Working dogs in Spain ??

[Parabuteos lad 878]

Morning all, 

I don’t come on here as often as I used to but thought I’d drop on and share some images from my current trip to Spain. 
I am out here hunting and photographing various working dogs for a fortnight all over the country.

On Thursday I hunted with various Rehalas on one of the most important monteria in the country. Throughout the day we were always in full view of the sanctuary de la Virgen de la Cabeza, patron saint of hunting and as such the area was sacred and meant a lot to the hunters present. We took around 25 red deer, 20 fallow deer, 15 boar, 3 foxes and 2 mouflon. The Rehala I was with was hunting 12 collars (pair) and we accounted for 3 boar. The majority of deer would have been shot. Despite taking all that game we still saw a good number of fallow and red deer when we left, as well as a fox.

The dogs we were hunting were mainly griffen x mastiffs and 95% of the dogs on the day were 29”+ and very well built. A lot of them were podenco andaluz based too and we had various strong dogs including alano espanyol, dogo argentino and my personal favourite, a 29” presa canario which made their English counterparts that I have seen look like shiztsu’s.

Today and tomorrow I am hare coursing with galgo espanyol in Valladolid, they hold their coursing championships in this area so I’m expecting a good day. If anyone wants to see more of the images or view my videos I will be posting pics to SA Fieldsports Photography on Facebook and pics and videos to my Instagram by the same name. 
 

I will try remember to frequent back here and update as often as I can. 

 

[Daniel cain 45,121]

Look forward to your updates

[Born Hunter 17,751]

Been enjoying your IG posts mate. Keep it up. 

[Born Hunter 17,751]

It'd be really interesting if you could explain the format of the day/hunt a bit more. Is it a free for all with dogs and Guns accounting for quarry? More like an organised series of drives? Are certain species more for the dogs and others the Guns? Are there long hunts or is it more bushing with short hot chases/courses? Do different dogs have different jobs or are they all at everything?

You might not have learnt that much in a day but I'll ask anyway. 

 

[forest of dean redneck 11,538]

Hell of a  bushing pack

[Setenta 117]

Great photos!

[Daniel cain 45,121]

Do a write up and a few pics in the fishing section....Spanish bass and barbel

[South hams hunter 8,921]

some real rough looking dogs there, bet theyre great fun to hunt the big gear with

[Ken's Deputy 4,459]

6 hours ago, Parabuteos lad said:

 Imagine being put in a place and told; " If you leave here, we'll send This lot to look for you. "

You'd fukking well stay where you were put!

[Parabuteos lad 878]

10 hours ago, Born Hunter said:

It'd be really interesting if you could explain the format of the day/hunt a bit more. Is it a free for all with dogs and Guns accounting for quarry? More like an organised series of drives? Are certain species more for the dogs and others the Guns? Are there long hunts or is it more bushing with short hot chases/courses? Do different dogs have different jobs or are they all at everything?

You might not have learnt that much in a day but I'll ask anyway. 

 

 So there was around 25 Rehala present (packs) each comprising of around 12 collar (couple). At the start of the day you all meet up and the hunt organiser comes and gives you your starting points. The outright goal is to drive to the guns who shoot trophy boar, bucks and stags etc. However a lot of boar don’t flush and a lot of deer crash etc. These are fair game for the dogs.  The hillside we was on had four Rehala who made our way up in turn, Rehala one released and headed to top of hill, followed by Rehala two who headed 3/4 way up, Rehala three 1/2 way up and Rehala one stays just a quarter of the way up and then you progress along the hillside pushing quarry, the aim being that they cannot double back as you have packs right down the hill. 
we started around 10am and finished at 1600 walking the hillside all day. The dogs seem to have worked out what they can and can’t catch so they push the deer but put the effort in on the boar, if the deer crash the dogs are close enough to capitalise. 
I think all the dogs are big enough to be capable and there were no bayers but we had strong dogs specifically for dealing with boar.

[Parabuteos lad 878]

9 hours ago, Daniel cain said:

Do a write up and a few pics in the fishing section....Spanish bass and barbel

Didn’t catch any bloody barbel they wouldn’t touch anything I threw at them Dan, frustrating as hell. 

[Parabuteos lad 878]

This fallow fell over its own shadow.

 

the wound was boar inflicted and the dog was injected with anticoagulant and stapled up on the spot

[Born Hunter 17,751]

Thanks for the explanation. So potentially 600 dogs on a hunt!!!?

Curious that they use an anticoagulant. You’d think they’d want the blood to clot to stop bleeding and bruising. Do these sorts of wounds have a risk of blood clots forming and killing the dog or something?

[Parabuteos lad 878]

Just now, Born Hunter said:

Thanks for the explanation. So potentially 600 dogs on a hunt!!!?

Curious that they use an anticoagulant. You’d think they’d want the blood to clot to stop bleeding and bruising. Do these sorts of wounds have a risk of blood clots forming and killing the dog or something?

To be honest I didn’t ask, I did ask “to stop the blood clotting?” And he said yes but I’d didn’t press further. 
 

yes potentially, very big farms though. I didn’t see a car where I thought “ah he’s only got a couple” everyone seemed to have a full trailer

[Parabuteos lad 878]

The hares here, rapido