American Foxhound Facts You Should Know (with Pictures).

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American Foxhound Breed Overview

The American Foxhound is a medium-sized dog.

The adult American Foxhound stands 21 to 25 inches tall at the shoulder.

The American Foxhound belongs to the Hound Dogs group.

Dogs in the Hound Dogs group, like the American Foxhound, were bred to pursue and hunt warm-blooded animals. Hounds hunt by using their good sight or their good sense of smell. Dogs that belong to the Hound Group have strong prey drives and often will stop at nothing to catch what they are pursuing.

The fact that American Foxhounds belong to the Hound Dogs group is one of the reasons why American Foxhounds have the personality and temperament that they have.

The temperament of the American Foxhound is generally described as:

  • Independent
  • Intelligent
  • Kind
  • Loving
  • Loyal
  • Sweet-Tempered

History of the American Foxhound Breed. Where American Foxhounds came from

In the middle of the 1600s the American Foxhound was brought to American colonies and was loved by people such as George Washington.

This breed is a sweet and loving dog that has the urge to run and roam! A big and spacious yard, or a few acres, is needed for this dog to live up to its potential.

There are four different types of American Foxhounds; fox-hunting hounds, field-trial hounds, trail hounds, and pack hounds.

All of these specific branches of American Foxhound have specific traits and instincts that help them complete their job.

American Foxhounds are pack-minded and enjoy interacting with each other, especially if it helps get a job done.

These dogs are easy to groom and easy to maintain as long as they are allowed their daily exercise.

Behavior issues are minimal with a happy and well-ran dog, in this case with the American Foxhound, it holds entirely true.

These dogs enjoy other company regardless if it`s a human or animal but should be properly introduced and acclimated to new situations for the best outcome.

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What the American Foxhound Looks Like

The American Foxhound is a medium-sized dog that has a medium-length coat.

American Foxhounds can be any color and are accepted in all color variations.

The coat is thick and coarse to keep this breed from getting damaged by the grasses it runs through.

A quick brushing each week suffices to keep this coat healthy and clean.

American Foxhounds love to roam and run so having a lot of room for them is important.

This breed comes in four different types that are bred to do specific activities such as hunting, trail running, racing, or exploring.

American Foxhounds love to run and need to be allowed to satisfy their instincts to chase.

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How Much is the American Foxhound Puppy?

How Much American Foxhounds Cost

The average price of a American Foxhound puppy is $460. The price of a American Foxhound puppy ranges from $400 to $500.

A lot of factors determine the price of the American Foxhound. These factors include what health records the American Foxhound puppy has, the lineage of the American Foxhound puppy, the US state the breeder is located in, etc.

To estimate how much you can expect to pay for a puppy American Foxhound based on the many factors that determine the price of the American Foxhound puppy, check out our calculator that lets you estimate how much you should expect to pay for the American Foxhound puppy based on what you want in the puppy.

When looking to buy a puppy, look at buying a puppy only from well-established breeders that breed puppies primarily for the love of the American Foxhound breed, and secondarily for profit. Do not buy a puppy from a puppy mill. Puppy mills mass-produce puppies in bad living conditions for maximum profit.

You may also consider adopting instead of buying a puppy. Adoption costs are very low compared to the price of a puppy.

Adopting or Rescuing the American Foxhound

You may consider adopting a dog instead of buying a puppy. Many dogs, American Foxhounds included, are currently available for adoption in your local dog shelters.

These helpless but adorable dogs are waiting in dog shelters hoping that someday someone will rescue them. Dog adoption costs are lesser than the cost of a new puppy. Dog adoption costs are usually around $300 or even less.

In addition to your local dog shelter, another good place to find dogs that are available for adoption is petfinder.com.

Below is an adorable Male American Foxhound named Jonas that is currently available for adoption on Petfinder.com. You can find other lovely American Foxhounds like Jonas on pefinder.com.

American Foxhounds like Jonas are available for Adoption! It is cheaper to adopt. Image from petfinder.com

Oscar is the name of another American Foxhound (Male) on petfinder.com that is looking for a new forever home.

Oscar the American Foxhound is available for adoption on petfinder.com. Information from petfinder.com

You can find more American Foxhounds that are available for adoption on petfinder.

American Foxhound

What Colors do American Foxhounds Have?

American Foxhounds come in the following beautiful primary colors:

  • White / Cream
  • Red / Chestnut / Orange
  • Tricolor (Brown, Black, & White)
  • Golden
  • Gray / Blue / Silver
  • Brindle

American Foxhounds come in the following lovely secondary colors in addition to their primary colors:

  • Yellow / Tan / Blond / Fawn
  • Black
  • White / Cream
American Foxhound

How Long American Foxhounds Live

The lifespan of the American Foxhound is typically from 12 to 13 years.

American Foxhounds live long if they eat well, drink well, exercise well, and visit the veterinarian regularly.

How Fast American Foxhounds Can Run

How fast a dog breed can run is a good measure of how athletic the dog breed is.

The American Kennel Club (AKC) regularly conducts dog running competitions. The AKC records the running speed of competing dogs in these competitions. These competitions are open to all dog breeds.

Based on our analysis of the speeds of 7 different American Foxhounds, the average speed of the American Foxhound is 22.7 mph (36.6 kmph).

The fastest speed on AKC record that the American Foxhound ran in a race is 26.79 mph (43.1 kmph) and the minimum speed on record in a race for a American Foxhound is 15.04 mph (24.2 kmph).

Click here to see how the speed of the American Foxhound compares to the speed of other dogs and other mammals such as cats, horses, humans, etc.

How fast American Foxhound can run compared to other mammals

Good Names for American Foxhounds

Here are some really good names that are typical for the American Foxhound ranked by popularity:

  • Clyde
  • Milo
  • Woodrow
  • Cletus
  • Linus
  • Bubba
  • Tully
  • Scooby
  • Jonas
  • Nelson

How Intelligent are American Foxhounds?

American Foxhound
Intelligence Rank 46 out of 130 dog breeds
Trainability Tend To Learn New Commands After 25 To 40 Repetitions

According to Prof. Stanley Coren, a Canadian psychology professor/dog trainer, the total intelligence that a dog demonstrates is the addition of three types of intelligence. These intelligence types are:

  1. Instinctive Intelligence: This is the natural intelligence that comes from instinct. For example, dog breeds that have been historically bred to be guard dogs will have a high `guarding` intelligence compared to dogs that were not bred for guarding.

  2. Adaptive Intelligence (learning and problem-solving ability): This indicates what a dog can learn to do for himself or herself. Adaptive intelligence is specific to each dog, and not breed specific. You can improve your dog`s adaptive intelligence by investing time to train your dog.

  3. Working/Obedience Intelligence: This type of intelligence is breed-specific. Certain dog breeds tend to have higher working/obedience intelligence than some other breeds. This intelligence is the closest to what we might call school-learning ability and it is based upon what the dog can learn to do when instructed by humans. This type of intelligence can be measured for each dog breed and compared to that of other dog breeds.

Professor Stanley Coren measured and ranked the working intelligence of about 130 different dog breeds.

Prof. Coren found that the American Foxhound has an obedience intelligence rank of 46 out of 130 dog breeds. Thus, Prof. Coren put American Foxhounds in the `Average Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs` category.

This means that American Foxhounds tend to learn new commands after 25 to 40 repetitions.

However, we should mention that a dog should not be judged based on its intelligence alone. There are other important factors you need to consider when deciding on which dog breed to get. These other factors include sociability, adorability, and compatibility of the dog breed with your lifestyle.

See the intelligence ranking of some other dog breeds below:

Breed Intelligence Rank
Standard Poodle 2
Golden Retriever 4
Australian Cattle Dog 10
Miniature Schnauzer 12
English Springer Spaniel 13
Chesapeake Bay Retriever 27
Airedale Terrier 29
Cairn Terrier 35
Affenpinscher 37
Kuvasz 42
Scottish Deerhound 47
Boxer 48
Maltese 59
Italian Greyhound 60
Saint Bernard 65
Chihuahua 67
Bullmastiff 69
Bloodhound 74
Borzoi 75
American Bulldog 77

How Popular are American Foxhounds with New Dog Owners?

Every year, the American Kennel Club (AKC) publishes information on how popular a dog breed is in that particular year. The AKC gets the popularity information of a breed from how many dogs of that breed the owners register with the AKC every year. The AKC collects this data for about 200 dog breeds.

The graph below shows the popularity trend of the American Foxhound.

The popularity of the American Foxhound averaged over the years is Number 186 out of about 200 dog breeds.

Popularity of American Foxhound

Do not get a dog breed just because it is a popular dog breed. And do not reject a dog breed just because it is an unpopular breed.

Health Problems in American Foxhounds and How to Prevent Them

Every dog breed has its own set of health problems that it tends to develop. There is nothing like a perfect dog breed.

The American Foxhound is prone to certain genetic health conditions. The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) is an organization that keeps track of genetic health problems in dog breeds.

From the extensive records that the OFA keeps, the OFA knows what health problems each dog breed is naturally prone to develop.

Hence, the OFA recommends which health screening breeders should perform on a dog breed to make sure that the breeders won`t breed `defective` dog parents that can pass down defective genes to their puppy offspring.

If you want a American Foxhound puppy that will grow up to be healthy, make sure that your American Foxhound breeder screens your puppy or your puppy`s parents for the health problems that the OFA recommends for your puppy`s breed. This will increase the chances that your puppy is free from genetic defects.

The following are the health tests that Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) recommends that breeders should screen American Foxhounds for:

    You can find out more about OFA`s recommended tests for American Foxhounds here.

    Dog Breeds That Are Similar to American Foxhounds

    If you have not made up your mind on which dog breed to get, you may also want to consider some other dogs similar to the American Foxhound.

    We crunched the numbers and found that the following dog breeds that have similar behavior and temperament as the American Foxhound:

    Other Things to Know About American Foxhounds

    Here are some of the very important characteristics of the American Foxhound that you need to know about the American Foxhound breed:

  1. American Foxhounds do not adapt well to apartment living.
  2. American Foxhounds do not like to be left alone.
  3. American Foxhounds do not have the tendency to drool.
  4. American Foxhounds are not the best dogs for new dog owners.
  5. American Foxhounds are not very sensitive to their enviroment. They can tolerate noisy environments. They are also not very sensitive to the tone of your voice, firm or gentle.
  6. American Foxhounds are not easy to train.
  7. American Foxhounds can tolerate cold weather.
  8. American Foxhounds can tolerate hot weather.
  9. American Foxhounds are great family dogs. They are very affectionate with family.
  10. American Foxhounds are very friendly towards strangers.
  11. American Foxhounds have a high prey drive. They do not get along well with other pets.
  12. American Foxhounds do things with high intensity. They can be very forceful.
  13. American Foxhounds get along well with kids. They are kid-friendly.
  14. American Foxhounds get along well with other dogs.
  15. American Foxhounds are very easy to groom.
  16. American Foxhounds are very healthy. They do not suffer from a lot of health problems compared to other dog breeds
  17. American Foxhounds gain weight easily. You need to pay careful attention to what you feed them.
  18. American Foxhounds are highly vocal. They have the tendency to bark and howl.
  19. American Foxhounds have a high tendency to wander. They are easily distracted by other animals or objects.
  20. American Foxhounds have very high energy levels. They need a lot of exercise time to release their high energy.
  21. American Foxhounds require a lot of exercise. They are good for owners who like to exercise.
  22. American Foxhounds are very playful.
  23. American Foxhounds weigh 40 to 60 pounds when fully grown.
  24. American Foxhounds are 21 to 25 inches tall at the shoulder when fully grown.
  25. American Foxhounds have a lifespan of 12 to 13 years.