Bloodhounds (also known as the St. Hubert hound) is a large breed of dog that was bred specifically to track human beings by scent. It is famed for its ability to follow scents hours or even days old over great distances. Its extraordinarily keen nose is combined with a strong and tenacious tracking instinct, producing the ideal scenthound or blood tracking dog, and it is used by police and law enforcement the world over to track escaped prisoners, missing persons, and even missing animals.
Bloodhounds are a gentle dog which is nonetheless tireless in following a scent. Because of its strong tracking instinct, it can be willful and somewhat difficult to obedience train. Bloodhounds have an affectionate, gentle, and even-tempered nature, so they make excellent family pets. However, like any large breed, they require supervision when around small children because they can knock them over with their bulk. Bloodhounds are also characterized by a stubborn "what's-in-it-for-me?" attitude, a likely cause (in conjunction with their size and propensity for excessive drooling) for the high rate, in comparison with other breeds, of bloodhounds given up for adoption once full-grown.
Bloodhounds weigh from 80 to 140 lb. They stand 23 to 27 inches high at the withers. According to the AKC standard of the breed, larger dogs are to be preferred by conformation judges. The acceptable colors for bloodhounds are black and tan, liver and tan, or red. In the Middle Ages, they also occurred in other solid colors, including white (on chest, toes and tail) – colors that appear in other breeds descended from the early bloodhounds. Bloodhounds possess an unusually large skeletal structure with most of their weight concentrated in their bones, which are very thick for their length. The coat is typical for a scenthound: hard and composed of fur alone, with no admixture of hair. |
