An international flavour

PUPPY shows and hound shows, together with all the associated pomp and circumstance, are a very British tradition, one would think. Or are they? In fact, most people who have a love for their hounds also want to show them off, and this applies worldwide.

Captain Brian Fanshawe, a brilliant amateur huntsman and a much-respected judge of hounds, used to say that if he had his time again he would have hunted hounds in Australia. He eulogised about the rolling open grasslands near Melbourne that in many ways lend themselves to foxhunting as he knew it, without the pressures of overpopulation that we suffer with in the UK.

Foxes are not native to Australia and were introduced in the 19th century especially for hunting. Likewise, the foxhound was an import from England, and Australian hunts still import hounds from Britain – and, more recently, from America – to freshen and improve bloodlines.

There is an Australian