In germany we basically hunt everything with the help of dogs. It´s even required by law to have dogs for tracking wounded game at reach.
Though you are asking for mammals we basically use dogs for the following kind of hunts:
- Den hunting: Terriers and Dachshunds are used for pushing foxes and racoondogs out of their holes where the hunters shoot them. This also works for badgers, though they mostly will not come out and have to be dug.
- Driven hunting: This works for about every kind of game animal here. Hunts will differ in the number of hunters and dogs and the size of the hunted terrain, but we often use dogs to search and push game. Meanwhile it´s most common for deer and boar on driven hunts, where we mostly use breeds like terriers, bracke and wachtelhund.
- Beats: It´s about the same as driven hunts, but for small game animals and with shotguns. Dogs used for this type of hunting do not hunt that far as they need to be in shotgun range and are mostly of pointing breeds, like german wirehair, german shorthair etc. Those hunts target hares, rabbits, fox and game birds.
- Tracking: As mentioned above, it´s required to have scent hounds available for tracking purposes. The european scenthounds are bred for centuries only for this purpose and deliver spectacular work. I´ve participated in tracking a wounded red stag that was bayed by the scenthound after more than 10km and two days after it was shot.
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This is my dog, a German Wachtelhund. His primary job is to search and push deer and boar on driven hunts, but I do easier tracking jobs as well, like on this roebuck in May.
