Blue Tick Hound- 15 Important Things (Complete guide before adoption)

Blue Tick Hound- Your Complete Guide Before Welcoming The New Doggo!

Blue Tick Hound is a hunting dog with a cold nose. By the cold nose, we mean it can pick up scent several days old. They can detect the scent even if has gone cold.

The dog is immensely friendly with astonishing hunting skills. This is a breed of coonhounds that originated in the United States. They are sleek and well-muscled, this dog cannot be clumsy or chunky. It is just not in their blood.

This article tells you about the complete breed information of Blue Tick Hound including its history, names, characteristics, price, health, and many more interesting facts.

Blue Tick Hound Complete Breed Information

Here is a simple chart that can help you understand this breed in brief within no time.

1. History

The Blue Tick Hound was originated in the Lousiana from the Bleu De Gascogne breed belonging to South France. Before it was given a separate breed name which it has now, it was just thought to be another color of the breed English coonhound. These breeds were developed in Southern United states back in the 18th century from imported french and English hounds.

The bloodlines of Blue Tick Hound are said to extend back even before the country was founded. Basically, the country of origin is considered to be the United States now.

Blue Tick Hound is also recognized by the New Zealand kennel club and Australian national kennel club. Back in April 2009, they were also recognized by the America kennel club.

2. Different Types And Names

It does not have such a names, it is also known as blue tick coonhound. It is among the 6 recognized breeds of all the coonhounds. Most breeds originated or belong to the US. These are recognized by AKC, DRA, UKC, and many other kennel clubs.

3. Appearance And Charactseric

The Blue Tick Hound is undoubtedly a handsome dog, just look at them they are adorable. They have a unique tri-colored coat which is very less frequent in most other breeds. Their muscular body shape gives them a great appearance.

It has striking coat color due to which you can easily differentiate it from other dogs. The entire body is covered with blue spots that make them look attractive.

They tend to get along with other people as well as other animals in your house quite well due to their friendly nature. They are known to be great with kids as well. They have a great reputation due to their behavior and are known to be extremely loving and affectionate towards humans.

You can expect the normal size of a Blue Tick Hound to be 21 inches to 27 inches tall. Their weight is nearly 55 to 80 pounds as they are large dogs.

They carry their head held high and tail over the back such that they seem confident and no sign of fear from anything is seen. They have rather a large set of appealing eyes and mostly dark brown in color. The eye rim is tight and has close-fitting. Their ears are low and not erectile.

They have a muscular and moderate-length neck and the neckline slopes downward from their withers to the hips. You will be surprised to see their legs. They are straight from their elbows to the feet and are secular and well bones.

Their coat is medium-coarse and lies very close to their body. It appears glossy and smooth. To be precise it is not too short or too rough.

The most preferred color is dark blue on that thick body. They have various kinds of black spots on the sides, ears, and back. However, the ears and head are predominately black in color.

4. Personality Of Blue Tick Hound

They have high personalities unlike most other breeds of dogs. They stand out for the loyalty they have shown for ages for their owners and loved ones. Due to such friendly nature, they have proved to be a lovely new member to most families. Due to their long history, you can say that they have an inherent passion for hunting and you cannot trust them around rabbits, cats, and other small house pets. However, they will be extremely happy to have canine friends.

They were bred to become hunting dogs as already mentioned above. They are extremely hard and athletic with a constant need for a full-time job or fun activities like hunting, playing, etc to keep them happy throughout the day. They love to howl and bark but do not worry about that, they usually keep doing that after spotting new members it guests in the house. This is their way to greet others.

They are not aggressive towards people naturally and are quite tolerant of young children. You must know that the kids in your house should not try to take advantage of their temperament.

5. Activity

Blue Tick Hound always needs playing or doing something that makes them run and spend their energy. They need a lot of mental stimulation and exercise. They have always been working dogs when we see their long history, so you must treat them so as a dog owner. when Blue Tick Hound is not exercising the way he should, they might become destructive as it seems the only way to spend their energy. They require a job t stay focused, fit, and happy.

6. Behavioral Traits

You already are familiar with one thing that these are hunting dogs. They have been bred for past many centuries for this purpose alone. Due to these qualities, many blue tick hound dogs exhibit a high drive for catching prey and a surprising amount of aggression towards anything non-human and non-canine.

This breed is highly devoted to its owner and other people residing in the family. They love spending all their day with their owners usually doing their favorite activities. They are also considered to be “free-toungers”. This means they might take medium to loud melodic bugle when they are on their hunt.

7. Trainability

Their training can be quite challenging to the owner because they are highly distracted when they spot a small animal nearby. This explains their long history as hunting dogs. You can get a hold of this quality after vigorous training but that’s quite hard. They are not as easy to train as they seem due to their loving behavior unless you are experienced in dog training and know-how to deal with a stubborn dog.

Talking about their exercise, they undoubtedly require a lot of exercises. They are extremely happy when you take them for hunting or maybe hiking. They are shown to be great hiking companions. You must take at least an hour from your schedule and spend it with your dog as they require this much playing at least. Because of its size, it wouldn’t be a great apartment dog.

8. Health Issues Related To Blue Tick Hound

Dogs have a short lifespan and in that also they can suffer from a lot of diseases and other serious health issues. While some of these issues are inherited by them, others can be caused by viral or bacterial infections related to their lifestyle and the environment that they live in.

Their average lifespan is anywhere between 10 years to 12 years. Usually, they live a healthy lifestyle, but they tend to suffer from the following diseases like other breeds:

• Bloat- It is a condition that occurs in dogs when they are digesting food. Something causes the gas to build up in their stomach. This can also cause the blood circulation to cut off from the heart to other parts of the body.
• Lysosomal storage diseases- This is a genetic disorder caused due to the insufficiency of enzymes that are crucial to carrying out the metabolic functions of dogs.
• hip dysplasia
• Coonhound paralysis
• cataracts are highly prevalent in Blue Tick Hound.

If you are concerned about your dog’s health or have seen anything that may have serious effects on their health, you must visit a doctor and talk to them about the condition. They have enough resources to help you out and ensure that your pet is in good health.

9. Living Requirements

You should not go for a blue tick hound if you live in an apartment. They do not like being indoors or are relatively less active when they inside the house. They will do their bests when you give them a complete yard to themselves where they can spend all their energy playing and goof around. However, they are more or less adaptable to all sorts of environments.

10. Grooming

Blue Tick Hound is an average shedder. It has a shiny, glossy, and smooth coat which is quite easy to maintain than most breeds. You can just brush their coat 2 to 3 times a week using a soft and firm brush. When you take them for at, make sure you rub their body using a damp towel. These few techniques are sufficient to keep the dog healthy-looking. They have large and long ears which require cleaning as they might have infections otherwise. You do not have to spend a lot of time in their bathing, only take them for a bath when the odor becomes noticeable.

Grooming your dog requires a lot of tools and expertise, it is good if you can take them to a professional groomer once every 2 months.

11. Love And Affection

As already mentioned, they are very affectionate towards their owner and other members of the family. To be honest, love and affection are often seen on all dogs. When you love them, you can easily expect to be loved twice as much as you do. You just have to spend time with them so that they get happier. All your dog needs are love and affection from you.

12. Food Choices For Blue Tick Hound

They should be given high-quality dog food whether you bring it from outside (commercially manufactured food) or prepare their food at home. Make sure to take the supervision and approval of your vet before feeding them anything you don’t know about.

There are few food items that you should NEVER feed your Blue Tick Hound such as yeast dough, tomato leaves, unripe fruits, poultry bones, garlic, onions, chives, chocolate, tea, coffee, beer, wine, raisins, grapes, etc.

Diet For A Blue Tick Hound

There are several ways through which you can maintain your hound’s physical well-being including regular exercises and high-quality dog food. If your doggo is just 6 months old now, you can feed them 3 times a day to maintain a healthy well-being. If your dog is between 6 months to 12 years old, you should feed them 3 to 4 times a day. Try to add food rich in protein such as liver, lean meat, eggs, red meat bones, bananas, green veggie, etc.

For a dog of age 1 to 8 years old or above, you may include lean meat, boiled veggies, fruits, eggs, etc. Make sure the amount you give them is half cups only.

13. Adoption And Price

You can expect the price of Blue Tick Hound to be nearly 200 dollars to 800 dollars. There are many blue tick hounds in the United States that you can adapt easily. Mostly they are present in mixed breeds so you may have a hard time finding the pure breeds. If your heart is set on a pure breed blue tick hound, you can contact any breed club like AKC to find the perfect breeder.

When you go for adoption make sure that the breeder is giving all the information about the puppy’s health and ask them to how the puppy with its parents. Many breeders follow unethical means to breed any dog despite having some diseases, so you must have an idea of the dog’s parents to adopt a healthy puppy.

14. Socialisation

This dog should be socialized early like all other dogs. They usually benefit from early and positive training. It helps the dog learn manners and boundaries. The first thing you can do for your dog’s training is to socialize them. Once they learn it, proceed with other steps.

15. Training Involved

Puppy Training For Blue Tick Hound

These dogs are highly alert and lively. They require consistent and astonishing training sessions to fir their abilities. The puppy training should begin when your puppy is about 12 weeks old. Make sure they have received their shots before starting the training as it is highly important. Ideally, you can go for their training in the morning. They love practicing after it rains.

Here are few forms of training to go for

Crate Training: This is probably the most important thing your new dogs need to learn. It severs a lot of purposes. Make sure the crates are long enough for your dog to stand, stretch out, and sit as they are large dogs. Also, do not give a very large crate because you do, they might use one end for sleeping and the other one for toilet purposes.

House Training: If you wish to bring a blue tick hound to your house, you should already know the importance of home training. This is important so that they do not defecate or urinate elsewhere. You might have to keep cleaning up if you do no give them house training. Make them understand what you require.

You can start their house training after they turn 10 weeks old.

Obedience training

Basic obedience training is crucial for all dogs and dog owners. It makes your dog the best companion you could ask for. It also helps establish a very strong bond between the dog and owner. Mostly, your blue tick hound will find ways to please you and due to this reason alone, they are very eager to learn new things. Their obedience training can be a delightful and hilarious experience as they keep doing something or the other. You need to incorporate appropriate behaviors in your doggo, for which you must begin their obedience training.

Things To Consider Before Adopting

If your heart is et on a bluetick then these are some points you must keep in mind

• Bluetick requires constant attention from his owner you need to consider the time you are spending with your new family member.
• Before you get your new family member, you need to ask yourself if you would be able to take your dog for a walk several times during the day.
• You need to gather some knowledge, ask someone who has adopted an adult and by listening to their advice adopt an adult dog.
• If you are not very sure about the dog after adopting them, consider fostering them before completing the adopting procedures.

These were 12 highly important things you needed to learn about the blue tick hound. In addition to that, there are a few advantages and disadvantages of owning them. If you have planned on housing a blue tock hound, here is a summary of things we have seen:

Advantages Of Housing A Blue Tick Hound

• They are highly affectionate and staunch
• They do not require more grooming like other breeds which saves you a lot of time and dollars.
• They are excellent hunters
• They are extremely good with kids so you do not have to worry about keeping them around.
• They are highly adaptable and can adapt to whichever place you take them to except for apartments as they feel caged up without being out for too long.

Disadvantages Of Housing Blue Tick Hound

• They are too vocal.
• They are often too friendly to become your home’s guardian.
• They are extremely energetic and need a lot of exercises daily (this isn’t a disadvantage for most people but for a tight schedule, it may seem a bit too much).
• They are willful.

This was all the necessary information about Blue Tick Hound.