How it all began.

How It All Began
by Wally Atkinson


Fifty years ago I was attracted to an amazing hound owned by friends of my family living near Warragul.

Rex was a red “Staghound” and the preferred house dog from a pack of similar very large hunting dogs. As this was prior to the introduction of “Myxo” their main target was the huge rabbit population.

These dogs I recall leaping on to the tray of a flat top truck to be taken out for their morning hunt. About a dozen in number they left the truck on command and galloped away to catch their prey and retrieve them for their owner who dispatched those still alive retaining any undamaged for processing. Skins to the hat factory in Nth. Carlton and meat to several other destinations.

Occasionally a fox would get up and then even the laziest dogs would be spurred on to greater efforts and the fox quickly dispatched and discarded, generally in one action, and the dogs would resume their task of attempting to stem the tide of the irrepressible rabbit.

Of these dogs the undisputed leader was the magnificent red Rex.

Rex never killed or even harmed the rabbits he caught having been trained to preserve the rabbit for processing. Not all of the staghounds however were able to have that skill which required a very gentle mouth.

Rex’s owner told me that a dog - and I presume he was only talking about staghounds - that was not “blooded” early, would not instinctively kill lesser game.

He explained that “blooding” was the introduction of game that could defend itself to a young hound resulting in a painful bite or clawing and ensuring the dog dispatched the quarry quickly and furiously.

He was not in agreement with “blooding” staghounds he assured me, because the deerhound ancestry ensured that centuries of breeding for the purpose of hunting a gallant and courageous animal capable of inflicting serious damage or even death gave his dogs an innate knowledge of the necessary skills. In this way the hound’s sense of his own great strength and power manifested in his unusual tolerance of breeds of lesser magnanimity and temper.

That was my introduction to the concept of dog psychology.
Somehow I believed that the deerhound was no longer in existence although I had only my own perception to blame for this. Rex’s owner’s stories however soon had me totally captivated by this ancient and noble breed of - I thought - extinct hound.

However a few years later I was billeted out for Xmas holidays at a farm run by the Birkenshaws at Carisbrook and they also had their pack of staghounds. They too had them mainly for rabbit control but whereas the pack at Darnum included reds, brindles and blacks this pack was predominantly gray.

And surprise, surprise, he also had a pair of my mythical deerhounds! They were only a few months old though and he kept them kenneled away from the rest of the pack and of course did not work them with the others.

I remember this pair as very dark but not very hairy (of course) but still had no idea of what an adult looked like so I assumed they would be like those pups.

It would be another twenty years before I owned a registered deerhound although by that time I had owned several staghounds.

I was in South Australia when a cousin who had a horse agisted at Eltham told me of some huge dogs there and one thing led to another and I purchased my first deerhound - St. Ronans Finlay.

Fin had apparently been with Betty Wallace in Qld and was a three year old. This accomplished escapologist had been sent back to Worlingworth because he was a bit unruly. That didn’t faze me too much so I had him sent over by train and one Sunday morning I met the overland at Adelaide station and was led to his carriage in which was a crate designed for a somewhat lesser breed and a very anxious dog urgently requiring a large tree or post to relieve himself after twelve hours of indignity.

Luckily I had brought a choker lead with me because nobody had been game to let him out and he was fairly raring to go. And so we did, at great speed along the station with me sprinting and being dragged from pillar to post so to speak. Fin’s bladder just refusing to empty.

Fin had all the qualities I had expected, especially tolerance of those dogs, regardless of their temperament that chose to react violently to his presence.

If an aggressive dog was met with a physical response by Fin it was with an absolute minimum of fuss and although seemingly ferocious he never used any more force than needed to intimidate his rival usually flipping the astounded animal onto its back and very menacingly holding it by the throat without breaking the skin until it sunk- in that he wasn’t to be messed with.
Finlay had another quaint habit. Small yappy dogs were, as like as not, urinated on to drown out their protests.

Usually however, he would ignore noisy or aggressive smaller dogs as being below his station and not worthy of any response.

I didn’t get too involved in breeding although Fin did sire one litter of deerhounds with a bitch from Judy Hallet’s (Fallon) first litter and also a litter of staghounds from a black top greyhound.

One second generation stag bred back to deerhound produced a remarkable dog very well known in Queensland on the rodeo circuit. Called Hamlet by his breeder, Steve Harvey, his hunting was legend and he completely refuted the “stags are useless on Qld pigs” myth.

At seven months old Hamlet had “streeted” two greyhound bitches at the Echunga (Sth. Australia) training track. The operator hardly believed his age but acknowledged his desire to chase by asking to include him in his breeding program. The fact that Hamlet was three quarter deerhound and not fully grown could only be greeted with disbelief.

I do not breed with my deerhounds any more as I can not guarantee they will find the right home and to me these dogs are all very special and the thought of one of these being mistreated or abandoned is too horrible to contemplate.

However to those dedicated breeders who deal with these considerations please accept my gratitude, after all if we all felt as I do there wouldn’t be any of these noble hounds.