Stories of the Hunt

These are stories that will be rotated out or maybe just added depending on disk space availability. They should be about hunting with your Terriers or other earth dogs such as Dachsunds. I have written the first one and have others to include, however please feel free to send me stories that you would like posted. If other people are like me about these dogs they will love to read stories about a good hunt adventure. Enjoy………

 Lots of people wonder what it's like to hunt big Raccoons with little dogs in strange old places. Well I have had that experience several times now. I have to tell you there is lots of action when it comes to hunting 20-30+ lb. masked bandits with dogs half their weight in spaces large and small. These types of hunts have no rules for the gladiators with four legs and some teeth.

 Imagine walking through an old abandoned house with clothes still hanging on hooks on an inside wall, yet the outside wall is missing like some storm from hell ripped it right off the side of the house. Dogs running around looking and smelling for what my Minnesota hunting buds call Caccoons, the masked bandit. They hunt for the fur and the sport. It is a different world than the one I live in during my work week in the high tech computer trade in sunny California. The kind of hunting I'm talking about is back to the basics, the tools of the trade: a small hunting knife, flashlight, hammer, pry bar, grabber hook, shovel, and if we remember – a pick. Each tool has its use. The hammer and pry bar seem to work well when we start prying into the floors and ceiling of abandoned buildings exposing the prey the dogs have usually beat us to.

They hunt not just old abandoned buildings, but barns still storing hay for the livestock in which the owners want the destructive intruders evicted, old wood piles both natural and man made. Raccoons live in places that look non-inviting for lots of reasons. That's what you learn to look for, that's what the Terrier's learn to search out and hopefully confront and destroy. By the way, I have heard people tell me that their dog can kill a coon by itself. That dog must be mighty tough for that to happen. I can see it with a smaller coon, but I seriously doubt that could happen with one of the big ones I've seen. Even with a hard larger Patterdale. For the dog to finish a coon of that size or anything close to it, the dog will be handed a good bit of beatings. That usually puts the dog out of commission for awhile.

Miles of driving is done looking for the right spot to hunt. When a nice old barn is spotted or a great big woodpile is seen in the distance your thoughts travel quickly to what might be hiding there. Asking permission is always the best way to work these spots, but that is not always possible since you have no idea on who to ask. We have found out that as long as you are not duck or pheasant hunters using guns that most people do not mind you hunting for varmints on their property.

Once at a spot that looks like a good one, you get ready very quickly and go to the dog boxes and let the little hunters out. They know what's up immediately and cry to get out to start their work. If it is a barn, the dogs look for ways to get in or under while the human element of the hunt goes for the door. Once inside the dogs scramble in all directions tracking the various scents that are obviously there. Some go upstairs to the loft where the coons are usually hiding in the nice dry hay stacks. I have learned that the skunks and possums inhabit the holes in the barn floors, so watch your dog as they find and enter those holes.

If there is something in the building the dogs find it pretty quickly and the fight is on. Barking and growling start to fill the air as well as the hay dust being stirred up as you start moving hay to find the confrontation. In some of the videos that I have taken you can barely see through some of the hay dust that is in the air. My video camera will never be the same after one particular barn hunting event. I must tell you that getting to the action is not always an easy task. It could be under a few feet of loose hay, under several large hay bales, or next to the opening that either you and/or the dogs can fall from which is more than likely at least 10-15 feet high (I once saw a dog fall off a second story where the wall used to be while fighting a raccoon, he did survive and jumped right back into the fight once he climbed the stairs back to where he left.) If your hunting in a wood pile or old house, moving piles of sticks or chopping out floors and ripping out ceilings are part of the action you should expect to be a part of.

Getting the raccoon out and under foot gives you a chance to finish him with a quick thrust. This is a good way to help both the game and the dogs from getting any unnecessary abuse. Seven coons from one barn were the most I have seen, although we only got five of them - two got away. The demand for fur is back on the rise. Best to hunt while it is cold to get the most for your pelts. Hunting with someone who knows the sport is always the best way to start if possible. If you cannot do that, make sure you are aware of the surroundings, that you have the right tools, first aid for you and the dogs, lots of water, and get ready for a great time. By the way, this is not for the weak of heart - it can be a graphic, fast moving and violent sport often ending with the raccoon being killed and sometimes losing one or more of your hunting dogs. Good luck and good hunting!

Being new to the sport of hunting with Terriers, I contacted Pete Eggers in Vancouver, Washington to get some real time experience. He hunts with Patterdale and German Hunt Terriers. He owns a Patterdale from Dave Lindsey who I also have a dog from. Pete hunts Nutria. A Nutria is a mammal (big rodent) that was imported from South America for its fur bearing potential. By the time the Nutria had established itself the fur market had dropped off as a high-income industry. The Nutria continued to breed unchecked by the fur trade and without any real natural predator they have become a very costly pest in some regions of the US. Damage is done by burrowing tunnels and dens in dikes and dams that ruin wildlife habitat and waterways that are used for farming.

 They look like oversized muskrats or small Beavers with a long rat tail. Adults grow from 18 to 24 pounds and have a top and bottom pair of large orange teeth that are each approximately 1 inch long and ½ inch wide. So if they get a hold of your dog the holes can be pretty big. My little 12 pound dog can attest to this.

 I had driven up from Northern California to Salem, Oregon with my family and my dogs. Myself, my eleven year old son Kaulana, and two nephews 11and 12 years old (got to start 'em young) met up with Pete and his friend Phil who had access to a duck hunting club that has a problem with Nutria. I took my two Patterdales: a 12 inch 12 pound black and tan male named Stick and a 15 inch 19 pound black bitch named Sadie. Pete had a large German Hunt terrier name Jack, a small black Patterdale and hybrid German hunt/Patterdale named Odin that Phil also had a litter-sister to.

 We started searching the dikes with little luck at first. The water was very low and Phil mentioned that they might have moved to other areas. We found a larger pond that they had access to that confirmed that they were still there. The Nutria were apparently going between the canal area, where they had dug holes into the dike, and the larger pond. The dogs showed some interest in a 14 inch drainage pipe and Sadie entered into a small hole next to the pipe. She started barking about two or three feet in. Pete’s hybrid Odin went into the pipe and Stick went into the other end of the pipe. Within a minute we heard the whining sound the Nutria makes as it defends itself. Sadie came out the hole she was in and also went into the drainage pipe. The fight between the terriers and the Nutria went on for a few minutes. The Nutria went silent and I called my dogs out. We were trying to get the dogs to drag the dead Nutria out of the pipe, but Pete said that Odin was making a partial snack out of the first game of the day and we never saw the Nutria that found out what a terrier is all about.

 A few minutes later a second Nutria was located and worked by both Odin and little Stick. They were working him from two different tunnels and then sometimes together in the same hole which is where my little dog almost got his right eye taken out with a large deep Nutria bite. He either got too excited and charged right in on the Nutria or was pushed into the Nutria by the other dog, which is my fault for letting them work together in the hole. Don’t worry I learn fast. I will keep my dog on the lead until it's his turn next time.

 Since there were already two dogs busy with the newly located Nutria, Phil went down the canal a little further and his bitch located another one in the dike. This was all within 100 feet of each other. So we had plenty of game once we started locating. In fact the second hole that was located also had a smaller one that came swimming out and into another hole. I sent Sadie in after that one and she finished it fairly quickly.

 I was so busy at that point trying to make sure Stick was ok and watching Sadie get the smaller Nutria that I was not sure which large Nutria was finally caught. However I do know that after working the Nutria that Stick and Odin were on, Pete sent in his heavy hitter Jack the German Hunt terrier to work the large Nutria. Jack was bleeding from the bites that he took from that guy. Phil’s bitch did get her Nutria rousted from its hole and I think that is the one that got to be in the picture.

 All in all it was a fun exciting time that both my dogs and I learned from. Stick got nine stitches from the local vet and I got the bill. Pete offered to stitch it, but I declined being a little nervous since the cut was so deep and close to his eye. I look forward to my next Nutria hunt in the near future. Thanks Pete and Phil for a good hunt. Like I told you Pete, my friends from Minnesota would like to come out now that they know there is something different to hunt then Raccoon.

 Until next time, take care of your dogs and good hunting!