Dogs That Hunt Bears and Wolves

This is an excerpt from the above titled article written by Freeman Lloyd and published in the June 30, 1926 American Kennel Gazette..

Wolf hunting in North America is principally looked upon as the work for "long dogs" such as Russian wolfhounds (also called borzoi), Scottish deehounds, Irish wolfhounds, greyhounds, and cross-bred dogs which have the blood mixture that give the swiftness and aggressiveness of each of these breeds. At the time of writing, it is learned that a "pack" of about fifteen to twenty of these prairie long dogs or "hounds", as their owners call them, is probably to be taken all the way from the Bar LL Ranch at Greenlawn, about thirty miles from Islay, Alberta, into Ontario, and for the service of the Agricultural Department of the latter province, where wolves have been very troublesome.

These dogs - long dogs - are the property of Albert and Sydney Lloyd, ranchers and hunters, and very keen sportsmen with capital horses, and good dogs. Their hounds - cross-bred deerhounds and greyhounds - some of them standing twenty-eight inches or more at the withers, are not only fast, but extremely alert and devilish on anything they jump.

Strong as lions because of their well kept and fed conditions, these dogs will be able to give just as much and most likely more punishment than any timber wolf can give them. I think their owners with their dogs will make good in every way from the way I saw these hounds work last October on different kinds of animals. Their masters are hard riders and possess all the knowledge of experienced hunters.

In view of what has taken place in Russia during the last decade, it will be interesting to go back to the description of wolf hunting as Joseph B. Thomas, Jr., of New York, saw the sport as a guest of H.I.H. The Grand Duke Nicholas on the latter's enormous estate at Perchina in 1904. Here the hare, the fox, and the wolf were preserved with the greatest care. Furthermore, it was from Perchina that the afterwards famous borzoi, Ch. Bistri, came. This dog's name may be seen in the extended pedigree documents concerning many of the leading American borzoi of this day.

Mr. Thomas saw at Perchina the three hundred Russian wolfhounds and the one hundred couple of foxhounds owned by the Grand Duke, and kept and trained in the most perfect manner. All the noblemen's hunt horses were roans in color. The borzoi were exclusively of the old Russian type, while the fox or scenting hounds were English foxhounds, although in some kennels the old fashioned Russian black and tan guanchi was still kept and hunted.

There are two distinct methods of hunting. One, called field hunting, where the hunters, mounted on ponies, proceed in a long and extended skirmish line across the open, fenceless country, slipping their borzoi to whatever jumps up. This same method, as described by Mr. Thomas, is practised on the North American plains and prairies in the case of coyote coursing. Another method is that of stationing on all sides of a covert mounted huntsmen with borzoi in slips. Foxhounds are then thrown into the covert.

If wolves are likely to be found, two dogs and one bitch make up the team of borzoi slipped at the driven out quarry. The hunter then slips his borzoi which, when they come up with their game, wait on him until the desired moment arrives when they can take and hold him at the neck. In such a hold, the wolf is practically powerless and cannot bite the dogs.

It is the duty of the hunter to dismount and dispatch the wolf with a knife. In the case of the wolf being desired in practically an uninjured state, a short stick with a thick thong at each end is held in front of the wolf. This he seizes when the hunter immediately ties the thongs behind the animal's neck and thus gags him. The wolf now becomes harmless to man and dog.

Mr. Thomas' Observations on Borzoi was first published in 1924 by the Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston and New York, and this book will be highly interesting to those who admire the beautiful Russian wolfhounds and the methods of hunting wolves and other animals with borzoi in Russia and here in America.