Country Diary

Patrick Leigh-Pemberton presents a beginner's guide to becoming a model houndsman at a new hunt - even if you might be bluffing it

- Patrick Leigh-Pemberton

When I moved away from home, some of my friends were worried that I might struggle to make new connections in a new area, and I always responded with blind confidence that I would make new friends through hunting. But, having moved in spring, after the end of the hunting season, I cannot meet people in the field until autumn hunting begins. Roll away clouds, roll on harvest. So, I have been turning to the high point of hunting’s summer scene, which is the puppy show.

The nominal purpose of a puppy show is to judge the youngest hounds in kennels, to celebrate the best breeding among them. The secondary nominal purpose is to thank the puppy walkers, who take a huge burden off the hunt staff by raising two or three hound puppies for a few months, when these puppies are at their most destructive and least obedient. The actual purpose, though, is for everyone to gather round, catch up, and have an enormous gossip while the judging is taking place.