page_title: Coonhound
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Coonhound / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Redbone Coonhound treed
context_page_description: The coonhound, colloquially the coon dog, is a type of scent hound, a member of the hound group. They are an American type of hunting dog developed for the hunting of raccoons, as well as feral pigs, boars, bears and mountain lions. There are six distinct breeds of coonhound.
context_section_description: In the colonial period, hounds were imported into the United States for the popular sport of fox hunting. Various breeds of foxhounds and other hunting hounds were imported from England, Ireland, and France.
  Foxhounds were found to be inadequate for hunting American animals that did not hide near the ground, but instead climbed trees, such as raccoons, opossums, bobcats, and even larger prey like cougars and bears. The dogs were often confused or unable to hold the scent when this occurred, and would mill about. 
  This led to the development of treeing hounds by hunters and dog breeders. Foundation dogs were chosen for a keen sense of smell, the ability to track an animal independent of human commands and, most importantly, to follow an animal both on the ground and when it took to a tree. Bloodhounds specifically were added to many coonhound lines to enhance the ability to track. 
  
  Coonhounds can hunt individually or as a pack. Often, hunters do not chase their quarry along with the hounds, unlike organized foxhunting, but wait and listen to the distinctive baying to determine if the prey has been treed. Coonhounds are excellent at hunting all manner of prey if trained properly.
caption: Coonhounds were bred for treeing behavior, as exhibited by this Redbone.
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "MediaOne 2.10", "Image DateTime": "2010:05:16 19:40:43", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "178", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "362", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "15747", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1616", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1958"}