Every person has likely had some very good hunting dogs and some that might not have been so good, but something that many people stand divided on is whether or not to have registered dogs. Dog registration holds its place in the hound community and there are definitely some cases where registered dogs may be the best choice. However, is it really necessary to have a dog that is registered? There are pros and cons to every situation and the case of registered dogs is no different.
When people get started in hound hunting or add to their pack the thought of a registered dog off a good bloodline sounds very tempting. However, paperwork does not determine the quality of a hound. I have seen registered dogs that would not perform nearly as well as a pack of dogs with no paperwork whatsoever. This being said I have also seen it go the other way around. I believe it is all about what you want your hounds to do for you whether or not to buy registered.
Regardless of what type of hunting hound you are interested in, registered hounds hold a strong place in the competition world. They come from other hounds that have been proven to bring home championships and perform at high levels. It also adds value in the competition world if a hound is coming off a good bloodline than if it is a hound that has no papers and can not have been proved to ever come from championship dogs. Paperwork also becomes important when it comes to breeding and having litters of puppies. This is especially true when breeding one of your hounds to someone else’s dog. Potential buyers of competition puppies will want to have background knowledge of the dog’s history. Thus it becomes important to have registered dogs for credibility.
The area where non-registered dogs are most chosen is true hunting hounds. When building a pack of dogs we find that a hound without paperwork will hunt just the same. The major upside of this is pricing of the hound. Personally I have never hunted with registered hounds. This is due to the fact that when I started building a pack I was sixteen years old and did not have the resources to purchase such dogs. In doing this I found that paperwork does not make a great hunting hound, more so repetition, training, and a hounds drive. All of us in the hound community understand that a dog will either have the desire to hunt, work and improve or they will not. In my experience that is not determined by whether or not the hound is registered. More than a handful of times we have seen hounds that are visually not appealing as a hunting dog but as soon as they come off the tailgate they are the best dog in the pack.
When thinking about whether you need a registered hound or not, ask yourself what you want to see out of the hound. It comes down to preference and purpose in this area but at the end of the day it is all up to the houndsman. Registration does not make or break a hound by any means but like anything else it has its pros and cons.
