A little more about Jazzy

Drakkar (or Drake, left) and Jazzy (right) on July 24.

Since Kate over at The Adventures of Lucy asked about the Plott Hound breed, I thought I'd give a little more information about the little monster!


Plott Hounds are the state dog of North Carolina and are primarily used for hunting bear, mountain lions and boar. They are a coonhound that was originated in Germany as the Hanoverian hound and then brought to the United States by the Plott brothers in the 1700s, where they continued to refine their lines. They are the only UKC hound breed that does not trace back to the foxhound. And are one of the only breeds to be considered American.


Females weigh up to 65 lbs, have fine, short and smooth hair that can be any shade of brindle or black. Many of the brindles have hazel eyes - which is pretty cool.

Jazzy at the dog park, July 24.

Since they are "scent" hounds, when we agreed to foster, we decided to name them after scents. And so, they became Drakkar (as in Noir, the cologne) and Jasmine. We hadn't intended to keep either of them, but when an application came in for them, we started to get really bummed out about the thought of NOT having Jazzy. Also, the application was for a family with two children under the age of 7, and while Drake was more easy going and would be a good fit for them, we felt that Jasmine would not be. So, we told the rescue (which is run by a good friend of my mom's) and decided to keep her.

Jazzy, July 13.

This puppy is incredibly smart and makes our rather genius rottie Harley look like a slacker. At 12 weeks, she was already sitting on command, responding pretty regularly to "leave it" and was very quickly catching on to walking on a leash. 


Although her nose sometimes takes over the rest of her brain, at just about 5 months, she will do ANYthing for a cookie or praise. She heels well, knows she should sit when we stop walking (but gets lazy when she's tired!) and has a great recall for her age -- even at the dog park, she'll at least head my way if I call her! If she is uncomfortable (like another dog playing too rough), she'll come check in. 


She can sit, down, heel on leash or off 9 times out of 10. And at the park this weekend, on the third cookie, I had her going back and forth through an agility tunnel like she'd been doing it all her life. Sometimes, if I ask for something, I swear I can see her thinking about it and then she'll give it a really good guess.


I think the best thing she's learned so far is to ring a bell on the doorknob when she needs to go out!

Jazzy, September 4.

You can see that in a few short weeks, she has just about tripled in size.


The plan is to do beginner obedience starting in a couple of weeks, then depending on where she is, either repeat beginner or go straight to intermediate. I would like to do obedience and agility with her. My mom is contemplating doing scent trials of some sort, so we're going to see if we can get her to differentiate between equipment - i.e. collar and leash for obedience and agility and a harness for scent training. It'll be interesting. I figure if horses can understand the difference, so can she. 

This pup LOVES to work and part of the reason we didn't want her going to a home with kids is (we wanted her!!) but also, she NEEDS a job to do.