Hunting dogs around the world

[UKRay]

I've had working dogs, on and off, all my life. My dad and I were both keen shooters (before the law changed and it became virtually impossible to own a gun in the UK) so the place always had one or two Labrador retrievers stinkin' the place up.

I moved on to keep running dogs (lurchers) for many years and finally provided a home to a pack of working Border terriers. The pack has now dwindled to one very old lady who now contents herself with hunting mice in the garden so it is time to cast an eye around for the next generation.

I've heard of all kinds of hunting dogs but so many are local to a small area so I have no idea what they look like or how they work. It would be interesting to hear from some of the hunting dog owners around the world and perhaps see a few pictures of their dogs at work. I'm very keen to hear about coon dogs and Australian heelers but there are just so many I haven't heard of.

Hope to see a few good pictures and hear some fine hunting stories.

Ray

[dustin29]

I've had working dogs, on and off, all my life. My dad and I were both keen shooters (before the law changed and it became virtually impossible to own a gun in the UK) so the place always had one or two Labrador retrievers stinkin' the place up.

I moved on to keep running dogs (lurchers) for many years and finally provided a home to a pack of working Border terriers. The pack has now dwindled to one very old lady who now contents herself with hunting mice in the garden so it is time to cast an eye around for the next generation.

I've heard of all kinds of hunting dogs but so many are local to a small area so I have no idea what they look like or how they work. It would be interesting to hear from some of the hunting dog owners around the world and perhaps see a few pictures of their dogs at work. I'm very keen to hear about coon dogs and Australian heelers but there are just so many I haven't heard of.

Hope to see a few good pictures and hear some fine hunting stories.

Ray

Hello Ray, My name is Dustin, and I am from the NorthEastern United States. Maine to be exact. Here we use all different type of hound dogs for Coon, Black Bear, and Bobcat hunting. My freinds use mostly English hound dogs, due to the fact that they are a great all around hound dog. They have good noses on them and are just the right amount of aggressive. If you get a dog that is too aggressive than theres a good chance they will not make it through too many Bear hunts. Black and Tans are another good hound, but are very stubborn dogs. Plot hounds have a good nose but are very aggressive hound dog. We have found English hounds to be the right mix for hunting bear or coon in our area.

[TexasJack]

In Texas, Labradors are the most common hunting dogs. They love the water, love retrieving, and can tolerate the weather.

[Spence]

I guess you could call mine hunting dogs - of a sort. German Shepherds, trained to hunt humans - good, bad and missing. I've even got a couple that do quite well against coyotes. One hunts drugs and explosives.

[Crystal]

I just adore the English Springer Spaniels. Although we never hunted with ours, they have been great house dogs that aren't afraid to get dirty. They were easy to train (or we were easy for them to train), love people, hate squirrels, and are toy obsessed. Got to have a ball, stuffed animal, sock or whatever else is near to carry in their mouths. They both have been extremely expressive dogs. First one was bench bred, second was field and bench.

Our vet reccomended to look for UK lines in our next one to avoid some of the common health issues such as: hip dyslpasia, eye problems and skin allergies. They do require some grooming and do need exercise.

No pictures of Suzie in action. But this is one of her doing the job she likes best: Being man's best friend.

Crystal

[Vikti]

No pictures of Suzie in action. But this is one of her doing the job she likes best: Being man's best friend.

Crystal

Is that a picture of a boy and his dog or a dog and her boy?

Very pretty dog though.

Damon

[Hilly]

Upland bird hunting calls for versatile gun dogs. German Wirehaired Pointers are our choice. They are very tough, with thick wirey coats that protect them from the toughest cover. Here's a photo of "Luke" our 8 year old GWP that I took a while out hunting. This is also the dog in my avitar.

[hidepounder]

Ray,

The only hunting dogs we've ever been around were leopard Catahoulas...........they just hunt cows! At the moment we have an ACD.....he is one of the smartest and most fun dogs we've ever owned.

Bobby

Edited September 8, 2009 by hidepounder

[rawhide1]

I was waiting to see if the catahoulas showed up. We have one and she s the most hard headed dog I've ever seen! We haven't trained her to do anything but eat. Although shes hell on moles. There aren't a whole lot of them in Ks. Mostly around here you'll see Labs,heelers, Aus. sheperds and various coon dogs.

Mike

[UKRay]

Now this is all very interesting stuff for someone who has never even seen a coon dog and has no idea what they look like, what they do or how they do it - I understand it all happens after dark. Is this correct?

Those leopard catahoulas look pretty robust little fellas, Bob. Cow dogs eh? Where do they originate from? I understand the Australians have a few specialist cow dogs they like to shout about...

We get plenty of GWPs over here, Hilly, and Springer Spaniels are everywhere in the UK.

Spence, you might like to check out a customer of mine: www.a1k9.co.uk They train personal defence dogs and get a lot of their dogs from Eastern Europe - those are a whole lot different from the average German Shepherd. Not to be messed with!

I was interested to hear that English hounds have found a home in the US. I have spent a lot of time in various hunt kennels in the UK and have always been fascinated by the incredible pedigrees some of these animals have - going back more than 100 years in some cases.

I have never heard of a Plot hound - what do they look like?

Ray

[rdb]

Here's my Catahoula, Lucy..smartest, best damn dog I ever had...she's old now, but in her day...Wife says we'll never own another kind of dog!

Plus, a typical Southern trio (just for laughs...no insults meant...remember I live down here)

[dewagumo]

I have japanese akita inu, English cocker spaniel and a shepherd belge.cocker and akita have a good hunting instinct.

http://www.akita-shinsen-en.com/

[oldtimer]

In Sweden moose hunting is big business. When hunting moose you need a dog that barks the moose to a stand still, and the hunter sneaks up to the moose and ( hopingly) gets a clean shot. The breed mostly used is named Jämthund, an old breed specially bred for moosehunting. Did you know that 83 000 ( eightythree thousand) moose were killed during the 2008 hunting season in Sweden ?

A pic of a JÄMTHUND

Edited September 18, 2009 by oldtimer

[oldtimer]

This was my late dog Jack ( left me aug -08) a Bayerishe gebirg Schweisshund ( Bavarian mountain tracking dog) which I used for tracking wounded game ( roedeer and moose).

( In Sweden you are not allowed to hunt hoofed game without a dog especially trained for tracking wounded game)

He also had the ability to bark at moose so I used him for active moose hunting.

The speciality for this breed is tracking. Once he managed to track down a wounded bull moose 27 hours after the shot. Two hours job. I miss Jack very much as he had a great personality and was a very good hunting partner!

Pics of Jack himself, and Jack barking at a moose cow back of my house a fine summer day

/ Knut

Edited September 18, 2009 by oldtimer

[dustin29]

Yes Ray coon hunting happens at night? We used to hunt in corn fields that had been recently chopped. We would let the dogs out of the truck and they would pick up a hot track and the chase would start. The chase ussually only went a mile at the most, and then the coon would run up a tree and the dogs would jump around the bottom of the tree barking, to let us know they had done their job. The type of bark when they were tracking was different to the treeing bark. Coon hunting is very exciting.

[terrahyd]

In this part of texas we use ridge back of the 125lb class. Lotts of big wild hogs .....ours looks like a lion , loves kids

[UKRay]

That picture of Jack and the moose is something else, Oldtimer! I really like the look of the Bayerishe gebirg Schweisshund. A 'no messing' sort of a dog.

The ridgebacks we see over here are the Rhodesian Ridgebacks bred for lion hunting in Africa, Terrahyd - is this the same breed?

Okay,Dustin29, so you chased the coon for a mile and it ran up a tree - now how do you get the coon out of the tree (shoot it?) and what do you do with it then?

Ray

[dustin29]

Yeah we shoot them out, then skin them and sell the hide. Or sometimes we let them live to run another night.

[terrahyd]

That picture of Jack and the moose is something else, Oldtimer! I really like the look of the Bayerishe gebirg Schweisshund. A 'no messing' sort of a dog.

The ridgebacks we see over here are the Rhodesian Ridgebacks bred for lion hunting in Africa, Terrahyd - is this the same breed?

Okay,Dustin29, so you chased the coon for a mile and it ran up a tree - now how do you get the coon out of the tree (shoot it?) and what do you do with it then?

Ray

YES THE SAME BREED AS YOURS . OURS SLEEPS WITH A CAT RAISED TOGATHER FROM BIRTH. ITS HIS [CHU TOY] DON"T EVEN THINK ABOUT SPANKING ONE OF THE GRANDKIDS .....HE AIN"T HAVE"N ANY. LATER.doc

[oldtimer]

That picture of Jack and the moose is something else, Oldtimer! I really like the look of the Bayerishe gebirg Schweisshund. A 'no messing' sort of a dog.

The ridgebacks we see over here are the Rhodesian Ridgebacks bred for lion hunting in Africa, Terrahyd - is this the same breed?

Okay,Dustin29, so you chased the coon for a mile and it ran up a tree - now how do you get the coon out of the tree (shoot it?) and what do you do with it then?

Ray

Yes Ray, no messing around with a Bayerischer dog, very tough little dogs. They are like Dr jekyll and mr Hyde. Jack was the most lovely creature to have as a pet indoors, the kindest dog you can imagine - and when working, a real killer. If a wounded deer was on the run I just let him free and the deer was sent to the evergreen pastures in no time at all. One of my friends had a Bayerische bitch, about 24 kilos of dog, and she caught a wounded bull moose by his upper lip ( too big to kill!) and held him. The bull was shot with the dog hanging from the snout of the moose.

Jack was tested and approved for tackling wounded bear too. Who´s afraid of a big angry bear , even if you weigh only 25 kilos?

Edited September 19, 2009 by oldtimer