The Foxhound Club

Whilst we work on bringing you the first Breed Appreciation Day for Foxhounds & Harriers, we thought it would be useful to provide some other educational resources on Foxhounds. 

Hound Shows

The best education opportunities at present would be to attend a hound show which is ran under the Master of Foxhounds Association, such a Festival of Hounds, West of England Hound Show, Ardingly or Great Yorkshire Show where Studbook Foxhounds are shown in different classes from Fell Hounds to Old English. These shows would be in comparison to a Championship show. You will also find a number of smaller shows across the country held be individual hunts which offer foxhound classes, these would be similar to open shows. 

This gives you an opportunity to assess a number of hounds in comparison to Kennel Club shows. 

The classification differs to those of KC shows, there will not be puppy classes. You will see unentered and entered. Unentered is for young hounds who have been out on puppy walk from 8ish weeks till around 9 months when they will return to kennels, but as of yet have not "entered" onto the hunting field. Thus they will not be entered yet into the MFHA studbook. The entered classification is for hounds who will be minimum 12 months, (although there is no official age limit) & have entered into the hunting field & likely the MFHA studbook. 

You'll also see brace classes referred to as couples, & even groups or 2 couple - you count hounds in couples not singles. 

One of the biggest things you will see at these shows is how hounds are shown. Hounds are often shown by 2 people, taken in on leads and then let loose to run left & right to seek a biscuit before being free stood as the  judges (often 2) will make their assessment. Hounds will then all come back into the ring, being held by one person and shown by another.

Puppy Shows

Every year (normally) in the summer months, hunts have their puppy shows. Puppy shows are where the judging of puppies born the previous year are shown & judged. Again, these tend to be 9 - 12 months old, although can be older if they have their show bi-annually. 

Kennel Visits

Hunt kennels are welcoming places & often have open days. With hundreds of packs across the UK there will be one near you. Huntsmen or Kennel Huntsmen will be delighted to show you their hounds & discuss their breeding, along with which ones have done well at shows & why.