Spring has sprung. Get out and shoot your Henry

Dogs in hunting

Ogur
Wrangler
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Oct 29, 2017 8:17 am
Location: Härjedalen, Sweden
Sweden

Dogs in hunting

Post by Ogur » Wed Feb 09, 2022 10:52 am

An interest of mine has always been hunting dogs. So, I'd like to know how people in non- European countries use dogs. What breeds, how you go about such a hunt, etc.

Here, especially in Sweden, dogs are a very popular addition to hunting.

I'm looking into getting a specific dog myself, so I'll be posting on some of the hunting forms we use here locally on my journey to find out what hunting form suits me best.

I'll start with tracking.

By law in Sweden you, as a hunter, need to have a dog on site within 2 hours of a wounding shot. Doesn't have to be your own dog, so there are tracker companies that you can call. Or you neighbour. This is to minimise unneccesary suffering of the game. Any dog will do, as there is no specific demand on training. Most hunterstrain their dogs on blood trailing. I myself have a tervueren, a longhaired malinois shepherd. She does fine for this purpose.

Another law is that this tracking is mandatory after accidents as well, so if you hit an animal with your car (roedeer sized and over) and it runs off, you call the police and they contact a tracker. These dogs are certified dogs, with some being certified for predators as well. That's lynx, wolf and bear.

What breed they use for tracking depends a bit. For moose they usually prefer moose dogs as they will bring the moose at bay, in stead of just making it jump up and run off again. Examples are the gråhund and jämthund. Spitz type dogs. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A4mthund

With predators they use mostly dogs from the hound group. A guy in our hunting team has a treeing walker he uses for bear and fox. Finnish hounds and the like are popular as well.

Pure tracking dogs would include hanover hounds and bavarian mountain hounds.

For wild boar they usually call in someone with a specialist dog as well as they are dangerous. A moose dog will perform well, but they tend to have a higher injury rate when set on wild boar. Gończy Polski, polish hunting dogs, are rapidly becoming popular here with the wild boar explosion going on. They are better suited to baying boar apparently.
2 x

User avatar
Cofisher
Drover
Posts: 2472
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 8:02 pm
Location: Colorado/Nebraska
United States of America

Re: Dogs in hunting

Post by Cofisher » Wed Feb 09, 2022 2:23 pm

Wow! That is a much larger topic than many of us regularly deal with.

I am used to bird dogs. Not a tracking animal. Perhaps some of our southern neighbors will chime in here.
1 x
Remember, it's not how many guns you have. It's how many bullets you have.

User avatar
markiver54
Deputy Marshal
Posts: 10281
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2018 11:49 am
Location: Biue Ridge Mountains, NC
United States of America

Re: Dogs in hunting

Post by markiver54 » Wed Feb 09, 2022 5:04 pm

I used to bear hunt and we would use hounds exclusively. Plotts, Walkers, Blue Ticks etc.
Hounds are great for this.
1 x
I'm your Huckleberry

Ogur
Wrangler
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Oct 29, 2017 8:17 am
Location: Härjedalen, Sweden
Sweden

Re: Dogs in hunting

Post by Ogur » Fri Feb 11, 2022 1:29 am

markiver54 wrote:
Wed Feb 09, 2022 5:04 pm
I used to bear hunt and we would use hounds exclusively. Plotts, Walkers, Blue Ticks etc.
Hounds are great for this.
Here we only have regular brown bears. It's a hybrid driven hunt here. They release 1 to 3 dogs at different locations around the area to be hunted with pass shooters stationed in and around the area. The handlers follow the dogs. Sometimes it's a pass shooter that gets a shot, sometimes a handler. Pretty similar to how moose is hunted here.
0 x

User avatar
Hatchdog
Ranch Foreman
Posts: 5212
Joined: Mon Jan 06, 2020 5:04 pm
Location: Deer Park, WA
United States of America

Re: Dogs in hunting

Post by Hatchdog » Fri Feb 11, 2022 10:41 am

Where I live in the Northwest corner of the US (Washington State) our Fish and Game Department has outlawed dogs for pursuit hunting. When it was legal dogs were only allowed for bear and cougars. Today dogs can be used for pointing and retrieving birds only.
2 x

Ogur
Wrangler
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Oct 29, 2017 8:17 am
Location: Härjedalen, Sweden
Sweden

Re: Dogs in hunting

Post by Ogur » Fri Feb 11, 2022 2:21 pm

Hatchdog wrote:
Fri Feb 11, 2022 10:41 am
Where I live in the Northwest corner of the US (Washington State) our Fish and Game Department has outlawed dogs for pursuit hunting. When it was legal dogs were only allowed for bear and cougars. Today dogs can be used for pointing and retrieving birds only.
Interesting! Why though? The concensus here is that it is no worse for the animal than being chased by any other predator. The dog makes hunting more efficient. Also cuts down on "injured time" in the case of a bad shot.
Here dogs are used in pursuit hunting from hares up to moose. Which breed you are using determines what you hunt, at least in the case for some of the bigger hounds. The ones used in predator hunting need to be "roedeer clean" as they are too fast and can catch the roedeer. Same applies for hare hunting dogs.

Dachshund is used for roedeer for example, but also for fox and badger. But that is called a "den hunt". The dog goes into the den and scares the animal out through another exit.

Dogs are used as pointers, retrievers and flushing dogs for birds. We also have treebarking dogs that sniff and listen out forest fowl like capercaille and grouse up in trees, where they start to bark at and "point" the bird on its' perch. The hunter then attempts to sneak in to get a shot with a rifle. Quite hard actually. If the bird spots you they skedaddle.
1 x

User avatar
Hatchdog
Ranch Foreman
Posts: 5212
Joined: Mon Jan 06, 2020 5:04 pm
Location: Deer Park, WA
United States of America

Re: Dogs in hunting

Post by Hatchdog » Sat Feb 12, 2022 11:02 am

I don’t recall the exact reasoning for the elimination of hound hunting for Cougar and Bear, probably it was considered “unfair” hunting. I do know that after the ban the Cougar population increased and this area started having more human-cougar encounters. Some years ago the game dept. did open up a pursuit only no kill season. The idea was to remind cougars that humans are to be avoided. One hunt with dogs I forgot to mention is rabbits. I used to work with a guy who ran Begals for rabbit hunts. I believe that is still legal.

Thanks for describing the various types of dogs and the game they hunt. Really interesting.
1 x

The Happy Kaboomer
Cowhand
Posts: 264
Joined: Sun Apr 02, 2017 11:10 pm
United States of America

Re: Dogs in hunting

Post by The Happy Kaboomer » Fri Mar 18, 2022 8:45 pm

Here in the south we run deer with hounds. Walkers/redbones/bluetick-black & tan and beagles. Great fun and great sounding races.
1 x

User avatar
markiver54
Deputy Marshal
Posts: 10281
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2018 11:49 am
Location: Biue Ridge Mountains, NC
United States of America

Re: Dogs in hunting

Post by markiver54 » Fri Mar 18, 2022 8:54 pm

The Happy Kaboomer wrote:
Fri Mar 18, 2022 8:45 pm
Here in the south we run deer with hounds. Walkers/redbones/bluetick-black & tan and beagles. Great fun and great sounding races.
I really enjoyed the races when Bear hunting. Never used them for deer though. Illegal here I believe.
We used all the same except for the Beagle.
1 x
I'm your Huckleberry

User avatar
Vaquero
Ranch Boss
Posts: 10255
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2016 12:56 am
Location: Somewhere between Memphis & Nashville
United States of America

Re: Dogs in hunting

Post by Vaquero » Sun Mar 20, 2022 10:50 am

No hunting with dogs for any Big game here in Tenn.
Now they do use them for squirrel, rabbit, and coon hunting.
Also the various bird hunting.
I had for a few years a mutt, that was part Dachshund, and part American pit terrier.
Best tracker I ever had, and Very smart.

RP
1 x
Monte Walsh "You have No idea how little I care". :lol:

Ain't No Apologies for My Temperament :shock:
Si vis pacem, para bellum
H001, H006, H012

Post Reply