Bloodhounds have long been popular as a dog breed, with a number of feature length movies, brand name mascots and advertising campaigns having bloodhounds involved in their production and release.
The 1991 sequel to Disney’s American Tail, American Tail – Fievel Goes West, featured a bloodhound as one of the movie’s title characters in Wylie Burp, a “washed out” sheriff in a town overrun by menacing cats.
Following after the events of the previous American Tail, American Tail – Fievel Goes West revisited the old West, with cowboys and cattle ranchers, saloons and bar fights. To the tune of American Tail’s original premise, the movie is one of rediscovery and adventure, with a bloodhound playing a pivotal role in the plot’s development.
The specifics as to why a bloodhound was pegged to perfectly match Wylie Burp’s persona hasn’t really been revealed, but the popularity and familiarization of the breed can be ascribed to be one of the factors.
As a dog breed, bloodhounds are famed for their keen sense of smell. Also famed for being one of the most easily recognizable dog breeds in the world, bloodhounds are also known for their incredible tracking instincts, capable of identifying different scents even if a day or two had already passed by.
Back then, bloodhounds were often found as hunting partners, trained to track the whereabouts of catches like wild boar and deer. Today, their keen sense of smell and incredibly accurate tracking skills have been utilized by police and government agencies in tracking human beings, from fugitives to those who are lost or have gone missing.
Classified as a large breed, bloodhounds kept as household pets are not strange, though they are commonly found being kept as tracking/hunting dogs. Gentle, cool, calm and reserved in terms of temperaments, Bloodhounds are great to have as pets, who can live at a 6.5 year average.
Bloodhound Video