Bloodhound
The Bloodhound is a large scent dog, basically bred for hunting deer, wild pigs, and being used for tracking people since the centuries.
This breed is famous for its ability to observe the human scent over a long distance. It’s extremely sense of smell is combined with a strong and persistent tracking nature, making it an ideal scent hound. It is used by the Police and Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) all over the world to search out escaped prisoners, missing persons, and lost children and pets.
The Bloodhound’s average weight ranges from 36kg to 72kg (80 to 160 lbs.), and the height ranges from 58cm to 69cm (23 to 27 inches) at the withers. According to American Kennel standard, the larger dogs are favorite by the breeders.
Appearance
The standard colors for bloodhounds are black, liver, bronzed, and red. A Bloodhound possesses a solid skeletal structure with weighty and lengthy bones. Usually, the coat of a scent hound is hard and contains fur alone.
Bloodhound Temperament
Bloodhound is a gentle and diligent breed when following a scent. Because of its robust tracking nature, the dog can be willful and rather difficult to obedience train and hold on a leash. The dog’s loving and peaceful nature with humans makes it an excellent family pet. Nevertheless, like other pets, they need supervision when around the small children.
Colors
Up to 17th century, the Bloodhounds were of almost all colors but in modern times the color varieties have become rare. The presently noted colors are black and tan, liver and tan, and red. White is not uncommon on the chest and sometimes looks on the feet.
Health Issues
As compared to other dog breeds, Bloodhounds suffer from a high rate of abdominal disorders with gastric dilatation volvulus (bloat), being the most common type of digestive problem. The dog also suffers from eye, skin, and ear diseases. So these parts should be checked frequently for signs of developing disorders. The owners should be conscious particularly for the signs of bloat, which is a most common disease and the leading cause of death. The solid coat gives the breed the tendency to overheat quickly.
Lifespan
The lifespan of Bloodhounds wad differed from time to time. In 2004 survey, the average life was 6.75 years which is the shortest-life of a dog breed. In 2013 survey, the average life was 8.25 years at the time of the death of 14 dogs.
Scenting Ability
The Bloodhound's physical characteristics account for its capability to track a scent left few days in the past. The olfactory bulb in dogs is about forty-times bigger than the olfactory bulb in human beings, relative to the total brain size, with 125 - 220 million olfactory receptors. Thus, the dogs have an olfactory sense 40-times more sensitive than that of human beings.
Training
It is commonly decided that the basis of initial training is to make the experience pleasing for a puppy or an adult hound, to keep its enthusiasm high. Normally in training, the trainer must know accurately where the runner went, otherwise he could not encourage the dog when it is wrong, or ‘correct’ it when it is on the scent, but he should not be too ready with his corrections if the dog goes wrong. He should give the dog time to understand its mistake and put itself right, if possible.
As training improvements, the trainer assesses his dog’s performance. The dog must trust its nose and the trainer must trust the dog.
From initial hot trails on a familiar person, the young dog progresses to harsh trails on the scents of strangers. Advanced training can be scheduled to teach specific lessons such as crossing trails with false scents, having the runner start out with a companion, who leaves him anywhere along the trail. This will teach the dog not to change on to other human beings, or disturb on animal scents.
It also needs to work over various grounds and learn to survive with disruptions of various kinds, as well as being introduced to 'negative trails': given a scent item which has not been handled by anyone in the area, so that it will learn to indicate to the trainer that required scent is not there. If it is becoming discouraged it can revert to simpler tasks to improve enthusiasm.
Also see: Cute Pictures of Bloodhound Puppies and Dogs