The Coconut Hound

With subtitle or not?

Now I am sure that most people have not come across this particular rare breed. It is not to be found in any Book of Dogs and it certainly is not recognised by the Kennel Club. To the best of my knowledge, it only exists on the island of St Lucia in the West Indies and is only spotted during the tourist season.

I was living on the island in the early 80s and therefore have a unique insight into the origins of this rather special creature.

When I was there I was regularly asked by tourists, mostly American, “What sort of dog is that”? The answer I had was as follows.

“As you can see a number of the palm trees don’t grow straight up, they lean, this is where the coconut hound comes into his element. They run up the trunk of the tree, reach the coconut, headbutt the coconut, the coconut falls to the ground and the little boy catches them. This particular dog is an excellent specimen. In fact one of the best I have seen and if you want to give me your camera I can take a photograph of you and the coconut hound, and you can show the folks back home.”

Yes, you’ve guessed it, I had a mischievous streak in me in my younger years and I was amazed at the number of times that the story was believed.

At that time there were hardly any pedigree dogs on the island other than those brought in by expatriates.

It has occurred to me that there must be a number of homes in the United States that have photographs of coconut hounds in their albums.

I hereby publicly apologise for the misdemeanours from my youth and if you are ever on the island of St Lucia and you are introduced to a coconut hound, you will say…….well I’ll leave that for you!I