The hare can be embodied with different hunting methods, but it is only hunted with the hound. The preferences in the use of the hound, by hunters, have always been a reason for discussions, therefore, related to their experiences and the terrain in which they find themselves hunting
With more method or with more initiative?
The working style among the hound breeds is different and the working characteristics are related to those that the hunter considers most suitable for his hunting territory. Each hound must possess the necessary aptitudes to hunt hare profitably: passion for hunting, olfactory power and above all intelligence.
These essential components are written into its genetic makeup, while knowledge of the hare's behavior will come with training and experience. Beyond that in which the specialized press can educate us with its publications, the hound measures itself with the actions that it manages to carry out. The best match will be the one who will usually conclude the long passes with the scovo. Not to be confused, as often happens, with the hounds that mark the foul, because a hound that has difficulty in getting out of the pasture will never be a good approach. We will not need to have confirmation from a judge to know the best way to conduct a chase. For both the slowest and the fastest hounds, the difference will be how often they get the hare through. If an adult hare goes back to the post where it was previously frying, you can be sure that you are dealing with a great pursuer. In fact, it means that the hare is so afraid of our dog that it faces, once again, the place of the shot in order to escape it. For the great pursuer, however, the exception is that time when he failed to chase. Recently, in a magazine of the sector, a French houndist analyzed the different types of usta that the hounds reveal: the cold one, the realist one and the ultra-realist, the latter according to him, is sought only by the great hound. Are we kidding? Should the hound only treat the recent lash at the shed, as do some who only apply on strong breath where all dogs are good? I could tell countless hunting episodes in which my hounds, starting from a cold track, after long combinations, reached it. Always the same ones, with speed, they found when they attacked near the lair. The good hound's job is to reveal where the scent is and apply accordingly. 
The ability to know how to evaluate the ATA leads him to solve situations by applying himself in a different way. He can concentrate on the point or do some research, insisting on the points where his experience makes him believe he can re-attach the past. With experience he will not get too hot where he grazed and he will understand that, when the hare goes to recover, it does not stop as in pasture, but leaves a lighter pass. The "powerful" nose, guided by intelligence, will always have an advantage, but this is not enough. When a hound solves a difficult foul, we are led to think that it is solely due to its olfactory power. In my opinion, this is also due to the maturity and concentration of the dog which, at the maximum of its application, leads him to understand the behavior of the hare. In these circumstances, the role played by the memory of lived experiences is decisive. In such circumstances, the evaluation that the hound is able to give to the detection of the whip may be more important than the sense of smell itself. On the hunting ground of our Apennines you can find mainly Italian hounds and lepraioli (hounds of the Apennines, now a recognized breed) descended from the dogs of the past. For more than forty years, I have practiced hare hunting with hounds and I have had excellent ones whether they were hare rabbits from our area or whether they were Italian hounds from a serious selection. Their style of work is generally different: the Italian hound is more relentless, both in following the pass and in pursuit, in our jargon "cane di passata". More hasty and drier of voice, and with marked initiative, the hare, in our jargon «rustling dog». Each type of hound must know how to defile the path in going to the den, while applying himself with the different style of work of his breed. In the Apennines the presence of the hare is scarce and a houndist cannot avoid paying particular attention to the combination, which must end with the discovery.
The pairing of "passata", which I personally have always preferred, is that subject that advances on the edge of the steak with order and tenacity
He is a reflective auxiliary, capable of quickly identifying the right direction, and his voice is an expression of the evaluation of the scent. He insists on the solution of the phallus, carefully scouring nearby and learning with experience to widen into ever larger circles. We used to say that a hound began to "be good" when "he was gardening." We meant that a dog was valid when, to solve a foul, he made a circle. With favorable conditions to smell it becomes implacable for the hare. Instead, it shows negative characteristics when it tends to retrace its steps, showing little ability to decipher the meaning of the usta. I leave to the theorists the belief that the hound can arrive on the hare kick after kick, as if it were a wire without interruptions. A subject without initiative is like a "half dog". In fact, the dog bound to the track will never be a finder, even when it is endowed with an excellent olfactory power. The Apennine hound, or lepraiolo, descends from those dogs who were used to working on instinct, memory and the pleasure of woodland. Auxiliaries who almost completely ignored the approach and, familiar with the territory, sought the answer. At that time they appreciated, not for their morphology, but for the skills demonstrated on the hunting ground. They were a favorite of hunters in our countryside, as they routinely hunted in the same area and the compelling work in the fields made them waste no time. Today a careful selection has safeguarded some strains and made them more complete. Speaking with friends who hunt with the hare, usually clever in response, they have no difficulty in admitting that the best they remember were those who knew how to approach it. This hound, in our "rustling" jargon, is less tied to the track, which it uses as a simple orientation. It is a drier dog of voice and, when faced with a tangle in a groundbait or a phallus, it astutely tries to understand the behavior of the wild and to overcome it, going to put its nose, with knowledge of the facts, in the points where it will be. more likely to resume the track. By working more with intuition, it does not always arrive at the exit of a phallus and for this we will see it return several times to the point where it has not resolved. With a hound of this type, it can happen that, even when the solution is close to being resolved with a meticulous olfactory research, its instinct leads it to expand. Some hounds deceive us for their passion to search, but this is insufficient to find the hare: the hound "takes little place" as our old hare said. In order for the hound to be able to reach the hare's lair, he must work on an eagle subject to atmospheric alterations, which can diminish or favor its perception. The experience, although important, cannot make up for the intelligence of the hound who, to be complete, once he has arrived in response must be able to find. 
Those who doubt the existence of the answer show little dog salt, because it is precisely from this particular behavior of the hare that the finder understands that he is near the wild and looks for the lair of this. Complete hounds such as the ones I intended to describe are rare, but the hunter who has been lucky enough to have them will remember them for life and will be valid references for those he will have to train and judge later. The skill of a subject is evident in the solution of the fouls because even a mediocre hound manages to get on the hare on a pass that does not present difficulties. Instead, it is precisely when he is busy solving a difficult foul, and is not helped by the sense of smell, otherwise he would give a voice, that he shows off his intelligence, an element that in every hunting practice makes the difference. However, a good houndist can achieve excellent results, making several subjects work together, in this way, in fact, he can obtain from the group those qualities that the extraordinary dog possesses alone. In the nineties, I flanked an adult female with a young puppy from our Apennines. A promising "young man" who from the first months showed a great passion for hunting. Already in the first year he found almost all the hares of the season, so much so that we were under the illusion of having a phenomenon in our hands. His gait belied a saying often repeated by the old hare: "the hare is not in a hurry." The following year that female passed away, but during the training period she managed to chase the same of the hares and gave us hope. Once the hunting season began and the easy hares disappeared, we did nothing more. Having met the eagle, his passion drove him to rummage everywhere, but he never managed to get to the hare's den. To overcome this handicap there was only to try to put another person alongside him again, so as to recreate the working conditions of the previous year. Instead of opting for the safer solution, I decided to only carry him throughout the hunting season and eventually he reached maturity earlier and more than I expected, and I knew he would make a great dog. He calmed down and began to take the past into account. Hunting in a territory that I knew well, I called him many times where I assumed he had left the hare: his successes and his intelligence did the rest. The following year I joined him with a subject with slightly different work characteristics (he was more than in the past) and I formed one of the best couples I have ever seen working. They were subjects at the pinnacle of excellence, skilled at work both in pairs and singles. This experience, like other similar ones, convinced me how fundamental also the single training is because, if I had supported him with another subject capable of avoiding the past, he would have made it as before but certainly he would not have had that experience that made him a big hound.
Now let's go back to a little more recent times. Leafing through the pages of my diary, I found some days that seem significant to me. I propose them again as I wrote them, without frills and embellishments
«September 2, 2009» During the training period, together with a dear friend, I went out with the dogs in Romagna. A hound of mine made an excellent juxtaposition and great chase, while my friend's hounds raised three hares in acceptable chases in the same time frame, bearing in mind that we are just starting out. His honesty got him doting on my hound's job, yet if the hunt had been open, his game bag would have been fatter than mine. Bravo Guerrino, our passion goes far beyond the game bag ». November 16, 2009 A hare has been seen several times on the edge of the last houses in the village, on the road leading to the houses up the hill. I too met her just outside the gate of my house. I have always preferred to hunt hare in other territories, but last night I met Antonio in town and, even if it was not my plans to go hunting this morning, talking to him we decided to try to hunt that hare. In order to best cover the area, it would take another one stationed at the top of the hill, right on the edge of the reserve. For this reason I phoned Franco, who will also be in the game. As it was a poor season for hares, teams of hares have hunted this one as well. A "village" owl as she hangs out on the edge of the houses. Despite having valid dogs, those who have tried have not been able to find her, so I do not think she is an easy hare. When the hunting law allowed it, this was an area frequented by local hunters. They set out on foot and released their dogs as soon as they passed the last houses. They often found the hare in the wood of the Pieve or in the ridge that supports the road, now paved. When the day is well done, without a gun, I dissolve in the vineyard and it doesn't take long for the hound to meet. From what he says it is a good past and is skirting the vineyard downstream, along the path that passes a few meters from the houses of the village. The dog proceeds confidently: I see him pause, the pass has stopped, with a circle he hangs up along a row and goes upwards. The hare wandered from one row to the other until it reached the road, also paved, which passes on top of the vineyard. A small ridge separates this road from the one that passes just above. The dog arrived here takes a short distance and comes back. I see him sniffing all the paths that roe deer have done in crossing this ridge. He pauses, emits a scagno, climbs into the dirt: he has found where the hare left the road. The hound's attitude becomes circumspect, he thinks he's on the hare. I observe him closely: he gives a few scagni and with his head held high he searches all the ravines where the hare might have crouched. When he enters a small patch of green in the villa I think he is about to splash, but nothing. The dog passed up the street. I go up the ridge and see him making the side of the road. He has made it to the parking lot of the villa, but has not hung up and is walking back. I will not try to make him insist on those spots, I saw how he sifted them and I have faith in the great finder: he has shown me several times that he is smart and he cannot have left the hare there. Upstream there is a path that leads to a house, it also makes a stretch of this but does not hang up. On returning to the road I see him pause near the intersection; here, above the wall, is the net of a small abandoned enclosure. Go back a few meters, it seems to have detected. He's just wagging his tail, go up the wall and enter this enclosure. After about ten meters, he begins to give voice to it again; I have no doubts, it will be a matter of little and the hare will have to leave the lair. After a while I hear the scream of the scovo. It comes towards me, but about fifty meters away it deviates upwards and passes into another hole in the net that is upstream. The canizza is safe and exhilarating, it doesn't take long for me to hear Franco's shots at the top of the hill. A nice shot ends the life of this crafty mugger. It's an old hare who chose this place to recover. Only a skilled hound, working with the utmost concentration, managed to find her, not being fooled by the false answer she had made in the ridge below the road. It is a time when the dog has proved his worth.
Text and photos by Antonio Becchi
… Read the article in Pdf format taken from DIANA N ° 8/2010
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