Hound

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A hound is a type of dog that assists hunters by tracking or chasing the animal being hunted. It can be contrasted with the gun dog, which assists hunters by identifying the location of prey, and with the retriever, which recovers shot quarry.

There are three types of hound, with several breeds belonging to each type:

Type Example
Sighthounds (also called gazehounds), which follow prey predominantly by speed, keeping it in sight. These dogs are very fast and will catch and kill game (e.g., hares, gazelles, deer) by themselves.
Whippet
Scent hounds, which follow prey by tracking its scent. These dogs have endurance, but are not fast runners.
Basset Hound
The 'other' hounds follow prey by both sight and scent. These breeds are difficult to classify other than to say they are neither sighthounds nor scent hounds.
Rhodesian Ridgeback.

[edit] List of hound breeds

See also: Hound Group