Hello from Sweden!

[GrundSWE]

Hello! my name is Simon and I live in Sweden. I have three dogs at the moment, a mixed breed (American foxhound / treeing walker / Finnish Hound), a east siberian laika and one foxterrier . I use them on all kinds of predators, from pine marten to bear. 
I'm very intrested of all different hounds you have and different lines and look forward to learn more about this.. 

I'm also intrested of import a hound to sweden, but first I have to find one that matches my criterias. 

[pegleg]

Hello simon glad to see you on bgh ! What type of hound are you looking for? What national breeds do you have there? It seems sweden does have a variety do they have short comings your trying to avoid.?

[GrundSWE]

Thank you! I'm looking for a fast, light dog that travels well in deep snow and go upon the crust. In our lynx season its often really bad conditions for the dogs. I'm also want it be cold nosed and tight mouthed when it works with cold tracks, I think the Lynx dont get as big ahead with a dog that is quiet until its close to the cat = treeing faster.
I will also use it on bear and wolverine so it got to have a lot of grit and good baying(?) skills because our bears dont tree as often as yours.

Here in sweden we dont have any long traditions for predatorhunting with hounds, so our hounds are breed for hare and redfox, So many of the hounds dosent have the grit to baying on a bear. Many of the hunters here use spitz-dogs for bear combined with moose, witch i personally think is bad combo(the dog often finds moose because they are in greater numbers)

[runnin akita]

Very cool to hear of other countrys and what there methods are as well as what the hunt. Welcome to bgh.

[pegleg]

Have you talked to any Canadians? It would seem the weather is going to play a big part in hound selection maybe a rougher coated coyote hound from the northern states

[GrundSWE]

No, i havent talked to anyone yet
We have quite large variations on the weather, our bear season starts 21 august and then it can be really hot days.

Another important thing is that the dog must be good on their own or in a pair. We are not allowed to run bear or lynx with more than 2 dogs a time.

Is there any specific breed you would recomend for me or is it more a question of different lines?

[cox]

Hi Simon good to have you on the site. I live in northern Michigan and use my hounds on bear coyote and bobcat. I have redbones and plotts with what your describing I think the plott dogs would interest you. They are tough dogs do well in the snow and have allot of grit. Also quite a few of them I've had have been pretty tight mouthed on the cold trail. I'm sure there are dogs in all breeds that would work for you just offering my opinion. Good luck to you and I'd like to see some pictures of your lynx over there I've heard they are pretty big.

[GrundSWE]

we have some plots in Sweden, but I havent seen any that are especially fast, most of them comes from ursus lines, and some are from gantte. If i only hunted bear i probably go for a plott:)

[GrundSWE]

A really big lynx here weighs up to 30kg

[cox]

I'll agree that the plotts aren't the fastest breed out there but they are a tough durable breed if I could only run 2 dogs I'd probly use plotts. That being said I have a female plott walker cross from an accidental breeding that I really like alot I got lucky she's been blessed with the best of both breeds. Ive never run lynx just bobcat I have heard the lynx are a lot harder to catch maybe some guys on here that have run them will have better advise good luck, Dan

[pegleg]

how many plotts have you seen over there that came from different litters from the us? i ask because what normaly happens on imports is multiple pups from the same litter are sent at worse or two pups from the same breeder but different parents are sent then occasionally you get two unrelated pups. if its a good line it doesen't matter however its a big gamble either way. i think importing line bred adults that are already proven makes more sense as is kinda clears the way for the breed to be established in the country. my other question is about plot speed granted its one breed i've not hunted with a lot but the ones i've hunted with weren't slow some were actually what id call pretty quick for a trail hound and running them in pairs seems to be a pretty good idea for plotts as most seem to have a harder time accepting new pack members or switching packs even the ones run in communal bear pack type races seem not as adaptible to it as other breeds. but yes the line or strain has way more importance then breed in most cases. while you might have temp swings id still focus on the northern us canadian dogs. i know most of my hounds dont handle real cold well unless they have lots of feed and a long time to get aclimatized and some can't grew enough coat and rev up their body temp no matter what they do ok to about 20 degrees as a low but need to thaw out some before they act right. tell us about your breeders and their breeding practices. and wouldn't it be easier to ship semen to breed a good native gyp? you'd save money get a 50% chance at being better suited to climate and a litter of pups to run .

[GrundSWE]

most of plots thats imoported are imported as adults i think. One big problem with the plots in sweden is the price of a pup. They are really expensive, and some people just wanna make som money and take litters on crappy dogs. One pup costs between 1500-1800us$.
There is some really good plots here to, but unfortunately i havent seen or heard about one yet that have specific qualities i'm looking for.

What dogs do you run pegleg?

[GrundSWE]

The idea of Shipping semen is really good, but the problem is to find a gyp that is good enogh and you belive in. Im thinking like you about importing adults thats alredy proven. A possibilty is to ship semen if you want a second litter of the gyp. Or ship semen to the offspings if they turn out well.