Plott Hound

The count begins in 1750, when the German emigrant Johannes Plott arrived in America. Dogs came with him — and this is precisely where the sources start to diverge, so it is better to lay them side by side than to melt them into one smooth legend.

The American Kennel Club (AKC) puts it plainly in its breed history: Plott was accompanied by five “Hanover hounds”, and it is this circumstance that makes the Plott unique among the AKC’s six coonhound breeds — all the others descend from English Foxhounds. NCpedia, the encyclopaedia maintained by the State Library of North Carolina, adds a family detail: the five dogs were a gift from the father, Elias Plott, a gamekeeper from near Heidelberg, who bred all-round working dogs suited to big game and to the farm alike. NCpedia is more cautious than the AKC, though: Elias “probably began with the Hanoverian hound”.

The United Kennel Club (UKC) tells the same episode more soberly still: the emigrant (Jonathon Plott in their text) brought “a few dogs for boar hunting” — with no breed name and no number. In other words, “five Hanover hounds” is the AKC and NCpedia version, not a shared position of the registries. The Hanoverian scenthound (Hannoverscher Schweisshund) as the Plott’s ancestor remains the most widespread and entirely plausible reconstruction, but the sources offer it with different degrees of confidence, and it is more honest to keep it as a reconstruction.

From there the story rests on county records. Johannes anglicised his name to George Plott; after the ship’s register he reappears in public documents only in 1759, when he bought land in Bute County (now Warren). The family then moved to Cabarrus County and, in 1784, to Lincoln County. Around 1800 the son, Henry Plott, moved to Buncombe (now Haywood) — and the geography kept the family name for good: Plott Valley, Plott Balsam mountain, Plott Creek. Plott descendants still live in that region.

In the nineteenth century the dogs earned a reputation well beyond the valley: people rode to Haywood County for puppies all the way from Georgia, with sacks tied to the saddle to carry them home. Montraville Plott (born 1850) carried on the work on temperament and working qualities, and it was his sons — John A. Plott and Henry Vaughn “Von” Plott — who, together with several other hunters, brought the breed to national attention in the 1930s and 1940s. The registry then made it formal: the first Plott Hound registration with the UKC dates from 1946.

This origin sets the Plott sharply apart from the other coonhounds. The Black and Tan Coonhound, for example, was built on Bloodhounds and Foxhounds — a British base with which the Plott shares no common trunk.

This is the most interesting place in the breed’s history, and the most often misrepresented. The claim that “the family kept the line for more than two centuries” is true in one sense and overstated in another — both are worth unpacking.

The duration is true. From the arrival in 1750 to national fame in the 1930s and 1940s the dogs remained above all a Plott family affair in western North Carolina — roughly seven human generations. Few breeds can claim such continuity, and it is what gave the Plott a recognisable type long before any written standard existed.

But “kept” does not mean “recorded”. NCpedia notes it explicitly: the Plott family kept no written records of their dogs. Those two centuries of line are therefore an orally transmitted family tradition and a reputation among hunters, not a preserved written pedigree. When you read “a documented two-hundred-year line” somewhere, it credits the breed with more than the source allows.

And “pure” comes with reservations too. Here the two standing registries tell different stories, and that is worth knowing:

• The UKC version. Plott supposedly “kept the strain entirely pure, with no outside blood”. In 1780 the pack passed to Henry Plott. Soon afterwards a hunter from Georgia who bred his own strain of spotted “leopard” bear dogs came to see the Plotts — and borrowed one of the best stud dogs for a year for his own bitches. The UKC presents this as the only known infusion of new blood in the breed’s entire history in America.
• The AKC version. In the AKC’s account that same Henry Plott crossed the family pack with local dogs — and out of that came the big-game hunter first called “Plott’s dog”, then the Plott Hound, then simply the Plott.
• An episode around 1900. The UKC mentions G. P. Ferguson, a neighbour of the family, whose influence on the breed was major and who studied the Blevins and Cable strains of the day closely. How far he used that blood in his own breeding programme, the UKC honestly marks as unknown.

The formula that survives checking looks like this: a German base, plus more than two centuries of family selection in the mountains, plus at least one acknowledged infusion of outside blood and a few episodes the registries themselves call unknown. It explains why the Plott stands apart among coonhounds without turning the breed into a genetic reserve it never was.

The breed lives inside two American systems, and that affects everything — from the name to the figures in the standard.

• UKC — 1946. The oldest and still the principal “working” registration. The revision in force dates from 1 January 2020; the text itself carries a 1982 copyright. The breed sits in the Scenthound Group.
• AKC — two dates that are often confused. The official AKC standard was approved in June 1998 and took effect on 1 October 1998. But the year the AKC recognised the breed is 2006, in the Hound Group. Sources that give 1998 as “the year of AKC recognition” are in fact giving the year of the standard. These are two different events — both dates are correct, they simply describe different things.
• FCI. The nomenclature of the Fédération Cynologique Internationale contains no Plott Hound standard. The only American coonhound with its own FCI number is the Black and Tan Coonhound (no. 300, group 6, country of origin USA). In Europe the Plott is therefore handled through the UKC/AKC and national clubs rather than through the FCI system.

One more detail about the name: the title of the official AKC standard is simply “Plott”, while the AKC breed page and the UKC use the full form “Plott Hound”. Both are correct.

The Plott is an athlete, not a heavyweight. The AKC describes a powerful, well-muscled but streamlined hound in which strength goes together with athletic ability; among the faults it names being “overdone” — too much weight or too much bone to show speed and agility. The UKC makes the same point from another angle: proportions square or slightly longer than tall, with the leg from elbow to ground about half the height at the withers.

Coat and colour. The breed’s calling card is the brindle coat. The AKC lists the “brindle factors”, that is, the background tones over which the dark striping lies: yellow, buckskin, tan, brown, chocolate, liver, orange, red, light or dark grey, blue (Maltese), dilute black and black. Besides brindle, the standard admits solid black, brindle with a black saddle, and black with brindle trim. It describes separately a rare buckskin — solid, with no brindling at all, ranging from red fawn and sandy red through light cream and yellow ochre to dark fawn and golden tan. A little white on the chest and feet is tolerated, as is greying around the jaws and muzzle. The coat is short, fine and glossy, yet dense enough to protect against wind and water; the AKC notes that rare specimens carry a double coat — a short, soft, thick undercoat beneath a longer, coarser outer coat.

Head and ears. The skull is moderately flat, rounded at the crown; the muzzle is of medium length, the flews giving it a slightly squared profile. Eyes brown or hazel, rather prominent than deep-set; among the faults the AKC names drooping eyelids and a red “haw” — an over-visible third eyelid. Pigmentation of eyelids, lips and nose is black. The skin on the head is moderately tight, and folds or dewlap are a fault: this is not a Bloodhound.

The most unexpected part of the ear description is that the AKC standardises the ear spread, that is, the distance between the tips of the extended ears: 18–20 inches (46–51 cm) in males, 17–19 inches (43–48 cm) in females. Such a parameter is rare in standards. Length, by contrast, is strictly bounded: an ear that reaches beyond the tip of the nose or hangs “Bloodhound fashion”, in long heavy leathers, is grounds for disqualification.

A very common mistake is to give “the Plott’s height” as one range. There are in fact four ranges: each of the two registries has its own figures, and each of them sets males and females separately. The UKC describes a noticeably larger dog than the AKC. Hence the table below, where every number has one meaning and one source.

The AKC gives a lifespan of 12–14 years. If you see “Plott height 50–63 cm” somewhere without a sex or a registry attached, that is four different norms fused into one, and it is useless as a guide when choosing a puppy.

Reading both standards side by side is not an academic exercise: the divergences show which traits of the breed are still under discussion rather than settled. Here are the most visible ones.

• Ears: mobile or not. The UKC requires ears “with no erectile power”. The AKC describes the opposite: some Plotts, alert or interested, half-raise their ears so that a distinct fold appears at the crown line — and this is given as normal, not as a fault. The same ears, two opposite requirements.
• Size. The UKC’s upper limit for a male is 27 inches, the AKC’s is 25. A dog entirely typical in a UKC ring may turn out to be oversized by AKC measure.
• Disqualifications. The AKC has only two, both “mechanical”: an ear that is too long or Bloodhound-like, and a splayed foot. The UKC’s list is different and wider: albinism, deafness, blindness, uni- or bilateral cryptorchidism, overshot or undershot bite, viciousness or extreme shyness, and any colour outside those described. It is therefore the UKC that disqualifies on temperament.
• The foot. The UKC wants a round “cat” foot with thick pads; the AKC describes a firm, tight foot and disqualifies the splayed one.
• Dewclaws. The UKC explicitly requires their absence on the hind legs; the AKC does not address the question.

The very first sentence of the AKC standard deserves separate mention — it comes even before the general description: the Plott may carry an identification mark on the rump by which the dog is recognised in the field, and it must not be penalised in the ring. It is a rare case of a conformation document giving way to field practice — and the shortest proof that the breed still thinks of itself as a working one.

Another recent change: the UKC revision of 2020 no longer disqualifies a solid-coloured Plott — previously a coat without brindling closed the ring.

The most important sentence about the breed’s character is buried at the end of the AKC standard, and it is rarely quoted. It says this: the temperament is generally even, but it varies between strains, with a distinction sometimes appearing between dogs bred for big game and those bred as coonhounds. The official document therefore acknowledges two working types with different temperaments inside one breed.

For a buyer this is the most practical information on the whole page. The question “what is the Plott’s character like?” has no correct answer until you know what work the particular strain was selected for. The bear type is harder, more independent, more willing to hold game; the coonhound type is usually softer in contact. The conversation with a breeder should therefore begin not with colour but with the question of what work he breeds his dogs for and which ancestors stand behind the litter.

On the rest, the two registries agree. AKC: eager to please, loyal, intelligent, alert; a bold and fearless hunter. UKC: active, fast, quick-witted, kind, confident and courageous; attentive and quick to learn. The domestic half of that formula is not literary decoration — it stands in the documents alongside the hunting half.

• Confidence. The breed was not bred timid. The UKC places extreme shyness among the disqualifications, on a par with viciousness. That is a rarity: most standards mention only aggression.
• Reserve towards strangers. Unlike many hounds that greet anyone with joy, the Plott more often keeps its distance. It is not a guardian breed by vocation, but it is not a “dog for everyone” either. Early socialisation here is not a wish but a compulsory part of raising it. On this point of watchfulness it resembles the small but fiery Majorcan Rater, even if the two do not play in the same weight class at all.
• Small animals. A dog selected for centuries for its willingness to chase big game usually gets on badly with cats and small livestock. That is not a defect of upbringing but a trait of the trade.

By way of comparison among coonhounds, the Bluetick Coonhound is usually softer in its dealings, while the Plott is a more serious “worker” with a harder core.

The UKC describes the Plott’s voice with three terms from the hunting vocabulary: open trailing, bawl and chop. These are not poetic images but a working classification.

• Open trailing — the dog gives tongue during the chase instead of staying silent to the end. The hunter knows by ear that the trail has been taken.
• Bawl — a long, drawn-out call that carries far through the forest.
• Chop — a short, chopped bark by which the dog reports that the quarry is stopped or treed.

The UKC notes separately that the voice of today’s Plotts is clear and carries well. The North Carolina legislature once put it more vividly still: the preamble to the state dog law describes a cry that sends chills down the spine, like the sound of a horn.

The practical conclusion is more prosaic: all of this was designed so that the dog could be heard for miles in a mountain forest. In a flat or in dense housing that machinery works against the owner, and no amount of training turns a hound into a quiet breed. That is not a reason to give up on a Plott — it is a reason to assess honestly where you live and how the neighbours react.

Here lies the main difference between the Plott and the other coonhounds, and it explains almost everything about keeping one. The classic coonhound specialises in raccoon: find the trail, catch up, tree the quarry, report with the voice and wait. The Plott was formed differently. The UKC says so in as many words: there were no wild boar in the America of that time, so Plott put his boar dogs on bear. The preamble to the state law describes a legendary hunting breed, known as the most courageous of fighters and a tracker that never lets go.

The AKC frames the breed’s task as bringing big game to bay or treeing it, and among its marks it names endurance, stamina, agility, determination and drive at work. The UKC adds two traits owners often underestimate: a strong treeing instinct and a natural willingness to enter water. A Plott will go into water by itself, without invitation.

The difference between “raccoon” work and “bear” work is a difference of distance, duration and risk. A bear chase lasts longer, goes over harder ground and ends in direct contact with an animal that can fight back. Hence the physical type: a streamlined body, well-marked angulation, a long muscular thigh, and feet that converge into a single line at speed — all of it described in the standards as requirements of movement. Hence, too, that obstinacy at work which hunters value and city owners complain about: the dog was selected for centuries for the ability not to quit.

A comparable uncompromising streak exists in breeds of an entirely different size. The small but brave Patterdale Terrier also works “on contact”, underground. For the owner it means the same thing in both cases: heightened attention to the animal’s safety, because a dog that cannot back off will not spare itself.

The breed’s working culture also shows in how its competitions are arranged. The UKC runs not only conformation rings for coonhounds but also nite hunts, water races and field trials — and spayed and neutered dogs are admitted to all licensed coonhound events. The working format is therefore open to owners who do not breed.

Plotts are not taken only by hunters — and that is where most problems begin. The breed does not decay without hunting, but it does not idle either: the endurance, the nose and the drive do not go anywhere, and if they are not given a job they will find one themselves.

1. Exercise — daily and long. A walk around the block is simply not exercise for a hound built for hours of casting through mountain forest. What is needed is long routes over varied ground, running beside a bicycle, swimming.
2. The nose beats the ball. The surest way to tire a Plott is to let it work its nose. Search games, mantrailing, tracking and nose work drain such a dog faster and deeper than plain running.
3. Fence and lead are not formalities. A dog that has taken a fresh trail stops hearing. A solid fence, and the lead wherever the space is not safe, are basic conditions rather than over-caution.
4. A yard without a job does not help. A large yard is a place, not an activity. Left alone outside, a Plott usually starts announcing everything it sees and hears — and that is exactly how conflicts with the neighbours start.

In short: this is a working breed and it needs a workload, and an honest answer to “is a Plott right for me?” starts with the owner’s timetable, not with a photograph of a brindle coat.

Both standards call the Plott quick-witted and quick to learn. That is true — but a hound’s intelligence is calibrated for solving problems alone in the field, not for waiting on a command. A dog that has to untangle a trail and decide for itself which way to go at every fork is, by construction, not an executor.

1. Consistency instead of pressure. A Plott does not respect a disorganised owner, but it shuts down under harshness. The rules must be the same every day; “no” must mean “no” regardless of your mood.
2. Reinforce with the nose. For a hound, permission to sniff is a reward in itself, often stronger than a treat. It is the handiest lever in the whole of training.
3. The recall is trained separately and for a long time. Calling a dog off a fresh trail is the hardest exercise of all, and it is a matter of safety, not convenience.
4. Early socialisation. The town, traffic, strangers, other dogs — all of it must enter the puppy’s life while its natural reserve is still malleable.
5. Resources and the bowl. The breed tends to value what is its own; work on accepting a hand approaching the bowl calmly begins in puppyhood, not on the day the problem already exists.

The Plott’s short, fine, glossy coat asks for the minimum: the AKC advises a weekly brushing with a soft brush or a hound glove to lift dirt and dead hair. A bath from time to time, which also helps with the characteristic houndy smell. The rest is standard — nails, teeth — and, as the separate and principal point for this breed, the ears.

• Pros:
  • Endurance, agility and determination at work — traits named as such in the AKC standard.
  • Minimal coat care: a weekly glove is enough.
  • Devotion to the family: both registries describe a settled, attached domestic half of the character.
  • A striking and unusually varied brindle coat — from yellow to an almost black ground.
  • Quick-wittedness on practical problems and fast learning.
  • A developed working infrastructure: UKC nite hunts, water races and field trials, open to neutered dogs too.
• Cons:
  • A loud, far-carrying voice — a property of the construction, not a defect of upbringing.
  • A very strong chase instinct: the risk of running off on a trail, difficult cohabitation with cats.
  • The need for real daily exercise; a walk around the block does not count.
  • Independence in decision-making, which complicates recall off a trail.
  • Reserve towards strangers without early socialisation.
  • A rare breed outside the USA, so finding a line with a known working purpose takes time.

• State dog — and a criminal clause in the same law. The Plott Hound was officially adopted as the state dog of North Carolina on 12 August 1989 (Session Laws, 1989, c. 773, Senate Bill 832). The most curious thing is the act’s full title: it did not merely proclaim a state dog, it also made dog theft a Class J felony and the temporary taking of a dog a misdemeanour. The honour paid to the breed thus arrived in the same package as a tightening of penalties for dog theft in general.
• The only breed developed in North Carolina. That is NCpedia’s formulation; the preamble to the 1989 law likewise states that this is the only breed known to have originated in the state, and places it among four breeds of American origin — exactly as the legislature of the time saw it.
• Without a British ancestor — but not alone. The common claim “the only coonhound with no English Foxhound in its ancestry” is accurate only within the AKC, which counts six coonhound breeds. The UKC counts seven, and there are then two: the Plott Hound and the American Leopard Hound.
• The mark on the rump. The AKC standard begins not with a description of the dog but with a permission: a hunting identification mark on the rump must not be penalised in the ring.
• The family on the map. Plott Valley, Plott Balsam mountain and Plott Creek in North Carolina are named after that same family.
• The standard is still changing. The UKC revision in force since 1 January 2020 removed the disqualification for a solid coat — a single-coloured Plott is no longer out of the game.
• A contribution to medicine. The model of mucopolysaccharidosis type I on which approaches to treating the human disease were tested goes back to three Plott Hound puppies from one litter, described in 1983.

How does the Plott Hound differ from the other coonhounds?
In origin and in working profile. It is the only one of the AKC’s six coonhounds whose ancestry is traced not to English Foxhounds but to German scenthounds; and it was bred for big game — bear and boar — rather than for raccoon. Hence a different endurance, a different voice and a different way of working.

Is the Plott Hound in the FCI system?
No, the breed has no FCI standard of its own — it is handled by the UKC (since 1946) and the AKC (standard 1998, recognition 2006). The only American coonhound with an FCI number is the Black and Tan.

How much walking does a Plott need?
Not “so many minutes”, but enough for the dog to genuinely work: long routes with terrain, nose work, swimming. The guide is simple — if the dog comes home and starts looking for something to do, the dose was too small.

Does it shed much, and is it suitable for allergy sufferers?
Shedding is moderate and the coat is short; a weekly going-over with a glove is enough. The breed is not hypoallergenic, and the characteristic houndy smell is dealt with by an occasional bath.

Does it get on with children, strangers and cats?
At home both standards describe the Plott as devoted and settled. Towards strangers it is more often reserved than welcoming, so early socialisation is essential. With cats and small animals it is usually difficult — the chase instinct is very strong.

Are they aggressive towards people?
Aggression towards humans is not the breed norm: in the UKC standard viciousness and extreme shyness are grounds for disqualification. Reserve towards a stranger, yes; aggression without cause, no.

Is the Plott Hound healthy?
No categorical answer is possible here. The absence of a description of a disease is a gap in the data, not a guarantee. Mucopolysaccharidosis type I with a known mutation of the IDUA gene is documented for the breed, the AKC insists on screening the parents for hip dysplasia, and the anatomy (drop ears, a deep chest) and field work add risks of their own — otitis, gastric torsion, injuries, and after contact with a raccoon, coonhound paralysis.