Lurchers ARE HOUNDS!!! Controversial

They don't have KC registration it is true but neither do racing greyhounds and threads about THEM stay in this category!The help I'm seeking is more likely to be found here in the Hounds department!
Anyone who thinks lurchers should NOT be categorised as Hounds?

I'd class them as hounds too, given what they're generally bred for!

Lurchers are crossbreeds.

Lurchers are Sighthound x pastoral/terrier (Grey x BC).
Longdogs are Sight hound x sighthound (Saluki x grey).

Therefore Lurchers are not hounds.

Longdogs are mostly (verbal laziness) classed as lurchers - as I have called Mouse a lurcher while strictly speaking she's a longdog (whippet x saluki)
Both types however are sighthounds.
If you want to get pedantic,racing greys are lurchers too - they were crossed with bull terriers in the not too far distant past..

If you want to get really pedantic - all dogs are crosses

I can see a longdog being classed as a hound because they have two sighthounds that make them but not lurchers.
I think if you cross over into different groups then it is a cross.
Louie is a gundog cross - lab x ESS but I still post in the gundog section because he is two parts gundog breeds.
Lurchers are one part hound, one part another breed, or indeed more than one part another breed.

I'm sure I don't have to tell you that Lurchers were formed because only the rich could own pure greys, and when the poor could they would cross these greys with their farm yard collies and terriers in order to have something that fast do the same job but without the pricetag.

With the mix always necessitating a greyhound or whippet, I would say defo "hound".

Well, I guess this being moved into the crossbreed section answers that question...

You're not entirely right about the origin of lurchers.Although it is true that a "common man might not own a greyhound less two toes be struck off his hind feet"(the hound's feet not the man!)the lurcher was bred for poaching.Then as now sighthounds are not famous for their recall and while poaching a dog needed to return to its master reliably and fast should the game warden appear.A touch of non hound blood in the mix was thought to facilitate this - only a touch though as the speed of the HOUND is diminished by too much 'outside' genes.

No,it just means a stubborn and inconsiderate mod!

Lurchers are hounds IMO!!!!!
I have had two rescues and have always called them HOUNDS!!!

Lurchers are crossbreeds, period!

I think the clue might just be in the name ... greyHOUND?

Yes but a Lurcher is anything crossed with a Greyhound, so a crossbreed. technically a cross between two sight-hounds is a longdog but its still a crossbreed.

Of course it is a crossbreed, but to classify it as a hound-type is accurate. Just as I would classify my dogs as northern-breed types, or your borders as terriers, or labradors as gundogs.

But Labs ARE Gundogs, Borders ARE Terriers, your dog is a "type" and so is the Lurcher. End of the day, does it matter?:?

No!! I love lurchers and I suspect you do too! I am just being my usual argumentative self v

I think lurchers are more hound than anything but if the hound category is for pure hounds then I can play in both with my grey and my lurcher hound. At the end of the day does it matter , ty to the romanys for beating the gentry rules about hound ownership all those years ago and breeding lurchers, sure brings a lotta smiles to my life !! ;-)

It matters in this instance as I need help to trace the owners of 2 lurchers.If they're posted anywhere it'll be on HOUND sites.The people on Dogsey most likely to know where I can find these sites funnily enough are the HOUND lovers.I wouldn't look in this section for info on lurchers...

Mee too!!

Ah, you see, I know you so well!!