The best breed for the job?

jha74246

Member
Hi Everyone

This is only my second post on this forum but I have been reading posts regarding tracking dogs and see that Bavarians are very popular on this forum. I have German wirehairs and was always under the impression that they were the ultimate stalking dog although I use mine mainly for rough shooting and do little stalking. I know that everyone has their preferred breed for stalking but I just wondered what the advantages were of the Bavarians. Presumably they can't take on a wounded deer, so how do you work them? Can you train them in Bringsel reporting or are they like a teckel and would just disappear? Does anyone use them for rough shooting or are they too tuned in to deer to hunt for birds?

I will never have anything other than wirehairs but I am interested in all working breeds and know little about the Bavarians (in fact I hadn't even heard of them until last year). I would be interested in anyones opinion of their work.

Jackie
 
Hej, jha74246 The GWP are great dogs to train for tracking. The Bavarian
is a dog just for trackiing and very good they are
Its better to start a puppy on tracking training before you teach it to hunt birds. They don't seem so keen on tracking if they have hunted first. If you have already trained GWP before them the obedience side should be no problem for you.
Tracking on a lead gives you the chance to shoot a wounded deer without the dog courseing the wounded animal around the country side. But there are time when you need the dog to be able to pull down a wounded roe or fallow doe if it is not possible to get a finishing shot . A Bavarian will do that as well
Bringsel and Totverbeller ( staying with the dead animal and barking) can both be trained. Totverbeller is considered harder to train a dog to do.
There are a couple of good books available in the UK on training dogs to track. Don't forget Stones, dog for deer days.
I have just read a very good book by Mikael Tham (Eftersök på Klövvilt ) but it is only printed in Swedish. Its a no nonsense book on training dogs to track all hoofed game including boar.
 
I had a gut shot Roe Buck about four weeks ago that a client had taken with my friend. I was on the other side of the estate and by the time I got there with my Bavarian dog it was just about light enough to see the two men both standing at the edge of the wood, which is about 100 acres.

There was a handfull of grass from the guts and nothing else for the dog to track. Once in the wood he picked up the trail and I let him off the long lead and told him to find the deer. It was almost too dark to see inside the wood, but Todd found the buck bayed it and after I had got near enough as it tried to rise he grabbed it by the back of the neck. I pulled him off and dispatched the deer with a shot to the head.

Its at times like that, that you realise the need for a dog.
 
Well i dont know about you gentlemen ,granted at the end of the day a dog that can follow, back up, or pull down a wounded deer is to be cherished I believe that different breeds and in fact individuals within each breed excel at different disciplines depending on their temprement ie not all GWPs will make good Totverbellers. I Have trained two wires in the Bringsel discipline with good results and without a doubt it is very impressive to watch a dog carry out his work in this manner. However irrespective of the breed, any first class dog that i have ever came across, and there have been a number...have all been intelligent and could communicate well with their handlers. I Know that based on their own experience everyone will have their own preferred breed but i know which has done it for me, there have been countless occassions whether it has been by securing a wounded beast one way or another or communicating through reaction of the presence of a deer in cover, had it not been for the dog at my side the bag on my back would have been much lighter.
 
Breeds of dog have different temperaments just like us and i am afraid there are dogs that some of us just couldn't use the soft spoken level handed gent might struggle with a terrier or a hard running GWP. Like wise a loud abrupt type chap might struggle with the more sensitive breeds like the Vizslas. But in my experience most dogs will work to deer very well and if the correct training is carried out you should not worry to much about the breed get what suites your temperament.
 
Back
Top