John Carroll
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Talala, Oklahoma
Posts: 5208 |
Re: Echo and Smokey River
quote: Originally posted by harveycmd
I discovered this thread a few days ago. I've enjoyed reading over most of the posts. It's been helpful and answered some questions I had about tracking style, winding ability, coldness of nose, when to start pups, etc.
This may have been discussed, but I didn't see it. Can experienced houndsmen speak to the similarities and differences between the Echo line and the Smokey River line? Obviously Echo himself was Smokey River bred through his dam, but it's clear that many, if not most, hunters like to continue crossing back to Smokey River blood. What is it that works when this is done? And what does the Rambo line that is also often popular as a crossing element add?
I'm not try to argue or say one line is best. I just want to learn what I can.
Thanks,
Chris Dacus
This is not an attempt to stir up controversy, but "Smoky River" was more of a kennel name than a bloodline.
Warren bought stud dogs and pronoted them and raised a lot of good hounds, but he was all over the map when it came to breeding.
He never really seemed to stick to one line or one particular exclusive family breeding long range plan.
Now, after Diamond Jim he seemed to keep that blood in there somewhere, but he introduced some different outcrosses here and there that shuffled the genetic deck quite a bit.
This is not a criticism.
But he was a promoter more than a man like Dave Dean or the Uchtmans who stuck with a single family breeding program generation after generation.
The Echo dogs have been bred in a much more concentrated and consistent manner than what we call "Smoky River."
The Smoky River dogs I hunted with as a kid we completely and totally different type hounds than the ones after Chief came along.
Nobody can really define the characteristics of Smoky River.
They changed radically over the years.
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