BigGameHoundsmen.com

Hi Guys,

If you have seen any of my previous posts you know that I am a relative noob in the hound world. I am also a bit of a transient moving just about once a year it seems. Every time I show up in a new city or state or country the issues that I face are the same. I don't know anyone, and I don't know where anything is. Usually I will take to the internet to find the local hound club and use that as a bit of a tool to get to know some people and places, and when I moved to Arizona last year, I followed the same formula.

I got hooked up with the Arizona Coonhound Association and started going to their events and meetings and found a great bunch of people. Now after a year and a bit, the club is doing some re-organizing and I have taken on a bit more of an active leadership role in the club. The club is small, and like most clubs (I think) we are trying to recruit more members. Organizing events is the same amount of work from the administrative side for 10 dogs as it is for 100 dogs, but it is a lot more fun when you have 100 dogs, and it is much more feasible than it is with 10 dogs.

So my question to you guys is basically, what do you look for in a hound club? Are any of you members of a club, and if so, why did you join it? Does anyone avoid joining hound clubs and if so why? What draws you to events? Prizes? Meeting new people? Just getting out for some dog work? Any other thoughts or comments are appreciated as well, and for some of you guys who are pretty experienced in the club world, if you have any tips that you have used to expand your membership I would be happy to hear those as well.

For one final note, I would ask you guys to check our club out on Facebook at Arizona Coonhound Association and give us a LIKE. If you ever feel like coming out to one of our events it will be posted here.

I doubt I'll get to answer most of your questions but I'll try. I dislike the b.s. competitive nature of most hound clubs I've been to. A young hound isn't going to do well in most of that company and it sure can sit them back and why risk a older hound in the same environment? As you have noticed there's a difference between coon hunting and big game hounds. My pups can catch their own coon or Chase bear with no help but when it comes to desert lion or bobcat which is what I hunt it takes a different approach and I've yet to see a club that has room for it. Another factor is some of my hounds aren't bred the same as coonhounds and there's some differences here also. They'll never compete with a treedog in barks per minute and will probably only learn bad habits on the tree. And while I don't have any dog fighters I'm under no delusions about what would happen if they ran into this behavior. Some of my older strain dogs are short tempered. I just keep them from being exposed to it and punish any dog that gets to showing any type of dominance or cull repeat offenders and while it works for me I know its still a possibility.
Most club activities are really geared towards puppies and don't challenge or help older hounds.
Not many prizes offered in our area have ever been enough to tempt me to put a finished dog in the mix.
It might help to meet people but most of the houndsmen I've met have been in hunting or hauling hounds.
Its sounding pretty negative I know. Then there's the spotty behavior of officers sometimes you can reach them others they disappear. And this leads me to where I think clubs should shine. Representing houndsmen and our sport to govt. The public etc. And legislation. Finally bringing new members into the sport. I'm sure others see it differently but those are my opinions

Thanks for the reply Pegleg. I thought I noticed a bit of a divide between the "houndsmen" and the "hound enthusiasts" but I wasn't sure. But I can see what you mean. The hound clubs really cater more so to the show dog side of things, and a show dog isn't worth much in the woods, and with all the work that it takes to be able to catch game, the risk of ruining a good dog outweighs the potential reward.

Does anyone else care to chime in? There's no right or wrong answer here, I'm just fishing for info to see what I can do to help out our club. I think I have to start by finding where the rest of the hound enthusiasts hang out haha.

If your local houndsman just look at bringing a dog or two to your events not as a great training tool but as a great way to support our great sport then it's a win for houndsman. As long as every race is closely monitored there isn't much risk of ruining a dog.

I'd say what pegleg said would be why myself and many more that don't join would say as well.

I'm a member of two clubs here in Montana and for the most part the serious hunters that attend sign up for the races and don't expect their dogs to even go on the actual race. They consider it a donation on top of paying their club dues. Yes there are some supper competitive people there with dogs that perform great on a simulated drag and to each their own. The whole thing is to go have fun meet some other houndsman and houndswomen share stories and raise money to help keep our right to run our hounds.

Well I don't mind sending money in. There however are some issues. Hound clubs should provide a registry but this is a complex thing. But here's some quick points. The foxhounds use it successfully many countries use hunt clubs the hunters get something obvious for their fees and pay more for pups etc. Second it brings all hound owners in and involves them at least a bit and in the long run probably provides new hunters access to better hounds not just prettier. Then it provides the base and finances for a legislative action in the us it may need to be regional but if a small percentage of each hound registry got set aside all the inactive owners would still be carrying part of the load