I had never heard of a Bavarian Mountain Hound before my partner, Anton, broached the subject of getting one. We already had two black labs, a terrier and two cats. As far as I was concerned, our animal family was complete.
All our animals worked. The two Labradors worked with Anton during the bird season to recover pheasants, woodcocks, snipes and ducks. The terrier would catch any rat around our farm and the cats would catch mice and leave their headless bodies on our front step. Anton, however, felt there was room for one more animal in our herd; a Bavarian Mountain Hound to help you track live and injured deer during deer season. Similar to a Beagle in size but reddish-brown in color with a black face, it has a short coat and weighs around 70 pounds when fully grown. Hunters use this breed when tracking deer to shoot or when wounding a deer but it can still run. They are bred to track deer through the mountains of Bavaria and can track a wounded deer for miles.
I had a hard time persuading. The animals we already had were expensive and very hard, though rewarding, work. Bavarian Mountain Dogs are relatively new to Ireland, so it was hard to find other people to ask questions about the breed. I did all the research I could online and while I found nothing objectionable about them, they still haven’t sold me. Because they are a rare breed in Ireland we knew that if we wanted one we would have to be on a waiting list. Anton made some preliminary calls and, to his disappointment, he discovered that there were only a handful of breeders in Ireland and all of his puppies were booked for that year. I was relieved because it meant I had more time to make sure this was the race for us. He had some specific concerns about the breed. First of all, we live in a rural community and I had read that they were unreliable without lead if they picked up a scent. We let our dogs run free around our house often and I was afraid that a Bavarian Mountain Hound would run too far or worse, chase the neighboring sheep.
We move on with our lives and put the dog out of our minds. A few weeks passed when a breeder from Northern Ireland contacted Anton. He had been disappointed by someone who had reserved a male pup and he wanted to know if we would be interested. We talked about it for a few days and Anton had long talks with the breeder and we finally decided to give it a try. The puppy was eight weeks old when we decided we wanted him. The breeder recommended that we name him now and pick him up when he was sixteen weeks old, that way he could do preliminary training with him. He also invited Anton for a day to hunt a bit so he could watch his mother and father work. We were both happy with this arrangement and decided to name our new addition Riley.
A few weeks later, Anton made the long drive to Northern Ireland to pick up Riley. He met his mother Heidi and his father Alfie and spent time with the breeder learning about our new pet. When they got home, I met Riley at the door and fell in love instantly. Lanky and shy at first, he followed me into the living room and climbed onto my lap.
Riley was definitely not what he expected the breed to be. All the research he did before bringing him home was helpful, but he had a lot more to learn. He was adorable, like all puppies, with his big dark face and long clumsy legs. We kept him by our side for the first few days as we had with all of our puppies. Unlike our other pups, Riley was very calm and not prone to the random outbursts of emotion that we had experienced with labs and terriers. He loved our company and, unlike the beagle-like crazy dog he had come to expect, he was lazy and loved to laze around the fire. At night, he went to pen him in our shed with the other dogs and he didn’t cry or bark. He was a far cry from the separation anxiety all of our other dogs had experienced and in short, he couldn’t believe our luck.
Our first insight into the breed’s negative traits was a few days after we brought Riley home. He was so calm and didn’t seem to suffer from anxiety about being in the pen at night, so we didn’t think of leaving him alone in our living room while we went to do our shopping. We drew our curtains so the cats couldn’t disturb him at the window and we set off on our short journey. This was a big mistake. When we got back home, I immediately noticed that the curtains were now open. On closer inspection, they were not open. They had been split in half. Yes, our wonderful, calm and placid pup was indeed a normal pup after all.
Riley is almost a year old and the Bavarian Mountain Hound is my favorite breed of dog. He is loyal, intelligent, and a fantastic hunting partner for Anton. They tracked many deer together this season and although he is lazy and loves to lounge by the fire at home, when he hunts he is dedicated and committed and can go for miles. As he demonstrated by destroying my beautiful curtains, he hates being alone and is very destructive when left alone inside for too long. As I write this, he is snuggled up next to me with his head on my shoulder. He is fiercely loyal and affectionate towards his owners, as is typical of the breed. He gets along with the other dogs, but he definitely sees himself more as a human than a dog and seeks human companionship over canine. His hunting instinct makes them chase the poor cats if they get in their way, but he is kind and affectionate with children. He is not a watchdog, where labradors and terriers will bark at the house if they hear someone outside, he will barely raise his head from the bed.
If you are considering adding a Bavarian Mountain Hound to your family, there are a few things to seriously consider. Do you have an interest in hunting? These dogs are scent driven and it is in their nature to hunt. They enjoy tracking above any other form of play and exercise. Do you have a lot of time to spend with the dog on a daily basis? This breed adores its owners and gets very upset when they can’t be with them. Can you commit to loving and caring for a dog for approximately fourteen years? If you can answer yes to these questions and decide to adopt a Bavarian Mountain Hound, you’ll find a loyal and loving companion for years to come. Adding Riley to our family was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made, I hope this article helps you make the right decision for your animal family.