Chief (Disney)

"Smelling and tracking ain't enough. Ya gotta think NASTY!! Heh!"

- Chief to Copper.

Chief is the secondary antagonist of Disney's 24th full-length animated feature film The Fox and the Hound, and a minor character in its 2006 midquel The Fox and the Hound 2. He is an Irish Wolfhound who is Amos' older pet.

In the first film, he was voiced by the late Pat Buttram, who also played the Sheriff of Nottingham in Disney's Robin Hood. In the midquel, he was voiced by Rob Paulsen.

Personality
Chief is usually mean, cunning, manipulative, treacherous and a bit short-tempered. Even though he used to hate Tod in a passionate manner and tried to kill him (along with his master Amos Slade), he was always nice to Copper and was kind of like his foster father and mentor like Shadow.

The Fox and the Hound
Chief is one of Amos Slade's hunting dogs. Even though he was at first initially dismissive of the young puppy that Amos intends to train as a hunting dog, he developed a liking to the hound puppy named Copper, and becomes a surrogate father figure to him. Chief usually stays around his doghouse for the first part of the movie, but is responsible for chasing Tod when the fox comes to see his best friend Copper.

Later, Chief accompanies Amos and Copper on a winter long hunting trip. Chief teaches Copper many things about hunting. By springtime, Copper is now fully grown and a trained hunting dog, and has actually topped Chief, much to the Trigg hound's chagrin. That night, even though Copper revels in his success, Chief notes that Copper's tracking skills are not enough to be a good hunting dog, and that Copper must learn to think nasty.

When Tod (who is also fully grown) returns to see Copper that night, Chief wakes up and alerts Amos to the fox's arrival and the two try to kill Tod. Even though Copper allows Tod to run away, Chief spots him and chases Tod onto a railroad track. Chief is hit by an incoming train, while Tod ducks under the vehicle. Though Chief survives, he is hurt real bad and left with a broken leg. Chief tries to milk his injury to regain Amos' attention, but Amos sees through Chief's attempts and tells him to go back to his room before he breaks his other leg, and Chief does so and limps back to his room, whimpering.

Chief is not seen again until the end of the film where he and Copper watch as Amos gets his injured leg bandaged by Widow Tweed, Tod's former owner. At the end of the film, it is implied that his animosity towards Tod perpetually faded after he saved Amos and Copper from the bear.

The Fox and the Hound 2
In The Fox and the Hound 2, Chief has very few lines. At the beginning, Chief is seen interacting with a young Copper. Copper describes him as the best hunting dog in the whole county, even though Chief has only won fourth place in the county fair.

Later on, Dixie tells a young Tod to go wake Chief up and have him chase him down to the circus. Tod then goes into Chief's barrel and bites the wolfhound mix on the ear, and he hits his head on the top of his barrel and sees Tod, who then blows a raspberry at Chief. This results in the vicious wolfhound angrily chasing the little fox to the big top circus. His barking noises and voice in this film is performed by Rob Paulsen.

It is unknown what happened to Chief after those events. However, he is seen during the final "We Go Together", first chasing Tod and Copper, but gets chased himself by crickets and trips over apples along with Slade and Tweed.

Trivia

 * Originally, Chief was to be killed by the train and therefore justify Copper's revenge on Tod. However, for the same reasons as Trusty, the producers decided it would be too intense for kids. So, they made Chief live and have a broken leg instead.
 * Chief is an Irish Wolfhound, the same breed as Sparky from Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure.
 * Chief's barks are recycled sound effects by Old Yeller from the movie of the same name.
 * Like his owner, he and Chief have the same eyebrows.