Teckels. Are they hunters or trackers?

[teyhan1]

Last year about this time I bought a Teckel. To be honest it has not been everything I had hoped for. Whilst I know he will follow a reasonably fresh line, older lines are proving more difficult.
He is definitely a hunter and gives tongue when on a fresh track. Just the other day he went tracking my bosses Peacock. And yes he really did follow its line ( didn't know Peacocks had scent glands on there feet )
I reckon he'd make a great driven boar dog.
So my question to other Teckel owners is are they really hunters or trackers?
Discuss

 

[Vonoepen]

To be honest I've never tried mine on an older track but like yours she certainly is very good at picking up a newish scent and pursuing it with great enthusiasm and noise! Have you ever looked at http://www.born-to-track.com? They breed Teckels which are much sought after by hunting folk in the USA it seems and have great accounts of tracks performed by these little dogs, most of which are days old - the tracks that is not the dogs Certainly theirs seem to be trackers.

 

[mchughcb]

My dogs will track and hunt. Primarily I use them for hunting. If there is a deer hiding in the woods and they are down wind they will follow in a put it out of its bed. If they see a wallaby they will chase it. If there is a wounded rabbit, hare or fox they will run it down and kill it or hold it. They will bail up wounded deer and bark until I can get there. I wouldn't classify them as great on older scents but they are only used for for me on most game that is within shotgun range. Longer rifle shots out of my drilling they have tracked down the deer and will run to where the shot was.

Recently the older one who is quite scared of confined spaces has started digging out rabbits gone to ground. Not deep enough to get them though.

 

[mchughcb]

Just to add, a hound hunting mate uses the dachshunds to test the fresh marks and if the dachshund starts on them then they release the beagles as they are know they are on very fresh marks.

 

[6pointer]

The teckel is a badger dog and would follow the said animal to ground and hold him at bay until someone came to dispatch so while his name suggests he is a full tracking hound they are in fact something of an oddity i would say they are a cross between a terrier and a hound. They are not tracking dog they are fresh scent hunting dogs.

JMO

 

[countrryboy]

I may be wrong here but i actually think teckels were badger drawing dogs rather than digging dogs, which was actually a seperate sport back from the digging in the old old days, think u would put ur normal terriers down first and dig down then shout them off and put in the teckel type which would either attempt to pull/ draw the broc out or be dragged out by owner.
Think well well back some pubs had artifical short sets where they would put a previously caught broc and then put different dogs in to 'draw it' and judged or timed to get a winner, no doubt for betting back in the day

Also think they are now used to move deer esp roe on continent, as they tend to move off bed and then circle back into the same area.
I'm sure i've read jagare talking about his dogs doing it before on here

Some poeple do use them to track older scents. I'm no expert and u would probably be better pm'ing some of the boys who are. But depending on how u have trained it so far, if using blood possibly step the blood up a bit to make it a bit easier intially on an older trail and when dog is getting its head round it/ more confident cut the blood down again, then when u next up the time increase the blood again and decrease when dog is again more confident.
There usually pig headed stubborn little buggers which should make them ideal for tracking mibee it just needs a bit of confidence or reassurance/praise when it has its nose down on the line u want and a growl/correction when it starts to free hunt
But like i say there are plenty more experienced and knowledgable on here who may have a better idea.

 

[dengreenhowe]

Look up.
true-teckels.com

 

[6pointer]

Was waiting for Wolfy to come in on this one. But forgot hes a one trick pony.I am sure Teyhan you will get what you want out of him if you work at it.

 

[cookingfat]

David, George has got bigger fish to fry just at the moment without risings to your fly.
Glynn try working your little hound on some live tracks or make things more interesting durring your training run's, he has probably got board, the golden rule on all training is keep it interesting and aways end on a high.

 

[Kit]

Seeing more and more German imports or first generation litters at the shows.ALL track hot or cold scents will also hunt like the devil if given a chance.

 

[mchughcb]

Are the german imports wirehairs or smooth, standard or minis?

 

[doghound]

I have had two teckels now, my first was from germany and was a little smaller than my present one which is from sweden.

Both are/were good trackers the latest the best I have had or seen. They are also very good hunters and have what the continentals call jaktlust, love of hunting.

I got my swedish model through jagare and she came from a line of good trackers, he has a dog from a line that has a good reputation for loose hunting. However before he moved to sweden we used to hunt with a friend in sweden each year who had a little teckel bitch who would loose hunt and track to a very high standard so in no way are they one or the other.

I would like to loose hunt the bitch I have because it is great sport, but I may have to take her back to sweden to do this as we just don't have the space or culture to do it here.

Someone mentioned the badger/underground work of teckels but this tends to be a smaller strain than the hunting types often called kaninken dackel I think, I doubt mine would get to ground.

For those training a new teckel I would suggest completing the tracking training first, a bit like gundogs get them retrieving before you show them live game. Once they get the hang of it their tracking is tenacious and diligent, and in my humble opinion as good as any breed. Granted they are never going to do any of the heroics expected of other breeds but they will certainly get you to it, no matter how old the scent or how far, for you to deal with it.

 

[teyhan1]

David, George has got bigger fish to fry just at the moment without risings to your fly.
Glynn try working your little hound on some live tracks or make things more interesting durring your training run's, he has probably got board, the golden rule on all training is keep it interesting and aways end on a high.

I followed your advice and put Dexter on a live track the other day. He's done them before.
He hit the foot scent and went mad, yapping and pulling wildly. Luckily I made a 10m leash for him as I had to traverse 3x barbed wire fences. Each time I put him back on the track until we ended up in a wood. And bang, there we were standing at an old fallen down tree. I was thinking I'll have to go round this when suddenly the 2x roe we had tracked for maybe 250yds leaped out and ran off deeper into the woods.

I then put him back on the same track a few hours later and nothing. Didn't pick it up or follow the same line??

How do I stop him from pulling so much and how do we get to the older tracks?????

 

[cookingfat]

Hi Glynn,
Glad to hear you have made some progress with your dog,
The way I get a dog to slow down and stop pulling is to work it on older trails that way he has to search more for the track, if working a new or hot trail the dog is more likely to go faster to get to the end especially if a reward is to be had which is likely with most training.
It is a fine balance between not making it to easy or to hard, this is something you will have to experiment with.

like with any dog training master one thing before moving to the next step, also do not be afraid to go back a step with your training if you get into difficulties with the stage you at.

hope this helps a little.

Tony

 

[teyhan1]

Okay Tony, understood. But where is the reward at the end of a live track?
He's always been fine on a live track I just can't get him to understand that i want him to follow the older ones.

 

[6pointer]

tehan he could be crap mate do what tony did and get rid lol. Only joking my way would be to keep him off hot tracks for a while and keep him away from anything.Then start him back on cold scents.

 

[mereside]

Okay Tony, understood. But where is the reward at the end of a live track?
He's always been fine on a live track I just can't get him to understand that i want him to follow the older ones.

Have you tried older man made tracks? or just ones were deer have passed through. if you marked a 1 mtr square and heavily scented that patch with feetings and maybe a skin to really put a scent down then walk off with shoes marking as you go it might give him an area to concentrate on start off on even ground with out much height to grass so he can concentrate rather than struggle at the beggining and build up slowly,atb wayne

 

[mchughcb]

My two are definately hunters. They can find deer, roos and rabbits. They also know when the going gets thick, best to get up for a good view, little mountain goats.

 

[Jonher]

My two are definately hunters. They can find deer, roos and rabbits. They also know when the going gets thick, best to get up for a good view, little mountain goats.

Great photo's mchughcb

Hope my dog turns out to be a good little hunter, it's looking promising so far, he's great on fresh scent and at 6 months he's gradually going out further and further alone to search.

Here's pic of him all kitted up and with his GPS hunting vest on.

 

[mchughcb]

Nice photo with the GPS pack there. I don't use it with mine because they don't cast far. I know there are some on Youtube that go for miles after roe deer but mine will only head off more than 50 yards if they put up something out of its bed. Otherwise they will wait for me to catchup.

For example here is the older dog on the trail of a kangaroo. The roo is in no danger of the dog being too big and fast for it. But it did get me to within shotgun range of a roo. The other example is last weekend when one of the dogs we suspect bumped a sambar deer out of its bed as we were walking back to the cars.

If a dog casts too far during hunting you will never get a shot, unless you are hound hunting with people ahead of the dog ready to ambush the quarry.