Country/Date of Origin: USA/18th Century
The ancestry of American Foxhounds can be traced back to the hounds owned by Robert Brooke in the 1650s. He brought English Foxhounds with him and bred them to be more suitable for hunting in the rolling hills of Maryland and Virginia. Later fanciers blended in strains of other English, French and Irish hounds. The result was a lighter-boned hound with a keener sense of smell than its English counterpart. The American Foxhound is considered a dog of the Southeastern states where fox hunting was considered a gentleman's sport.