Drevers
- Thread starter mchughcb
- Start date
Drevers probably sit in the same category as Alpine Dachsbracke, quite a lot of interest but.....the speciality is driving big game, generally over significant areas. Both our laws and, in much of the country, our landscape don't really lend themselves to this style of hunting.
The working bred teckel has a very strong desire to drive game and will keep going for many miles. While the teckel is popular in the UK, in much of our country the breeds desire to own a line until conclusion can cause some trouble - in many counties you cannot go one mile in any direction without crossing a busy road, not to mention land/permission boundaries.
I have known people purchase teckels and believe they will behave like a terrier - then ask....." How do I stop them hunting on into the distance?" or even more popular "What is the best GPS tracker for my teckel?"
Deep research into breed character and more importantly, the character of a bloodline is always useful.
The working bred teckel has a very strong desire to drive game and will keep going for many miles. While the teckel is popular in the UK, in much of our country the breeds desire to own a line until conclusion can cause some trouble - in many counties you cannot go one mile in any direction without crossing a busy road, not to mention land/permission boundaries.
I have known people purchase teckels and believe they will behave like a terrier - then ask....." How do I stop them hunting on into the distance?" or even more popular "What is the best GPS tracker for my teckel?"
Deep research into breed character and more importantly, the character of a bloodline is always useful.
Jagare
Well-Known Member
Interesting Video. Shame its in Swedish as it describes roe hunting with a drever or tax ( teckle) perfectly. Its said you need a minimum of 120 acres of land to hunt a teckel or drever. It would be perfectly feasable to hunt roe with a tekel or drever in the UK. The drever, a dog that has a look in its eyes that its going to bite you. A chap at work has one that he takes for a walk at tea breaks and dinner times on a bit of grass at the side of the factory parking. He always has the dog muzzled. Strange as he will never meet a nother dog or person. A properly trained teckel or driver should not cover huge areas of ground. With teckles and drevers they must love you if you have one that only tolerates you your phuckt. Now lets hear a thousand excuses why this form of hunting won't work in the UK. Believe me its great fun.
I agree, it looks like terrific fun. On each of my previous stalking grounds I would certainly be concerned about roads - On one Estate the A14 borders much of the land and a railway line cuts through a section of it. On the second Estate the largest block of woodland I had was 30 acres - the rest was made up of a number of coverts barely scraping more than a couple of acres each.
I know that some teckels are marvelous at bringing the game to the shooting stand or high seat. I also know of others that push on, driving their quarry forwards into the line of waiting Guns - this latter type is not so much of a problem in vast tracts of forest of a few hundred acres- all owned by one landowner - but, personally, I would have thought this could be tricky on smaller areas as mentioned above. I would love to see it done though - all for giving it a go.
As for a teckel that must love their handler...I agree 100%. The good thing is they naturally WANT to love their handler and it is only a poor owner that cannot cement this very close bond.
Jagare
Well-Known Member
Roads can be a problem but I've stalked on plenty of ground in the UK where you could hunt roe with a teckel. You would not want fallow on the ground but I've been on a fallow hunt in a enclosed area where one dog, a teckle was used.
When you hunt roe with a short legged dog the roe don't get stressed and they will run in circles as described in the video. Its about knowing your ground and where the roe are going to break out. They often use the same exits and can be reasonably predictable.
My late Teckel would walk down the forest with me and only start hunting once i had put his radio tracking collar on. If he did not find roe he would come back and find me and we would move on to another part of the forest. Its surprising how close the dog will pick up a roe and start hunting.
It is a change in mind-set I think, especially as many of us are used to rough-shooting/beating dogs that rarely work more that 50 metres away. The very first time one of my teckels demonstrated spurlaut on a hare trail, I was initially annoyed as it was so different to what we are used to.
I remember telling the German breeder and explaining that I actually saw the hare two fields away and the young bitch followed the trail directly to where I had seen the hare and continued on the trail into the distance, giving great voice all the way. The breeder was delighted! Personally....I still find this habit annoying.
So....In a three acre wood, I put my teckel in and she starts to hunt and give voice. I do not know the predicted path and the roe soon slips out and bounds across the winter wheat. A minute later my teckel is in hot pursuit. I watch the two disappear across the field and into the next field. What happens next?
I do believe that this method really could be tried in the UK but, as per my first post, it would depend on the land. Unfortunately I do not think my own land is suitable.
Jagare
Well-Known Member
Its a bit unnerving when the dog takes of for the first time. 10 minutes with out the dog seems like hours. You have to do the, gubbe på stubbe = bloke on a stump. When the dog takes of you find a tree stump and sit on it till the dog comes back. Simple. See if you can Google translate, Injagningstips Tells how to train a teckle for hunting. A big mistake that many people make in this day and age of Garmin type tracking units is to go and collect the dog instead of waiting for the dog to come back to you.
I will take look
Drevers pretty popular here. I have hunted with them a few times, unfortunately without success as the dog pushed on too hard and the deer vacated the county. We let loose in the morning and the dog was still hunting at 6 pm. If I can persuade shmbo,my next dog will a teckle, better for roe as they are so slow that the deer have full control and don't vacate the hunting ground, but run in laps if not spooked by hunters on posts.
Drevers also prone to lung odema.....
Drevers also prone to lung odema.....
It is very interesting. It coincides with research I am doing on some Nordic lines and looking deeply into tracking, earth and driving tests. Border bolsters my point regarding ensuring one has enough woodland to make it viable. I can see a roe will be unwilling to leave a large block of woodland and will try to evade its pursuer within the trees but in our small spinneys of a couple of acres the roe would be racing across the arable fields in a minute.
However, it is one way to test spurlaut in the UK it also looks like really good fun but............(a) It would only be possible in some areas (b) Do we want to start a culture of shooting running deer in the UK? Yes, I know the deer will often stop and listen to see where the dog is coming from but often they don't and running targets are commonplace on the continent - hence their supremacy at recovering wounded deer. We have our own stalking/high seat culture in the UK that works and suits our landscape - the roads are only getting busier, the joggers and dog-walkers are more frequent and the villages keep expanding - currently UK stalkers carry out their duty pretty 'low-key', would we want to draw attention to ourselves?
I can see pros and cons - be interesting to see what other think.
mchughcb
Well-Known Member
Everytime we let the beagles loose in a few hundred acres we sit and shoot all the foxes. When the beagles stop voicing they come back generally to the car where they were started on unless the hunt is called off and we can put it on a lead and walk them back. My dachshunds will always come back generally after a few minutes so i never worry.
Firstly, thanks for putting up such an interesting video ( I like it so much I shared it on our FB page) the post makes for a great discussion. I might be wrong but I believe your dachshunds are largely show-bred? I've owned two show-bred (still have one) and, once I had tuned in to them, they became the most obedient and best-trained dogs I have owned - or at least equal to my Lab. I could walk them off the lead anywhere, including town. I could send them out to hunt/flush and call them back in. After a couple of years, I could stop them (with a loud growl) from chasing deer and hare. And yes, their noses are brilliant - I don't think show breeding took anything from their sense of smell.
My working bred dachshunds are different. They have a very strong desire to own a line - through hell or high water! I agree that in large woodland the dogs would come back after a while (not a couple of minutes though - more like 10 or 20 minutes if they were on a hot trail) but..............In small 1-3 acre woods they would simply chase the deer - roe or otherwise - out of the wood, out into arable fields and probably over boundaries or onto roads.
Yes, I think it could be a viable method for the UK but not for any area - it would be 'land specific'.
And you should be justly proud of the work that they do.
Jagare
Well-Known Member
You would certainly need the right bit of ground in UK to hunt roe with a Teckle. I can't see it catching on in the UK. It will have to be left to us on the continent to enjoy that kind of sport
. Another breed of dog that would be suitable is the Wachtel hund, a spaniel type dog with attitude. They will hunt for 10-20 minutes and then return to their owner. They are what we call, Roughly translated, short drive dogs. They will hunt roe, boar and anything else you want them to hunt plus quite handy for retrieving. I've even seen a few English springer spaniels used in the same way. Goes against the grain for me to have a ESP barking and chasing game though.
Ha ha ha exactly...It's that bloody mind-set thing. It has taken me time to see chasing game/following scent and giving continual voice is a 'good' thing.
Similar threads
