American English Coonhound Information & Dog Breed Facts

The American English Coonhound, perhaps more commonly known as Redtick Coonhound, is obviously an American breed of dog, hence its name, that originated in the Southern United States. As the descendants of hunting dogs brought over to the New World from Europe in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, American English Coonhounds are still valued today for their excellence as hunting dogs and loving dispositions.

According to experts, the breed shares a common history with many of the other Southern hound breeds. Their ancestor arrived mostly from England and Germany. However, settlers in the New World quickly discovered that their European dogs were poorly suited to their new environment. Dogs accustomed to working in cool England quickly collapsed of exhaustion and even died in the American summer. Higher temperatures also meant that there are substantially greater numbers and rates of canine infectious diseases and parasites in America, many of which proved fatal to dogs. When compared to heavily developed England, the terrain is also much more varied and difficult in America, which had tracts of swampland, mountain, and completely undeveloped woodlands. Perhaps most importantly, the wildlife of America was very different from that of Britain as the New World at that time was home to large populations of wolves, bears, cougar, alligator, wild hog, venomous snaked, and other creatures. American hunting dogs needed to be capable of working long hours in extremely hot temperatures, and fierce enough to handle dangerous quarry. As a result of this, they were mixed together with other dogs that were in America and were molded and bred over the years to fit the landscape and needs of the American South.

At one point, there were only two lines of Coonhound, one descended from German boar hunting dogs known as the Plott Hound and the other descended from Foxhound. It did not take long for the Foxhound line to split up into several distinct varieties. Some Coonhounds became heavily crossed with Bloodhounds from England, resulting in the Black and Tan Coonhound, who was the first Coonhound to be recognized as a distinct breed. A few breeders began to favor solid red Coonhounds, which later became known as Redbone Coonhounds, and the remaining Coonhounds became known as English Fox and Coonhounds, in honor of their English ancestry. Eventually, from this line, the American English Coonhound was created that is American by birth, English by ancestry.

By the 1700s, the scenthounds of the American South were regarded as being a distinct breed from their British counterparts. Furthermore, hunting became a major sport in the American South and Midwest, and raccoon hunting was one of its most popular forms. Due to the popularity of the sport, quality hunting dogs became highly prized and valuable. In order to test these dogs, raccoon hunting competitions known as coon dog trials began to be held in the 1800s. American English Coonhounds have always been major competitors at coon dog trials, and in fact, the first winner of a major trial was an American English Coonhound.

The breed remains almost exclusively a working dog, and the vast majority of breed members are either active or retired hunters. This does not mean that the breed is rare, as it is actually one of the most common dogs in terms of population size in the United States. For almost the entire 20^th century, the breed has ranked in the top 10 breeds in terms of UKC registrations, usually in the top 5. The breed was accepted into the American Kennel Club’s Foundation Stock Service as the American English Coonhound in 1995. In 2010, it moved up to the Miscellaneous Class, following the recognition of the breed by the AKC in the hound group in 2011. The American English Coonhound also became eligible to compete in the National Dog Show in the same year, and a year later in the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.