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IN THE early 20th century, a horse named Clever Hans was believed capable of counting and other impressive mental tasks. After years of great performance, psychologists put the ruse to rest by demonstrating that though Hans was certainly clever, he was not clever in the way that everyone expected. The horse was cunningly picking up on tiny, unintentional bodily and facial cues given out not only by his trainer, but also by the audience. Aware of the “Clever Hans” effect, Lisa Lit at the University of California, Davis, and her colleagues, wondered whether the beliefs of professional dog handlers might...

RICHMOND | In a state considered the American birthplace of hunting with hounds, George Washington's favorite sport has become a target for some landowners who say baying dogs and their owners are trampling property rights. Even other hunters object to a Virginia right-to-retrieve law viewed as the most absolute in the nation: Hunters have free reign to chase after dogs that stray onto posted private property. Proponents are rising to protect their right to hunt, mindful that other Southern states have already limited or eliminated certain forms of the sport because of complaints from property owners. Courtly fox hunters and...

AKC dog registry welcoming coonhounds to purebred world By Coke Ellington Associated Press Raleigh | The American Kennel Club is trying to make coonhounds couth. The nation's largest and most recognized dog registry is in the early stages of a major push to add coonhounds to its prestigious rolls, hoping both to increase its membership and to assure these sad-eyed symbols of country life stick around a while longer. "We're interested in the registration of these dogs and their litters, but we're most interested in preserving these dogs for the future," said Steve Fielder, who moved to Raleigh in late...

Dogs track down lion Animal bit 7-year-old boy walking with dad just west of Boulder By Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News April 17, 2006 Two hounds tracked down a young female mountain lion west of Boulder early Sunday, hours after it had chomped on the jaw of a 7-year-old boy who was walking hand-in-hand with his father. A wildlife officer shot and killed the 80- to 90-pound cat in a Ponderosa pine just after midnight about a half-mile from the site of the attack on Artist Point near the summit of Flagstaff Mountain, said Tyler Baskfield, spokesman for the Colorado...

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In a hauntingly similar replay of a January incident in which three of Mike Stockton’s hunting dogs were killed by wolves; Orofino outfitter Travis Reggear lost three of his dogs to wolves Tuesday, May 3. “They’re putting me out of business,” says Reggear who employs Stockton. “There won’t be anywhere left where you can turn a hound loose.” It has been determined that the Chesimia pack is responsible in both instances. The January hunt was for bobcat and occurred around an hour after the dogs had been let loose northeast of Dent Bridge in the Cranberry Creek/Elk Creek area. This...

Wolves kill hunting dogs near Dent Bridge Mike Stockton, guide for Reggear Outfitters, was conducting a hunt Tuesday morning, Jan. 11, around 8:30-9:30 a.m. in the Cranberry Creek/Elk Creek area northeast of Dent Bridge when he says three of his hunting dogs were killed by wolves. A fourth is being treated at the vet for bite wounds to his hind quarters. According to Stockton, the vet documented the dog’s wounds as inflicted by an animal of at least one hundred pounds. Stockton and Travis Reggear (Outfitter owner) were on Baldy Road, on the other side of Dent Bridge, running bobcat....

Tue Dec 3, 6:36 AM ET A file photograph of Fitzwilliam Hunt fox hounds exercising in Milton Park, Cambridgeshire, November 1, 2002. Long-awaited British government proposals concerning hunting with dogs are expected to offer a compromise when they are announced on December 3, 2002, banning some hunts but allowing others. REUTERS/Peter Macdiarmid