Blue Lacy Information & Dog Breed Facts

The Blue Lacy is an indigenous American breed, which can trace its origins back to Texas in the United States of America, to the middle of the 19^th century.

The Blue Lacy was created by the Lacy family’s brothers named, George, Frank, Ewin, and Harry. Their family moved from Kentucky to Hill Country Texas in 1858. They wanted to develop a new breed with the intention of working with the hogs that were roaming freely. Despite the fact that we know exactly the place, the time, and the creators of the Blue Lacy, due to the lack of documentation and records, the initial breeding mix is unknown. Although, some documents are suggesting that the English Shepherd, the Greyhound, some scent-hounds, and even a wild wolf were involved in the original gene pool. Regarding the environment, it is also presumable that a coyote has gotten into the cross as well. Eventually, the Lacy family managed to develop a new breed, which was known under a variety of names back in the 19^th century, including Lacy Hog Dog, Lacy Cur, or Lacy Dog.

The Lacy Blue quickly became well-esteemed in Texas and in the surrounding States. The brothers created a breed that was well-suited to the harsh climate and environment of the Southern States, and which was able to herd free-roaming cattle and hogs, able to hunt a wide variety of prey like wild hogs, wild boar, squirrel, raccoons, and deer, tree smaller prey, and also serve as a property guard, watching over the homestead. The dogs got especially renewed after their capability to herd and drive huge groups of livestock over long distances, from the farms and ranches to the markets. The Blue Lacy was considered very trainable, intelligent, fast, and tirelessly hardworking. Despite their popularity among the farmer community in Texas, the breed was considered to be a rare one in the United States. Even though the Blue Lacy was in high demand among ranch owners in the Southern States for many decades, with the revolution and advancement of agriculture and farming machines, and with the decreasing popularity of smallholder farming, the Blue Lacy got to the brink of extinction quickly. Fortunately, the breed’s unquestionable herding, hunting, tracking, and retrieving capabilities and impressive speed and stamina ensured the dogs’ revival.

In spite of their long and extensive history, the breed was recognized relatively late, in 2001 by the Texas Senate, as an indigenous breed to the State. Shortly after that, the Blue Lacy was named by Governor Rick Perry, Texas’s official state dog, in 2005. This nomination was not just to honor the Lacy family, but to honor the Blue Lacy’s contribution to trade and farming in Texas, in the 19^th century, before any major technological changes. Nowadays, the Blue Lacy still remained in rarity, even in the United States of America. In the modern days, the breed’s roles have changed, the dogs are mostly used in sports like agility, flyball, and obedience. Yet, most commonly they are used in the sport called “trapping”, which is a controversial method of trapping animals in man-made traps, where the dogs’ role is to alert the hunters. The Blue Lacy is still not recognized by the major kennel clubs, however, the AKC (American Kennel Club) recently accepted the breed into their Foundation Stock.