Wirehaired Dachsund v. Bavarian Bloodhound

[Hess]

Getting ready to get a blood trailing dog.  I know there are many usefuel breeds out there, and I've used a lot of them, but I'm trying to narrow it down to a dog specifically made to blood trailing.  Any thoughts on the two mentioned above?

[Bush]

My wirehair does alright, but he isn't too fond of the cold around here...aka I have to drag him outside to do his business if its below 40 degrees.

[Mechslasher]

can't go wrong with dachsunds.  they're built to have their nose to the ground.

[razorback]

He's a short hair, I believe, but there is a thread going at the moment about a little 5mth old dachsund who is a great little tracker. Thread name has "tracking lesson" in it, if you need to search. Good luck and keep us informerd of your choice.

[4runr]

I just bought a Wirehair puppy and he loves the cold and snow. Haven't yet had him on a trail but his ancestry has been mentioned on here as one of the best lines. Looking forward to his first tracking job.

[Ryan Rothhaar]

Just a couple thoughts from someone new to blood tracking with dogs (and have been doing a bunch of research in the last few years leading up to our pup).

First, there is nothing magic about wirehair dachshunds.  Depending on where you go in Europe the popularity of wire or smooth coat with hunters varies.  My wife is French (eastern France, near Germany) and her thought is that the recent popularity of wirehairs is, in large part, driven by the pet market, not necessarily the hunters.  The key to getting a good working dachshund (teckel) is the breeding, not the coat.

Keep in mind also that the Germans do not view teckels as a blood tracking specialist, but as a general purpose hunting dog (remember, Dachshund means "badger dog" in German) - they are used for a variety of hunting - small game (rabbit), blood tracking, and ground work (fox or badger) - although many in the US (myself included) are interested primarily in blood tracking.  Teckels also make great housedogs, although I would say that Oskar is pretty high maintenance compared to our other dogs due to his intelligence and ability to manipulate situations to suit his wants.

I don't know anything about the bavarian bloodhounds, except I have heard that they are 1. very pricey 2. you need to be careful with the breeding of dogs in the US and 3. They are more of a specialist that teckels (don't know the truth of all this, just what I've heard).

R

[Ryan Rothhaar]

And as to the cold - our pup has tracked for hours in temps of 5-10F with no problem (of course that isn't COLD compared to Montana!).  According to our breeder the hunting drive of the dog will dictate what temps he will tolerate more than his size or coat.  

Dogs in general seem to have trouble on scents below about 10F in my experience (mainly beagle experience) - but others may have different experiences than this.

R

[Whip]

I haven't been able to convince my wife, but sure would love to have a dog that can do blood trails and rabbits.  Can they really be effective at both?  Wouldn't they get distracted from a blood trail if they ran across a hot rabbit scent?

[Shaun]

Blood hounds in Europe are a specialty forester's dog and a handful for non professional dog handlers. I would class them with Jag terriers as a tough beast to train and handle. My first choice for tracking dog would be a tekel, next a Jack Russel from blood work lineage (look more like beagle shape), then Jags. If you plan to hunt birds you could go with a versatile large bread like Munsterlander or Drathaar (German Wire Hair).

[PAPA SMIRF]

Hard to beat a good slow working basset ... have worked them for 40 years on everything from pheasants to blood trails

[Ryan Rothhaar]

Joe

Our breeder hunts rabbits, coons, possums and blood tracks with her teckels.  I'm not going to let Oskar fool with rabbits for a while, but from what I understand should not cause a problem.  Heck, one of our breeder's weiner dogs retrieves ducks for a guy in Michigan (yep, I've seen pictures).

As to the Basset - we were pretty serious with some guys in the AHBA (American Hunting Basset Assoc) about getting a pup.  As a long time basset owner (we have a 13 yr old geriatric male) I can say it definitely takes a special person to truly appreciate (or is it tolerate?) a basset in the house.  Were I going to get serious about a basset I'd look into the AHBA or some other route to be SURE to get a hunting bred basset and not a show bred couch dog....remember "Only buy a basset hound from a guy wearing bib overalls!"

Ryan

[SveinD]

I think they taste about the same, so no matter what you choose, you're well catered for ^^

[PA Bones]

Ryan,you are absolutely right regarding bassets.  We have owned a few over the years and some were excellent trackers.  The ones that could hunt were little or no cost.   When we spent $ we ended up with a couch dog.

[tippit]

I bred my wire haired Dachshund Tilly this summer and the pups are now 4 months old.  She was bred to the Jeanneney's number one tracking dog Billy.  John Jeanneney is the author of Tracking Wounded Deer and started Deer Search in New York state.  

Tilly has a smooth wire coat which is great to keep clean but she does get cold once the tracking is over.  The wire hairs tend to like the cold and snow.  I bred her primarily to get a wire haired pup for myself.

Just as a side note, the the pups were tracking deer hide and blood at six weeks.  Plus two of the pups have already tracked bow shot deer at three months of age.  

Finally the great thing about a tracking dogs is  they teach and show you what a Poor Tracker you really are.  It is as much fun tracking with a dog as it is hunting...for me anyway     Doc

Tilly
 

Billy
 

Pup @ 7 weeks
 

[4runr]

Tiller's Traditional Tanner,

out of the above mentioned Tilly and Billy!

[Al Natural]

A trained dog associates the task at hand with the collar the command and if it on or off a lead. Off lead beeper collar = birds, rabbits. On lead with tracking collar = blood tracking.
Al

[PAPA SMIRF]

I agree completely with Ryan regarding bassets ..
stay away from "show strains" ... go with good hunting stock and you won't be disappointed.

[WVeer]

We have a wirehair that doesn't like to be outside if it's cold and no ones with him.  He doesn't seem to mind if he is trailing and someone is with him.  He is a one person dog though.  He likes all of the family but loves my daughter.  He mopes when she's away at college.

[tippit]

Cash is the pup I kept out of the Tilly/Billy litter.  Four months old today...she loves snow, people especially kids, and anything deer!  I just took these at lunch today...Doc

 

 

[PrarrieDog]

Tippit, Great looking dogs! I can see they got character and personality. I'm impressed.
Prarrie Dog