History of the Goodman Hound

This is not intended to be a complete history of the Goodman Hound. The history of any of the foxhound breeds is a subject that could be researched for hours and the reader would still only have limited knowledge about the breeders and dogs that developed these types of hounds into what they are today.The history of the Goodman Hound should not be told without mention being made of Ben Robinson. He was born in Montgomery County, Kentucky about three miles north of Mount Sterling in 1805. Robinson was a dealer in horses and mules and made many trips to the eastern States. He became friends with and hunted with the Maryland hunters and their Irish hounds. In about 1850 he brought Tickler and Jake to Kentucky. Many other hounds were brought to Kentucky from around 1850 to 1870. Some of these were Fury, Whitie, Wag (a Virginia hound), Eagle, Old May, Highland and Lady. From Whitie and Fury came Cunningham's Ben.
Willis Goodman, he cannot be given full credit for developing this strain of hounds, but he was the guiding influence. Mr. Goodman was born in Albemarle County, Virginia. As a young man he moved to Paris, Kentucky and took with him some of his hounds of Virginia breeding. He served in the Confederate Army and it was after the war between the States was over that he began his strain of hounds. We will begin with what is said to be the first mating that originated this strain of hounds.
Goodman had a female named Goodman's Lizzie. She was of Maupin breeding. You would probably know this particular bloodline as Walker. Her Maupin blood consisted of the imported English breeding crossed with the great Tennessee Lead. Tennessee Lead was a major contributor the the development of the foxhounds as a whole. Lizzie also carried a trace of Ben Robinson breeding. Cunningham's Ben was straight Ben Robinson breeding. Both his sire and dam came from the Irish hounds of Maryland that traced back to the original importation of Mountain and Muse by Governor Ogle in 1812. Mountain and Muse were the famous pair of hounds that were bred extensively from 1812 until their death and are considered to be the single greatest contributing breeding pair to the development of the foxhound breeds. The Robinson hounds were highly regarded all over the country and their reputation as excellent red foxhounds became mythical. About 1876 Lizzie and Ben were bred. These pups are considered to be the first litter of pups born that would later be called Goodman Hounds.
Goodman should be given credit for supplying and supervising the early outcrosses of this breed. He was able to do this effectively because of his vast knowledge of the various bloodlines. Virginia Bolivar was whelped about 1878. He was bred by Sam Yates of Virginia and given as a present to Goodman by his cousin, William Durrett of North Garden, Virginia. Goodman used Bolivar as a stud dog with good results. Goodman later sent him to New England after he was used extensively as a sire in Kentucky. Scully was purchased by Goodman and Colonel Clay from Colonel William Johnson of Nashville, Tennessee. Scully was used with great success on the females having Bolivar as a sire. Their was much debate among the foxhunters of that day on whether or not Scully was a July hound. Scully shows the Durrett and Cole hounds of Virginia up close in his pedigree. In his third and fourth generation pedigree he shows practically the same blood as does Bolivar. Scully was said by Goodman to be, "A good game hound with plenty of speed and guts which he imparted to his pups". Mollie Trevis may be considered to have been one of the foundation brood matrons. She was owned by Asa Spahr of Winchester, Kentucky. She had several crosses of Maupin's Imperial Rifle and Tennessee Lead in her bloodlines and was definitely a hound that represented Goodman's ideas of proper breeding. She is found quite frequently coming into the pedigrees from crosses on Fidler, a son of Cunningham's Ben out of Goodman's Lizzie.
Mr. Goodman made no claims that his hounds were superior to any others. He was not one to brag on hounds of any breeding. Most of the foxhunters of that day believed that speed was the thing to breed for. Goodman was of the opinion that speed alone was not the important thing. He tried to breed for courage, endurance, speed, a good nose and fox sense. He wanted hounds with good feet and plenty of bone. A necessary factor if they were to pass his test of being able and willing to run five consecutive days and give a good race each day. He believed that no other hunters, with the exception of the Walker brothers, put their hounds through such a severe test as did he and his hunting companions.
The honor of naming this strain of hounds does not belong to Goodman, but rather to Dr. W. E. Wyatt of Cyrene, Missouri. Dr. Wyatt had heard of hounds sent by Goodman and his friends to Captain Bowles and Dr. J. W. Norris of Palmyra, Missouri. He wrote Goodman asking for some of these hounds that were making quite a name for themselves in Missouri and did received them. He later secured permission from Goodman to use his name in a letter intended for the American Field. Goodman had no idea that his name would be used for this purpose and was against commercializing the fame of his hounds.
After Goodman became to old to hunt he still secured hounds for hunters from the friends and neighbors who bred his strain. Following the death of Goodman, the breeders of this strain withdrew to themselves and tried to breed for the same high standards as did Willis Goodman. In doing so, they concentrated for many years on line breeding in the different areas of the country. However, they also basically stopped the promotion of the breed and bred only for themselves and close friends. They had a definite fear of what commercial breeders would do to the breed and guarded it jealously. Because of this, the Goodman Hound never really caught on like the Running Walker or July did. Back in the 1970's and 1980's some of these breeders began crossing their strains with great success. They began to again show up and do well in the open competition and field trials. Still, the majority of Goodman Hound breeders would rather give a hound to someone who will handle and hunt it as it was bred to do than to sell one to someone who is interested in selling pups for profit.
To help close the gap between the foundation of the breed and today I have listed below some of the well know hounds of the early 1900's. Gaitskill's Highball was whelped in 1905. Highball carries Bolivar in his bloodlines. Kincaid's Buster was whelped in 1906. Champion King Phillip was whelped in 1909. He is a famous sire that lived until 1921and stood at stud in six differetn states from Oklahoma to Vermont. He is considered to be one of the greatest studs of all time. Willard was whelped in 1917 as well as the famous female Jett's Lillie. Many of the present day hounds carry the blood of these mentioned several times in their pedigree.

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Sightings of Capybara, Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris in the Caroni River System, Trinidad

The occasional presence of capybaras in Trinidad is well known (Kenny, 2008) but most reports suggest that they are found in the southwest peninsula of the island and have arrived there naturally after having swum or been washed across the Columbus Channel. However, over the last few years there have been anecdotal reports of capybaras being seen in the Caroni River basin (Mark Charran and Shawn Madoo, personal communication). A comprehensive review of the scientific literature found no record of capybaras at this location. Here I report on the results of a short term camera trapping project.

Following rumours of sightings of capybara near the Caroni Cremation Site (between the Caroni Savannah Road and the Caroni River) I visited the area and found evidence of their presence indicated by droppings and footprints in the thick vegetation next to the river and also on the grass lawn at the site. To get further confirmation I set up two Bushnell Trophy Cam camera traps with infrared sensor and invisible nighttime flash able to take colour pictures in the daytime and black and white pictures at night. They were set to take three photographs one second apart per triggering. The first was on a tree approximately 10m from the river bank at UTM 20P 673628, 1174102 and the second in a clump of bamboo at UTM 20P, 673654, 1174071 (Datum: WGS84).

The cameras ran from 11 -17 October 2015. At the first site near the river, capybara were recorded on 14 and 17 October. At the second site in the bamboo, capybara were recorded every day that the camera was operating. The vast majority of the sightings were nocturnal (2036 h; 2222 h; 0102 h; 0420 h; 0456 h; 0505 h; 0519 h) but one sighting was in daylight at 0659 h. Although capybara are generally diurnal in their activity, in areas where they are persecuted by hunting they can be more active at night (Emmons and Feer, 1997). The photos showed lone individuals most of the time but one set of photos showed a large group of at least six individuals (Fig. 1), which is a more typical capybara family group size (Emmons and Feer, 1997).

Several photos from the study were posted on the University of the West Indies Zoology Museum Facebook page (www.facebook.com/uwizoologymuseum) for the purpose of gathering information about other sightings and assessing current awareness of the presence of capybaras by members of the public. The post reached almost 27,000 people and many of the comments were reports of capybara sightings in and around the Caroni River basin some dating back several years. There were also several comments relating to hunting of capybara and anecdotal accounts suggest that the capybara in the Caroni area were originally brought over and released for the purpose of hunting.

It is also possible that the original source of this population was from an attempt around 1995 to farm capybara. A small colony of animals, which originated from the Emperor Valley Zoo, were farmed at Carapichaima but during a flood in 2000 four of the animals escaped. The project did not turn out to be financially viable on the scale it was being conducted and so closed down (Kamal Hakim, personal communication).

Further studies are needed to ascertain the range and abundance of capybara in Trinidad and to find out if they pose a threat as an invasive species or if they are merely a missing part of the original biota of Trinidad.

REFERENCES

Emmons, L. and Feer, F. 1997. Neotropical Rainforest Mammals: A Field Guide (2nd ed.). Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press.

Kenny, J.S. 2008. The biological diversity of Trinidad and Tobago: a naturalist’s notes: Prospect Press. 265p.

Mike G. Rutherford

The University of the West Indies Zoology Museum,

Department of Life Sciences,

The University of the West Indies,

St. Augustine,

Trinidad and Tobago

mike.rutherford@sta.uwi.edu

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Why the Caiere Chase Hole Barking Competition does not Encourage Dogs to Bark Dead Holes.

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