little odor.

The smell of these dogs is so developed and is so important to them that the odors are usually great distraction when they are want to train. However, you can use this to that odors serve to reinforce and assist in training.

The hounds also tend to have elongated ears that hang to the sides of the head and hit the ground when the dog's nose to track down. According to some authors, the long, hanging ears help capture the air that rises from the ground, promoting the ability of dogs to capture odors. However, there is no scientific reference to this, and may well be one of the many myth surrounding the dogs.

In addition, the tail of the hounds usually white tip and a dark color on the rest, to make it easier to detect when the dog is in the brush. Of course, the hounds carry the tail raised when active, so you can easily see the tip even when they look to the rest of the dog.

Large-sized hounds, like the dog of St. Hubert (Bloodhound) have long used to track fugitive offenders, in addition to its traditional use for hunting. Currently, however, other races are preferred more versatile, as the German Shepherd or Belgian shepherd malinois for those tasks.

Meanwhile, the hounds of medium size and small, as the Beagle, are often used for many activities other than hunting. For instance, as sniffer dogs for explosives, narcotics, search and rescue. However, they are also very popular as pet dogs, because their appearance is very nice and are very friendly dogs.

If you want a beagle as a pet, whether large size, medium or small, keep in mind that dogs are often need lots of exercise and tend to be noisy, as they have a serious bark and howl often. These are features that were fixed by genetic selection, since they increase the work of hunting hounds, and can not be eliminated with training.