Bluetick Coonhound

The Bluetick was developed in the American South, with Louisiana usually named as its home ground. Its most important ancestor is the Grand Bleu de Gascogne, the large blue-mottled French hound that colonial settlers brought to the region; that dog contributed both the colour and the deliberate, cold-trailing nose. English Foxhounds, American Foxhounds, the black and tan Virginia Foxhound and local cur dogs added speed, drive and durability.

For many years these dogs were registered simply as English Coonhounds. Breeders who wanted to preserve the slower, more meticulous cold-trailing style and the distinctive blue colour, rather than follow the trend towards hotter and faster hounds, split away, and the United Kennel Club recognised the Bluetick as a separate breed in 1946.

The American Kennel Club admitted the breed to the Hound Group in 2009. It remains overwhelmingly a working hunter's dog rather than a show dog, and the great majority of Blueticks registered each year come from field-hunting lines. The breed is also widely known as the mascot of the University of Tennessee.

Males typically stand 22 to 27 inches at the shoulder and weigh 55 to 80 pounds; females run 21 to 25 inches and 45 to 65 pounds. The build is muscular, deep-chested and speedy, without the heaviness of the larger trailing hounds, and the breed should look capable of running all night over broken ground.

The coat is short, smooth and glossy, and lies close to protect the dog in brush. The colour is the breed's identity: a dark blue mottled effect produced by heavy black ticking on a white base, usually with black patches over the back, ears and sides. Tan markings above the eyes, on the cheeks, chest and legs are common, and red ticking may appear on the feet and lower legs.

The head is broad and domed with a long, square muzzle and low-set, thin ears that hang in folds close to the head. The eyes are large, round and dark brown with a pleading expression. The tail is set high and carried in a forward curve when the dog is moving, and the voice is a deep, bell-like bawl that changes character once the quarry is treed.

With its own people the Bluetick is warm, sociable and often clownish, and it is generally patient with children. Bred to hunt in packs, it usually gets on well with other dogs and prefers not to be the only animal in the house.

The hunting drive is unusually strong even by hound standards. Small fast animals, including cats and other pets, will be chased unless the dog has been raised with them and carefully managed, and a Bluetick on a trail is very difficult to call off. It is also an athletic escape artist, capable of climbing or digging out of inadequate fencing.

Blueticks are vocal in a way that few first-time hound owners anticipate. They bay on a trail by design, and many also give voice at home when excited, bored or lonely. Anyone in a terraced house, an apartment or a neighbourhood with noise restrictions should think carefully.

They are intelligent and good problem solvers, but they were bred to make decisions independently at a distance from the handler, so obedience is rarely automatic. They are also sensitive to harsh handling despite their tough exterior.

The breed's job is night hunting: striking a trail, often a cold one, working it accurately through water and heavy cover, and treeing the raccoon while baying steadily to bring the hunter in. Blueticks are also used on larger game such as bear, boar and cougar in parts of the United States. Nite hunt competitions run by the hunting registries score exactly this work.

Away from hunting the same abilities transfer well to tracking, scent work and search-related sports, and the breed's stamina makes it a good hiking, backpacking and running companion for owners who keep it on lead or long line.

As a watchdog it is an announcer rather than a guardian. It will tell the whole street that someone has arrived and then, in most cases, greet them happily.