Bavarian Mountain Hound

d0nni

Well-Known Member
So I'm taking the plunge and getting a BMH. I think I'm going to get a bitch, but are there any distinct differences in character in the bitch and the dog I should maybe be concerned about? (apart from the obvious!!) wild excited either way. Watched my friends doing a hunt one lucky day and was blown away by it.

Now the process of how do I go about training it, I'm obviously going to do the usual sit, stay, come, bed etc for manners. But as for blood tracking etc what would be the best methods of getting her started?

Age to start? Lengths of trails etc

Any advice is much welcome
 
No way am I any sort of expert, indeed nothing could be further from the truth. I have a BMH cross Lab. I started her off with short walks with me, with a rifle and it went from there. Now age 3 she sents well, points out deer and very good at finding dead deer, and is pretty happy sitting beside me waiting for something to come out . A lot of it is her natural instincts. I laid a number of trails early on with a treat at the end. Also every time we shot something I would encourage her to track it. If needs be I would leave her out of sight and then go and drag the deer 50 yards. She did her first real track in anger aged 6 months.

The secret is not to try to hard, make it a game, and when out stalking do short stints - ten minutes - before having a bit a stop and play etc. For the first 18 months at least, forget about actually trying to shoot anything - anything you do is a bonus.

Have a read through some of my posts - I picked up many useful tips from people on here. Plus ignored a number of others.
 
Get yourself of niels sondergaards book read that and read it again. That should give you a good idea of where to start. I would ignore 99% of the crap you will be told on here....
 
Still have a bitch BMH, although she is getting on a bit now, and rescued from a broken home. Had a dog BMH (Todd) for 11 years. There is a vast difference between dogs and bitched in this breed. I have seen other bitches and they are in my opinion very different from the dogs.

If you are going to stalk red and Sika in Ireland I would advise getting a dog. Good luck.
 
Straightbetweentheeyes Thanks for the advice. ill have a look and see if i can find a copy somewhere

sikamalc the majority of my stalking is fallow deer. Could you elaborate a bit more as to how they are so different?
 
hi before you purchase I would tell you to ask yourself do you do enough stalking to justify having a bmh, they need to get regular work.
 
hi before you purchase I would tell you to ask yourself do you do enough stalking to justify having a bmh, they need to get regular work.

I'm out 2/3 times a week during the stalking season. All day saturday/sunday, along with a good few evenings during the week when the weather/time/work permits me too. she will definitely get the regular work she requires.
 
In my own opinion, everyone I have seen and dealt with (bitch) goes bonkers when its in a truck and anyone gets near the truck. They all chew like you would not believe, the bitches are the best escape artists for a dog that size, believe me you had better have a well built run.

As a breed they are loving and very faithful, but to my mind the dogs are more tolerant of a telling off, all the bitches I have seen tend to well over react. It is easy to break them, so you must be patient and careful. But for a blood spooring dog they are hard to beat in my opinion.

They need working, they get bored easily, if you don't have the time, don't get one.
 
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