First let me define the technical terms of my argument. (1) Purebred : an animal, all of whose ancestors derive over many generations from the same breed and whose ancestry can be verified by registered pedigree. (2) Breed : a relatively homogeneous group of animals within a species, developed and maintained by humans. (3) Pedigree : a genealogical table, chart, list, or record, especially of a purebred animal. (4) Registry : a place where a register/records are kept; an office of registration e.g. a breed club, kennel club or studbook. (5) Hybrid : the offspring of two animals of different breeds, especially through human manipulation for specific genetic characteristics. Mongrel : a dog of mixed or indeterminate breed.
Here is what I believe; a purebred dog is the best TYPE of dog that one can keep, followed by a carefully bred hybrid from selected similar stock and lastly a mongrel. Now the reasons for my choice will pertain to all hunters that raise their dogs from pups, if you obtain your dogs as already trained adults and have no interest in producing pups to replace older dogs of for sale, then this does not apply to you.
Now these are my reasons for this choice. Everyone hunts a particular game animal or animals and each in his own style. For example, an agouti hunter that uses a gun might prefer a slow dog that does not push the animal too hard, allowing it to run in tighter circles, thus giving the hunter more chances for shots. A hunter after agouti that only uses a cutlass & luchette would have no use for a medium or slow dog but would want a dog that is fast and could put pressure on the agouti to pen quickly. What does this have to do with a purebred dog vs a mongrel you say? Well, well, well, it's just this, a given breed has been developed over many years to do a specific thing in a specific way, a mongrel is a shot in the dark. Nine out of ten hounds will hunt, while one out of ten mongrels will hunt well. A purebred dog will reproduce its type in look and temperament more often than not, while mongrels don't. Beagles make beagles, I never crossed two Bluetick coonhounds and got a litter of pompeks. In other words you can pretty much be sure of what you are getting if you researched the breed and bought pedigreed July foxhound pup. The July was developed to run and catch fox and coyote, these are fast and aggressive animals so a july would have to be faster and more aggressive, thus a good dog to use on our red brocket deer which tends to run like a fox. Likewise the beagle was developed to run rabbits in England, which tend to be wheeling dodging runners like our agouti, so the majority of beagles prefer to run game that runs like rabbits, as they were bred for generations for this trait. Thus beagles make excellent agouti dogs that are less inclined to run deer than a foxhound. If you cross a foxhound with a beagle what you got is a mongrel as the parents belong to two different hound breeds of very different conformation and hunting style. Hound is not a breed but type of dog so although the chances of a pup from such a cross(foxhound-x-beagle) hunting will be greater than a mongrel pup from the dump, you will not have a clue as to its adult size or hunting style until it's finished growing, such a cross will not breed true in other words, a mongrel. Whoa!!!! Thats right I just called 95% of the hounds in T&T mutts. Now everyone just calm down and put those three-canals back in their cases. Its all just shades of grey, all breeds started out as mongrels and over time with selective breeding became more homogeneous in physical type and temperament but for this to happen records must be kept and matings carefully planned. Without records of pedigree there is no way of knowing for sure the quality of a dog's ancestors and and total faith must be placed in the word of a possible "smartman", thus a registry dedicated to the working dog is an indispensable asset in the maintenance and improvement of a breed or strain of dog.
So there you have it, purebred dogs are the best as far as I am concerned. Each breed of hound was developed to hunt a particular quarry, so while one breed might prove excellent on agouti another might refuse to run it altogether. With a little time and energy given to research the various breeds available, you will find a dog that will suit your given quarry and hunting style. As I said before 95% of all hounds in T&T are mixed breed mutts, so their adult size and hunting styles cannot be predicted as surely as a purebred, but with a little time and effort you will find some local lines are stronger in some breeds than others. Know what you want, do your research and only breed a litter of pups with the intention to improve your strain.
Just my thoughts on the matter, what do you think?
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