History of Hounds
In North Africa around 10,000BC, nomadic people lived in a savannah teeming with giant buffalo and other bovines that were later domesticated into the various cattle breeds we know today. These early people used their hounds for hunting and killing a bovine that roamed within these wild herds.
Wild animals that existed then no longer exist in the now desert areas. To the dog’s advantage, man had weapons to kill his prey, but the dog assisted as it could not only run faster than man, it also had a more acute sense of small and could find the prey easier.
When the kill was made, man was selective in choosing which portions of that prey to eat. Bones and certain viscera of this prey that were discarded became food for the dog. So, the first non-nomadic people who settled in communities brought about the first domestication of dogs from which hunting dogs evolved. These dogs also kept these early settlements clean of human excreta and other types of waste. Humans were vulnerable to predators like wolves, and other wild animals which the presence of tame dogs could chase away or warn by barking.
Around 5,000 BC a distinct type of hunting dog existed as a sacred animal protecting villages in the Southern Mediterranean. It appeared to be an early type of Gazehound or Sight Hound. Often also called a Greyhound used for hunting antelope that invaded the forests that were to become the Sahara Desert.
The first breed that was created for specialized hunting by the nobility was the Saint Hubert Hound which was developed by the French monks of the Abbey of Saint Hubert in the Ardennes around 1100 AD, named after its patron who was a celebrated huntsman. This was the first breed to be described with the following distinctive appearance:
The famous Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 – 322BC), stated that if you cross the sleek hound of Southern Mediterranean with the broad mouthed mountain dog of Eurasia, you will procure pups which have the grace of the hound and the courage of the mountain dog. As millennia slipped by, Aristotle’s advice became reality with the sport of hunting becoming popular with the European nobility.These people’s wealth and passion influenced the selective breeding for distinct specialized hunting types of dogs.