Size: Large (58 – 69cm).

Colours: The clue is in the name!

Description: The Black and Tan Coonhound is a friendly, outgoing scent hound with a short, dense, weather-proof coat, who gives an impression of strength and effortless agility and stamina. For early colonists of North America, the raccoon was a valuable source of meat and fur, so dogs who could hunt them became much valued. 

In the 17th century, scent hounds and sight hounds were brought from England to the Americas by early settlers, and Bloodhounds and Foxhounds were later crossed to produce a variety of hounds designed to hunt at night — the playtime for raccoons and opossums. These hounds were given the generic title of coonhounds, and North America has a lot of different variations. The Black and Tan Coonhound is the most common of all the coonhounds.

Good housemate or nightmare lodger: Like all scent hounds, the Coonhound thinks there is nothing so fabulous as an amazing sniff — and once their noses pick up a scent, they are oblivious to anything else (and this includes their owners!). Obedience is looked on as a waste of good sniffing time, and their loud ‘bawl’ is unlikely to please the neighbours. Despite this, the Coonhound is a friendly affectionate dog who gets on with everyone (except, I suspect, raccoons)!

Interesting facts:
While starting off hunting small prey like raccoons, the Black and Tan Coonhound has such courage and strength that he turned his paw to much larger prey, including wild boar, deer, bears, and mountain lions. The Kennel Club breed standard rather interestingly says: “Honourable scars permissible” — but I’m not sure how many bears and mountain lions most show dogs come into contact with!