TOPIC: My Dogs, very rare Otterhounds

I've had several requests but....I'm going to post anyway.  ;D
I have some very rare dogs that some might like to see. They are called Otterhounds.
They are rarer than Giant Pandas and there are less than 1000 in the world.
I have three, a Female (bitch) Kizzy, a male (dog) Cooper and a newer puppy bitch Shuffles
(Wild West's Texas Two-step) They are all AKC and UKC registered show dogs.
Kizzy is an AKC and UKC Champion, Cooper is an AKC and International Champion.

The pup is too young to show yet.

This is Cooper (Aberdene's Unsolved Mystery)He's called a "Wheaton" color. He's just over 2 years old now.


This is Kizzy (Zymurgy's Kismet Victory Malt) She is a "Liver" color. she's 4 years old. She thinks she's a lap dog.


The new female is a "Black & Tan and she's just 4 months old.  I also have a Redbone Coonhound named Abby.

Cool! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for posting those Dana. That is a very cool looking dog.

Dana was commenting in live chat on how they were howling at the mailman so I asked for some pictures!

Why is it that they're so rare?

They were originally bread to hunt otters in the rivers in England and Wales in the 1300's.
They are a pack hunting scent hound that is adapted to water as well, with waterproof under coat and webbed feet.
Their ability to smell is second to none, right up there with the Bloodhound.  The were said to be able to scent an otter in the water 24 hours after it had passed. The first Otterhounds were introduced to the US in the early 1900's.
The Otterhound Club of America was formed to try to preserve the breed. Only about 50 pups are whelped a year as compared to something like a Lab that has literally thousands of them per year. Breeding is a challenge with such a small gene pool.

When hunting otters fell out of favor, the packs started to die out since they were not meant to be pets but working pack dogs. There are only about two "working" packs left in the UK and they run mink, since hunting otters is banned.

They do make wonderful pets though. Noisy and messy but great fun. They are truly the Clowns of the Dog World and have a wonderful disposition. They are stubborn though and can't really be let off-leash in uncontrolled areas. "The nose goes down, the ears turn off!"and they will follow an interesting scent for days.

Check the parent club's site for more info. (btw, I'm their webmaster and help maintain this site) http://clubs.akc.org/ohca/