Hienz variety for me please!!!

I have been reading with interest some of the threads regarding best dogs for stalking and would like to add my own thoughts to the mix. Since i began stalking for a living I have had several dogs, the first was a Springer Spaniel then a Black Lab and more recently a GWP. All have had their redeeming features. About 18 months ago my wife phoned me and asked if she could take home a puppy which had been offered to her by a farmer, free to a good home. The pup was a Rottie/Collie cross and I thought she would be just another potlicker. However she began to show an interest in deer brought home to the larder and when she was about a year old I thought I would take her out with me stalking. What a revelation!! I can honestly say that she is far and away the best deer dog I have ever had and takes her work very seriously whilst remaining a lovely natured pet, full of fun and very playful. Just goes to show that it's not all about traditional gun dog breeds, it's worth trying something different, sometimes you can just get lucky.
 
I can echo that. Gadget and I have between us, two GWPs and a Vizsla, all from stalking pedigrees and having had some degree of training on deer etc. Ironically, the most reliable and enthusiastic deer tracker we have is Punch, G's barking mad bull Lurcher / Springer Spaniel cross (the unfortunate result of some poor kennel security). He's like a guided missile on fallen deer, albeit best worked on a long lead as he'll follow a wounded deer from Aberdeen to Kent...

On the downside, even after three years, Punch and I still disagree over who has the greatest claim to the front passenger seat in the Disco and he has a disconcerting habit of randomly dumping bits of dismembered deer in your lap, having retrieved them from his various hiding places in the back of the truck. One day I'll persuade G that dog cages are a good idea...

A.
 
All dogs have the nose to track any animal that walks this planet. The difference between them is the brain. Some pedigree dogs are so highly bred they lack common sense (a bit like the aristocracy). I made a name for myself breeding specialist working dogs for the police.

I was the first breeder to come out of the UK pedigree system and the first to introduce Dutch non pedigree police dogs to the UK and the first to produce Dutch Herder x Malinois as working dogs in the UK.

I have often thought of crossing my very highly bred HWV to another breed but there is so much snobbery regarding pedigrees that it takes a special kind of owner to appreciate what has been done and why it has been done.

There is a big differance between crossing two dogs to make a labradoodle or cockerpoo and crossing two dogs to make a good working animal.


Ian
 
Best dogs I ever had, for shooting, were ESS cross collie, did everything from guard dog to wildfowling.
 
Back
Top