Forgotten work?
Rudi van Kets considers the role of the deer dog in the modern world and wonders if they are a misunderstood breed
If I remember correctly, there were hardly any tracking dogs in the UK a dozen years ago. There were perhaps some present, the typical varieties like Hanoverian and Bavarian tracking dogs But the way to work with them was little understood, and thus they were a rare sight in the hunting world.
Thanks to the efforts of some people, who have been committed to the work for many years, it became clear that there was a need for clear, accurate information concerning working with a tracking dog. Subsequent training courses were a success and have been repeated because of that.
Even now, after all these years, you can search YouTube and find ‘tracking work’ that barely qualifies as tracking. But there are some groups that make every effort to introduce the fundamentals of this ‘unknown’ work into the hunting world.