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LOSING THE COURSING HOUNDS’ SKILLS
By David Hancock

   There is no such word as 'sighthound'. It's a lazy, casual invention to allow the grouping of hounds by kennel clubs and an inaccurate one. The coursing dogs do not hunt by sight; they hunt by speed - they are 'levriers' or 'windspielen'. Similarly, the scenthounds, so called, do not hunt just by scent but by scent, sight and most importantly, by stamina; they exhaust their quarry. Cursorial hounds are light, leggy and lethal! An old sportsman once told me of his blind Whippet that seemed to be able to run with his other dogs with remarkable if understandably limited accomplishment. Powerful eyesight will always be a huge advantage to any prey-driven hound but it's one thing to spot game, quite another to catch it. The wild cat family range from those hunting mainly by speed, like the cheetah and the lynx, to those hunting by stealth and ambush, like the lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars. The wild animals hunting in packs were much more dog-like, as wolves, coyotes and ‘painted wolves’ illustrate. The heavier members of the cat family have to be lightning-fast over short distances - after first detecting their prey by a combination of sight and scent. The powerful hunting mastiffs, as used in the Assyrian hunt, were utilised in a comparable way, as the ancient tablets reveal. Hoofed game has to be hunted by even faster hounds, bred to exceed their pace and skilled at bringing them down. If the coursers could achieve this then the 'seizers' had to - with the build to permit 'close-quarter battle'.  Mankind would be foolish to lose the hunting talents of the canine speedsters – who knows when we might need use their skills much more?

 We have every reason to be proud of our coursing breeds, they are a distinctive and unique part of the canine world, developed by man in the most testing terrain, the most demanding climates in the world and often against the most elusive quarry. Those hunting with dogs have great respect for their quarry, whether it’s the humble hare or the grander gazelle and this has been so throughout man’s long hunting history. Coarsing with canine sprinters was never about the size of the bag but about the quality of the pursuit, with the athleticism of the hounds admired no more than the agile elusiveness of their prey. Urban-dwelling, town-thinking lobbyists, sadly so often, with no knowledge of country people and pursuing a single agenda – the abolition of hunting with dogs, whatever the penalties to wildlife, have, like so many do-gooders, been blind to the custody of our countryside by generations of rural hound-owning sportsmen who had greater regard for conservation than they have ever been credited with. Losing rural skills, whether displayed by humans or dogs, is not good for wildlife.

    The fact that the Veterinary Association for Wildlife Management has stated that hunting is the natural and most humane method of controlling populations of all four quarry species and is a key element in the management of British wildlife in general, is surely a lead for us all. The ban has affected more working-class hunters than any number of men mounted and in pink coats. Look again at those depictions of the Waterloo Cup, whether on canvas or in old black and white photographs; the vast majority of the spectators wore cloth caps not top hats. They have been badly let down by those feigning to protect their interests. And so has our wildlife, if the vets are to be believed. In four successive years in the 1980s, the winners of the Blue Riband event of coursing, the Waterloo Cup, each won without killing a single hare between them. The coursing community had great respect for the hare, safeguarding their interests through tight regulation and being more conscious of their ultimate conservation than any urban-dwelling activist. When you outlaw legal hunting, you open the door to illegal hunting – and that’s opening the door to commercial slaughter.

   The management of British wildlife in general has been in the hands of countrymen throughout our history, but now, the town-dwellers are the masters, whatever the effect on our precious wildlife. Coursing is over 2,000 years old; suddenly, modern man, whilst rapidly destroying the planet, knows best. The biggest single component attending the Waterloo Cup comprised working class men from the north of England, Liverpool especially. Their elected representatives have achieved what no Danish king or Norman knight could do: deny the humble countryman his right to catch his own supper. The ban on hunting with dogs has been called an act of class war, and the class worst hit has been the working man, not the wealthy man. It takes near-genius to draft one Act which punishes both wildlife and the ordinary far-from-wealthy countryman to a greater degree than hitherto obtained in history. But by far the greatest punishment has been handed out to sporting dogs, coursing hounds more than most. They have lost their reason to be, their historic role, their spiritual release, their usefulness. We admire the skill of dogs across a wide spectrum but do little to safeguard its perpetuation.

 The Hunting with Dogs Act became so closely associated with the prohibiting of fox-hunting that the ancient sport of coursing became relegated; not many sportsmen spoke up for this well-regulated sport. One hundred and forty years ago, Delabere Blaine was writing in his immense tome Rural Sports: “Coursing, like other field sportings, has its advocates and its enemies; it also presents its bright and cloudy sides. It is not, indeed, fit that we should all be enamoured of the same pursuit; but it is proper that we should not underrate the amusements followed by others.” Those who respect and practise our ancient country sports failed to close ranks when this badly-drafted bill was being framed; there should have been a realization that ‘once the pistol was loaded, it could point in any direction’.

  The war-poet Charles Causley once wrote a heart-rending poem about a recruiting sergeant, to the effect that ‘he’s already taken our Tommy and Kate – and he’s coming back for more’. The law concerning hunting with dogs is in a real mess; this is neither good for animal welfare nor for country sports. Before the highly vocal opponents of country sports ‘come back for more’, we, as a nation, need to put this house in order, for the sake of our wildlife just as much as for our ancient country sports. Once hunting in its widest sense is outlawed, sporting dogs become victims. There are no native coursing hound breeds in mainland western Europe because coursing with dogs is banned in those countries. Yet breeds designed to conduct coursing are very popular there. Humans want the companionship of such splendid animals but not their spiritual happiness. 

 We are now faced with an unprecedented challenge to our sporting dogs, the law of the land is against the function for which they were bred and used for over several thousand years. When a highly-regulated field sport becomes proscribed, unregulated illegal hunting, with no respect for the quarry, replaces it. This will be a disaster for our wildlife and a major setback not just for sighthounds but for the quarry species too. But in the time it takes to realise legislative folly and then restore sanity to the scene, what can we do to preserve the canine sprinting skills? Track racing, lure-chasing and hound matches need to be supported; these superlative hounds need to be tested, if only to identify the best breeding stock. (Despite being classified as a Toy breed, even the Italian Greyhound needs to sprint!) We need the same dedication that developed their amazing talents now to be devoted to their preservation, and not just for their sakes, but that of their quarry too.

 As with a number of scenthound breeds, the future of the sighthound breeds is worryingly uncertain. Greyhounds have their racing side (slowly fading away), Whippets have their admirable working Whippet club, lurchers have both a national body and a racing organisation, Afghan Hounds have their racing set-up – with other breeds encouraged to go along too but the loss of the coursing clubs leaves a big hole. No one body is caring for the sporting future of the sighthound. The kennel clubs of the world are not established to do this and could end up being the ‘Avon Ladies’ of the dog world, concerned only with cosmetic appeal, more focussed on presentation than performance. Their inability to understand the origins of the sighthound breeds illustrates their lack of real appreciation.

  In just one national kennel club’s official publication, the Ibizan Hound’s history is ‘traceable back to approximately 3400BC, with the glory that was ancient Egypt the most fitting setting for this regal hound, which was owned and hunted by the Pharaohs’; the Pharaoh Hound is ‘considered one of the oldest domesticated dogs in recorded history, tracing his lineage to roughly 3000BC. Fortunately, the history of Egyptian civilization was well documented and preserved through paintings and hieroglyphics and from these we learn that this unique dog…’ and the Saluki is described as ‘The Royal Dog of Egypt…a distinct breed and type as long ago as 329BC when Alexander the Great invaded India.’ What do they think went before? How can they ignore the Sumerians and not mention the Hyksos? The ancient Egyptians may have had the artefacts, but the steppe nomads had the dogs! I shudder to think how they would have covered, say, a discovery of carvings at Stonehenge of dogs like the bat-eared purely British-blooded lurchers illustrated here! Sporting dogs, sighthounds especially, whatever their provenance, are easily lost to us once their founding function is removed; the survival of pedigree breeds by itself is only half the answer.  

 I believe that it is entirely fair to state that most breed clubs exist to serve the exhibition side of the breed’s affairs. But to care comprehensively for a breed, especially a sporting one and a sighthound one in particular, there is a distinct need for each breed club to feature: an archivist – who really must know the difference between a Tesem, a Taigon and a Tasy; a health watch scheme – which at long last the Kennel Club is urging; a proactive rescue system; a consultant morphologist – who really knows what the breed should look like and is guided by the KC’s commendable ‘fit-for-function’ campaign; and last but far from least, a sporting wing, running lure-racing, speed-racing – rather as the admirable Afghan Hound people do and any other physical activity for these remarkable hounds. From such a structure would come a renewed appreciation of what these dogs are for, where they came from, what they should look like and how to promote their well-being. These breeds must be conserved as hunting dogs.

 In his book Medieval Hunting, Sutton Publishing Ltd., 2003, Richard Almond writes: “Man needs to hunt to release the pressures of being human, to appreciate the countryside, the seasons, to be aware of the beauty and brevity of life, and the inevitability and sadness of death…We are the inheritors of hunter-gatherers from not so long ago and the streams of consciousness of our ancient ancestors still runs deep and powerful.” When the next sizeable meteorite hits Mother Earth, as it surely will, who will be more likely to survive, the simple hunter with his efficient hunting dogs or a city dwelling merchant banker? When a distinguished diplomat and Saluki breeder is prevented from importing desert Salukis from the sheikhs by our Kennel Club because their pure breeding is in question we have clearly lost our way. When Bloodhound fanciers object to hounds from the packs being registered as Bloodhounds with the KC because their pure breeding is disputed, we have, in the modern idiom, lost the plot.

 The handlers of sighthounds at Crufts are unlikely to know of the medieval ‘fewterers’ who held the sighthounds in the chase or the criteria they worked to. The hound judges at Crufts in 2008 made these comments on the hounds before them: Afghan Hounds; '...the breed has been getting further away from its origins and although there are many glamorous coated hounds there are fewer and fewer that display the true essence of the breed...' and ‘...he is a hunting hound not a dressed up puppet'. Borzoi; 'The Borzoi has to be able to chase and hold down a large formidable animal, could yours?' Pharaoh Hounds; 'This is a running hound and I was disappointed to find only a handful of dogs who were well muscled and fit...' What were those like that didn't qualify for Crufts! It is foolish to leave a sighthound breed entirely in the hands of its show ring fraternity. Most of the latter would welcome the involvement of and advice from those who use their hounds. The future of these outstanding hounds is threatened as never before; it will take both vision and dedication to retain them as true sporting hounds still able to carry out their historic role.

  Coursing dogs have been revered by primitive man, medieval man and modern man. Tsar, serf, squire and sheikh each valued their canine sprinters, with Henry VII having a Greyhound on his royal coat of arms. The story of the ‘canine cursorials’ – dogs having limbs adapted for running, that find their prey in open country and hunt it using great pace, often over considerable distances, is very much an historic journey. It is no surprise therefore to find their most effective use in deserts, on steppes and prairies or level rocky terrain, from Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan and Russia. They were valued by hunters from ancient Egypt and classical Greece, then in turn, by widely-separated Russian, Arabian and western noblemen. Arrian, the Greek historian, wrote in 124AD: “I myself have bred a hound whose eyes are the greyest of grey. A swift, hard-working, courageous, sound-footed dog, and she proves a match at any time for four hares. She is, moreover, most gentle and kindly-affectioned…” That is a timeless description of the coursers' function and nature.

 The Devonshire Hunting Tapestries of the early 15th century, in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, vividly display the sheer pageantry of the hunting scenes of those times, featuring hounds and hawks – with the hounds mainly consisting of the Greyhound type, illustrating the high value in the hunting field of these hounds at that time. Such scenes typified the hunting scene right across Europe and western Asia in the 15th century - the style of the pageantry may have differed but the significant employment of coursing dogs and their immense value to man at that time is evident. The tapestries indicate the wide range of quarry pursued by such hounds. They illustrate too the close companionship of man and dog in the hunt.

 In his Of English Dogs published in 1576, Dr Caius mentions two types of hunting dogs: ‘One which rouseth the beast, and continueth the chase. Another which springeth the bird, and bewrayeth the flight by pursuit.’ He subdivided such hunting dogs into five functional categories: ‘The first in perfect smelling, the second in quick spying, the third in swiftness and quickness, the fourth in smelling and nimbleness and the fifth in subtlety and deceitfulness’. The athleticism of the coursing breeds embraces sprinting, hurdling and middle-distance running; they are canine athletes that also clear obstacles and turn at great speed, sometimes facing formidably-tusked or dangerously-antlered quarry.

  Such talented hounds thoroughly merit our admiration and totally deserve our patronage in these difficult days for hunting dogs. Banning coursing large and small game with hounds has gradually spread throughout mainland Europe: in France in 1844, in Germany in 1848 and in Holland in 1924, denying both noble and working- class sportsmen their chance to fill the family's cooking pot. Before such law-changes, northern Europe had a distinguished heritage of hunting with coursers: levriers in France, windhunden or windspielen in Germany and the rough and smooth-coated Friese Windhond of the Netherlands, for example. Sadly, we lost not just the sport but the hounds too. Do we truly wish to see the coursing skills of our Greyhound be lost in the mist of time? Greyhound-lurchers should survive but pure-bred Greyhounds may soon disappear.

  There has long been a democratic basis to the hunting field that overcomes the different levels of class and social position, valuing instead capability and prowess. Hunting in the Middle Ages was much more inclusive, embracing every stratum of society and filling a larger social need than some historians will admit. As Henry Savage pointed out in his contribution to Speculum in 1933: “The hound of the middle ages was for use. It would have been strange for the medieval ‘venator’ to have thought of wolf-hounds without thinking of wolves, of deerhounds without thinking of deer. Our fathers protected the game to hunt it; we do not protect it, and are reduced to the necessity of pursuing anise-seed bags! If we are coming to a realization of the importance of conservation, we are only finding out what our fathers knew.” Moral vanity and the dislike of the chase by academics often ignores not just social history but what courses through our primaeval veins. Once humans and canines lose their hunting skills, we become so much more vulnerable to disasters and subsequent famine. We surely owe it to those who come after us to conserve both our hunting knowledge and the hounds that enable us to apply it.