Texas Wildlife March 2010
by
Henry Chappell
I thought I knew about canine speed. After all, I grew up with leggy pointers and setters that could shred a 100-acre pasture in minutes.
Years later, Molly, the fastest of my German short-haired pointers, caught sparrows careless enough to glide at low altitude over our back yard. During the off-season, I often exercised her on 70 acres of open land owned by a local conservancy – along with lots of other suburbanites grateful for a place to run their dogs off-leash. Molly was aloof and focused and had little to do with the other dogs. If one bounded along beside her, she’d simply shift to a higher gear and leave the bewildered pooch to muse on the white and liver blur disappearing on the horizon.
Then one day we encountered a young woman with a pair of year-old whippets. Molly had no time for them. She poured on the coal. The two pups closed the 10-yard gap, passed Molly, crisscrossed, then spun around to wait for her to catch up. Molly stopped. The pups lost interest in her and began to roughhouse with each other.
The young woman rolled her eyes and said, “Sisters.”
Since then, I haven’t thought of bird dogs as especially fast. Nor, until much later, did I think of sighthounds as anything other than racing dogs, slightly exotic pets, and totem animal of a certain busing company. I certainly didn’t consider them hunting dogs even though I knew, vaguely, that in our dim, brutish past, before well-balanced shotguns and classy pointers, nobility kept long, lean dogs for coursing game in open terrain.
Then, about 15 years ago, I read Querencia, by Stephen Bodio, a memoir about love, loss and the quest for a good life in and around Magdalena, New Mexico. Querencia is a beautiful work throughout but, for me, one passage remains especially vivid. In it, Bodio quotes a letter written by his partner, Betsy Huntington, describing a nighttime jackrabbit hunt with four sighthounds:
‘”The rabbit takes off in great leaping strides, four dogs close behind. They race in the light, for this jack shows that suicidal tendency of his kind in preferring to stay in the light. He jinks, and the dogs lose advantage; then wise old Blaze and Riley surge forward. Riley lunges and the jack turns sharply left into the jaws of Blaze… .
‘”We load them up again, and just before the gate swings shut on him, Blaze jumps out and jogs purposefully over to the tank for a drink. We let the others out and they join him, jostling, satisfied, amiable. Then one by one they jog back to the pickup for the ride home. The rabbit will be chili by tomorrow night’.”
If that doesn’t stir you, then you’re not a dog hunter – I don’t care how many field champions and London-built side-by-sides you own.
Sight hounds hunt primarily by speed and sight as opposed to scent. Not surprisingly, the progenitors of most of today’s popular breeds developed on the grasslands and deserts of the Middle East, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan, and are among the oldest – if not the oldest – breeds in the world.
Although the United Kennel Club lists 26 breeds under its “Sighthound and Pariah” category, only a few breeds dominate the American coursing scene: greyhounds, Saluki, whippets, borzois (formerly the Russian wolfhound), staghounds, and various crosses between those breeds.
Dutch Salmon, a publisher and rare book dealer based in Silver City, New Mexico, runs coyotes and jackrabbits with greyhound-saluki crosses. His book Gazehounds & Coursing - The History, Art and Sport of Hunting with Sighthounds, is the standard reference among serious hunters. Dutch began his coursing career hunting jackrabbits on the outskirts of San Antonio with a Labrador retriever and a Doberman pincher.
“I had no idea what I was doing, but they were pretty fast and actually caught a few hares,” he said.
One day an elderly hunter showed up with greyhounds and demonstrated what real sighthounds could do. He took a liking to Dutch and gave him an old greyhound. “That was 1969, and I’ve been hooked ever since,” Dutch said.
A pair of experienced coyote dogs can take down and dispatch their quarry in seconds. In most cases, they simply need be within 100 yards before being released. In Texas and New Mexico, hunters cruise the prairie in pickups, looking for coyotes. When they spot one within range, a cord or remote release opens the doors to the “jump box” in the bed, the dogs pile out, and the race is on.
For coyote hunting, Dutch prefers dogs in the 70 to 90 pound range. Jackrabbits call for smaller, faster dogs, typically 40 to 70 pounds.
Jackrabbit hunters typically walk with their dogs until a hare flushes within range. Chases often last three or four minutes. That’s a very long sprint.
Which brings us to the reason for Dutch’s preference for greyhound- Saluki crosses.
“Greyhounds are the fastest dogs in the world,” he said. Typically, a greyhound will run out front for the first minute or so, but then he’ll tire. From there on, the Saluki will run ahead. By crossing the two, I get a very fast dog with endurance for the longer races.”
Like any good hunting dog, well-bred sighthounds come with high prey drive. They don’t have to be taught to chase.
Dutch recommends starting a six-month-old pup with an experienced sighthound. From there, it’s a matter of experience and conditioning. “It’s like training an Olympic athlete,” he said. “If you don’t keep them in shape, they’ll get hurt.”
Speed can kill. Sighthounds attain speeds of 40 miles per hour. Collisions with fences and even brush can be deadly. Dutch encourages pups to cross back and forth under barbwire so they’ll know how to slip under or through when they’re sprinting.
Although most Americans probably associate the gracile whippet with Frisbee competition, Louisiana falconer and writer Matt Mullenix considers his trusty whippet, Rina, ideal for nearly everything that can be hunted in cooperation with Ernie, his Harris hawk. Mullenix, author of In Season: A Louisiana Falconer’s Journal, hunts the fields, woods, and sloughs near his home in Baton Rouge, and makes an annual Thanksgiving expedition to the High Plains near Amarillo.
“The Harris hawk is the most dog-like hawk, and the whippet is the most hawk-like dog, so Rina and Ernie make a perfect team,” he says.
In other words, the Harris hawk is a calm, good-natured generalist capable of taking small game and birds in habitat ranging from woods and brushy fields to shortgrass prairie. Likewise, the small, agile whippet has the speed and independence to run down jackrabbits and the acceleration and agility to work small game in broken cover.
Falconers prize sighthounds for their ability to keep fleet game moving downwind – a task Rina handles with aplomb. But in brushy cover, she works like spaniel to flush game for Ernie. She also catches her share.
In February 2009, I hunted with Matt and his team in the Pineywoods near Montgomery. What surprised and impressed me most was how thoroughly Rina worked cover, using her nose as well as her eyes. Sure, sighthounds can run down prey, but she hunted.
In case you’re wondering, jackrabbits caught by dogs aren’t wasted. Dutch makes jackrabbit chili. Matt’s hares go into gumbo -- what else would you expect from a Louisiana dog man?
Hunting with sighthounds, like falconry, is a rarified passion practiced by a dedicated few. Animal rights extremists see it as a fringe sport vulnerable to political agitation and manipulation of public opinion. If you’re a quail hunter wondering what this has to do with bird dogs, keep in mind that anti-hunting activists consider hunting with sighthounds low-hanging fruit. They’ll be reaching higher.
Whether or not you’ll ever hunt with a sighthound, you’d do well to support the oldest, and perhaps noblest hunting dog tradition.
(Sidebar)
CHASING MORE INFO
Books:
Gazehounds & Coursing - The History, Art and Sport of Hunting With Sighthounds, by Dutch Salmon (High Lonesome – www.high-lonesomebooks.com)
In Season: A Louisiana Falconer’s Journal, by Matt Mullenix (Western Sporting – www.westernsporting.com)
Querencia, by Stephen Bodio (www.stephenbodio.com)
Blogs:
Hare-Brained at Home - http://shotonsite.blogspot.com/
Stephen Bodio’s Querencia - http://www.stephenbodio.blogspot.com/