Choosing the Best Hunting Dogs

How would you choose the Best Hunting Dogs for your particular style of hunting?

Hunter or not, you will find interesting and helpful information here about choosing the best hunting dog. If you live in “Bear Country,” you might want to have a couple of Karelian Bear Dogs around. If you need to keep the Fox out of the chicken house, you might need an American or British Foxhound. If you want to put some extra food on the table, then please read on.

If you’ve ever watched old television shows like The Beverly Hillbillies or The Andy Griffith Show, you’ve probably seen stereotypical old hounds portrayed as the companion hunting dogs. In reality, many dog breeds are suitable companions for hunters, and different dogs specialize in hunting various animals.

Hound dogs are divided into classes as sighthounds or scent hounds.

Sighthounds such as Whippets are used because they can see well and are lightning-fast, spotting their prey from a long distance away and stalking them until they are caught. Sighthounds have long, lean heads, giving them some binocular vision. They are much quieter and calm than other hounds.

Scent hounds hunt based on their ability to smell and are used to track animals by their scent trails. A Coonhound is one of those scent hounds that barks loud when he’s on the p and has its subject cornered or trapped. Hound breeds include the Blue Tick, the Red Tick, the Walker, and the Redbone among many others.

Small game hunters who use shotguns work with that they call “gun dogs.” Some breeds falling into the gun dog category are Retrievers, Spaniels, and Pointers.

The retriever’s job is to find the animal that the hunter shot down and bring it back to the hunter. During duck hunting, for example, Retrievers spend hours upon hours in a duck blind with the hunters to watch where the birds go down so that they can retrieve them. Retrievers are good swimmers, so they also retrieve stuff that lands in the water. Setters, Spaniels, and Pointers are used to find and flush out animals for the hunter to shoot.

There are dog breeders that specialize in breeding gun dogs and they list the seven most popular gun dog breeds as Labrador Retrievers, German Shorthaired Pointers, Brittany Spaniels, English Pointers, English Setters, Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, and German Wirehaired Pointers.

Then, some dogs are used to hunt specific game. A Feist is a small dog that is especially good a hunting squirrels. They hunt in packs and stop at the tree where the squirrel has run and bark to alert their human hunter counterpart.

Terriers are used to hunt mammals because they can locate the den of an animal and capture it or drive it out for their hunters.

Curs are dogs that hunt bigger mammals such as boars, cougars, and raccoons.

Deer hunting is very popular in the U.S. and the Scottish Deerhound is said to be the best dog for this type of hunting.

Want to hunt a fox? You’ll need a Foxhound, of course! Looking for a wild turkey? Get yourself a Wire-haired Pointing Griffon. Can you believe there’s even a dog for black bear hunting? It’s the American Bulldog or the Karelian Bear Dog. Both have very powerful jaws and are stocky built.

Hunters and their dogs have a great bond and the hunters have to take great care of their dogs in order to keep them safe while hunting. Just like hunters wear those obnoxiously loud orange safety vests, so too do their dogs. It’s important that the hunter can see where his dog ran and also for other hunters to be able to see the dog. The vests also protect the dog, to some degree, if he runs through a jagged or barbed wire fence so that he doesn’t get stuck or it doesn’t grab his fur and cause injury.

There are game bird hunting preserves specifically welcoming hunters with gun dogs and there are directories of them by state if you browse a search engine.

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How many times have you heard “there’s nothing like a good hunting dog.” If you are a hunter then you know that is absolutely true. I’m not a hunter but I was raised in a hunting environment. When I left the country I left the hunting behind. I did enjoy it when I was a child going through the woods with my Dad and our dogs. Great memories.

Bill Beavers is the Customer Service Director for http://www.carrymydog.com where you will find some unique items but always find dog supplies that will improve quality of life for you, your dog and your family. Give us a visit.

When I think about hunting dogs I think about Ruff Land Kennels and TuffComfort kennel mats.