Hound

Hounds are a type of recurring wolf-like beasts that spawn periodically in packs. When they spawn, their aggressiveness will be set on the player and they will move towards them, regardless of range. Hounds will completely ignore meat and prioritize the player. They take two blasts from the Ice Staff to be frozen.

The player will be warned of incoming hounds by sounds of heavy breathing and growling. Also, the character will say "Did you hear that?" after hounds start growling. Hound attacks are not affected by any in-game actions, such as setting up a permanent camp or fire. Hounds will not spawn more often than every 3 days. There is also a chance for Red Hounds to spawn depending on the day. Further into the game, more Hounds attack more often (see section). Red Hounds are replaced with Blue Hounds during Winter

It is hard to run away from Hounds, since they move faster than the player. If the player manages to get far away, the Hounds will stop chasing and instead slowly wander towards the player. Other Mobs, such as Pigs will attack the Hounds on sight.

Spawning
Note that due to the way the game spawns mobs, it is possible for individual Hound spawning to sometimes fail due to them spawning in invalid locations, such as ocean tiles, resulting in less Hounds spawned.

Trivia

 * if you can run around enough to make the hounds make the barking action, and it is night, they will go to sleep, thus giving you some time to prepare. note: try and run around your fire or you may risk being attacked by the Night Monster and also because you can't see when the hounds go to sleep.