The South has long gone to the “coon dogs”—in a good way. This branch of scent hounds descended from English foxhounds first brought to the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries and remains popular today. Celebrated for their loyalty and stamina, coonhounds were praised as “four-legged tracking machines” in George Jones’ country classic “Ol’ Red” and immortalized in Wilson Rawls’s novel Where the Red Fern Grows. The breeds are renowned for their skill at pursuing prey—mainly raccoons—through dense thickets and up trees. When a target has been cornered, the dogs alert the hunters with a signature vocalization called baying, reverberant howl-barks that announce the end of the chase and success of the hunt.
- The American Kennel Club (AKC) recognizes six breeds of coonhound: the black and tan, bluetick, treeing walker, American English, redbone, and Plott hound.
- The nose knows: Several types of coonhounds have a sense of smell strong enough to track cold trails, the faint, days-old scents left behind by game.
- More than 300 canine companions are buried at the Key Underwood Coon Dog Cemetery in Cherokee, Alabama. Established in 1937, the breed-exclusive graveyard hosts an annual Labor Day celebration with live music and buck dancing (similar to clogging) to commemorate Troop, the first dog interred there.
- For 50 years and counting, hound loyalists have congregated at the Coon Dog Day Festival in Saluda, North Carolina, every July. The action includes a head-turning parade of floats and antique cars, a registered coonhound dog show, and a night of shag and square dancing.
- Major AKC coonhound events take place in multiple Southern states throughout the year. Watch dogs vie for a championship title in water races, field trials, and the popular Nite Hunt, during which competitors must trail and tree a raccoon, unaided, in its natural environment.
This article appears in the Fall 2025 issue of Southbound.
