With International Dog Day just behind us, it seems only fitting to celebrate the rarest of the rare: the otterhound, Britain’s most endangered native breed. Fewer than 1,000 survive worldwide, with only 42 puppies registered with the Kennel Club last year, making them rare than a snow leopard.

These large, rough-coated hounds were first bred in medieval England, when rivers teemed with salmon and trout and otters were considered a serious threat to fish stocks. Equipped with webbed feet for swimming, oily double coats to withstand icy waters and noses so keen they can follow a scent up to 72 hours old, otterhounds were the ultimate specialist hunters. Their dense, water-resistant coats — which come in black and tan, black and blue, grizzle and white, liver and tan, particolour, red grizz

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