by Scottie Westfall

Created on: July 15, 2008

Thomas Walker of Virginia imported a pack of foxhounds to Virginia in 1742 in an attempt to bring the English tradition of foxhunting to the New World. It was only later, as the frontier became more settled, that Lord Fairfax, George Washington, and other Virginia "tuckahoes" began to establish foxhunting in that part of the world. Red foxes were not common to the southern parts of North America at this time, and the grey fox, which was more common, had an unfortunate habit of climbing trees to avoid the hounds. In the English tradition of foxhunting, the chase is as important as the kill. The grey foxes ruined the sport. Things were made even worse when the dogs, which were more accustomed to running a red fox to ground, became baffled when the grey foxes escaped to the trees. It was only after the red fox became established in Virginia that fox hunting could ever become popular.

In the in between time, dogs from Walker's line of foxhounds were selected for their "treeing" ability. A dog that trees game is able to use the wind blown scent of the quarry species than the actual trail that the animal leaves. Treeing hounds are able to find the exact tree that the animal has moved to. Because raccoons often run up one tree and move to another, a pure trailing dog, as all the original foxhounds from England were, would be unable to find animals in the trees. The line between foxhound and coonhound was not always as clear as it is today, with all United Kennel Club recognizing most breeds of coonhounds and foxhounds as a single breed called the English foxhound and coonhound.

Walker's line of hounds did play some role in the development of the modern American foxhound breed with its various lines. However, the modern "Walker hound" is usually referring to the Treeing Walker Coonhound, which is a descendant of those treeing hounds derived from Walker's line of foxhounds. Most tuckahoe gentry in the coast South had very little interest in raccoon hunting, but the frontier and mountain South became settled with Scots-Irish and German settlers who hunted for survival. These people were often referred to as "cohees," because of the Scots-Irish idiom "quoth thee." Keeping large packs of hounds on the frontier made little sense, because hunting was a means of survival on the frontier, not a mere sport as it was for the landed gentry. These settlers made good use of treeing hounds of all types, including treeing foxhounds that were derived from Thomas Walker's line. All of

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