Otters

[TonyLee]

Was just wandering if anyone had ever worked otters with hounds or terriers even? I know at one point across the pound they bred the otterhound for this and used airedales. But, never heard of anyone in the states doing it. Thought I might give it a try we got a lot around my area and hides seem to be bringing decent.

Tony

[Lynxhunter]

Oh yeah!! Lots of fun.
Otters are protected here, but some of them starts killing salomon in fishfarms and then we can get a killing permit from the government.
So get yourself a couple of really small and tightmouthed terriers and go after them.

Dont know the terrain where you are at TonyLee, but here we get the best hunts in/around big rockpiles. When hunting around old abandoned/fallen down buildings, things kind of slows down and you often have to go in and help the dogs.

Otter pop. have exploded here over the last years, so we even have encounters deep in the mountains. My moosedogs have bayed up a couple in later years, lots of fun, but not very healty for the otters....

Hans

[Mike Leonard]

Tony I have never done it or even seen it but I was always interested. The old man that was sort of my first real hound mentor was a professional predator man but also did a lot of nuisance work, and he had some otterhounds. I am not sure if they were full blood seems to me they were crossed on black and tan but they were great trail dogs and also could really handle the rough water. They were bigger dogs and reminded me a bit of a small bloodhound with shaggy hair. This old guy caught a ton of bobcat with a couple of those shaggy dogs. He let me read a book I remember about otter hunting in Europe and it was pretty cool. I have seen a few in dog shows but they looked different than his maybe the full bloods but they look more like a long tailed old sheepdog with longer ears. He had a lot of hounds but he seemed to love those crossed otter dogs the best.

[TonyLee]

Thanks for the replies. I got patterdales now and I am going to try them in some dens soon. Those otterhounds sound pretty good too bad their ain't no hunting lines around. Would be interesting to give a couple a go and work the terriers along with them. Wander how maybe a airedale x hound would work out maybe even crossed with a bloodhound seeing how wouldn't be a tree dog. Idk probably a reason why there isn't people all over hunting them with dogs. I just like to be a different I guess.

Tony