TOP 10 Hunting Dogs

A hunting dog is any dog that helps humans in hunting. There are many kinds of such hunting dogs developed for versatile tasks. The main categories of hunting dogs include hounds, terriers and the cur type dogs, and of course not to forget, gun dogs. Amongst all of these categorical divisions, we can make further divisions based on the skill sets of the dog.


1. Sight hounds are very well adapted for speed and the power of visual acuity. Their unique method is known as "coursing" where the prey is generally sighted from a long distance, stalked, pursued and killed neatly. Sight hounds work very sneakily and quietly. They are independent by nature.

2, Scent hounds are a kind of hound that primarily hunts by smell. Scent hounds are used to track and kill game. They tend to hunt in large packs and lead the hunters on a huge chase which might end up in the quarry, chased and rammed into a tree or even killed. Some of these breeds have excessively deep and booming barks and use them appropriately while following the scent of a trail.

3. A Lurcher is also a sighthound, which is crossed with a working kind of dog breed - generally a pastoral dog or Terrier breed.

4. A retriever is classified as a water spaniel. Its main role is to find and return game that is shot back to the hunter. Retrievers can spend long hours in a watered area and spot and keep note of the location of the birds killed. At command, they obtain the birds. They can follow hand, verbal, and whistle commands to look for the bird or animal that is killed. They are large dogs.

5. Settlers have a very long history as fierce gun dogs. They tend to have the ability to find upland game birds. They generally flush these birds when the hunter gives the command.

6. Spaniels have also been used to hunt for many years. Flushing Spaniels are used to locate and flush game for a hunter.

7. Water dogs are a mere subclass of the well known retrievers.

8. Feists are known to be very small dogs that hunt tiny game, like squirrels, in a manner similar to large fierce hounds hunting raccoons, rabbits and larger game. These dogs may hunt in large packs too, and "bark up" on trees to warn the hunter. The feist came about in the southern United States, from British fell terriers and small Native American dogs.

9. Terriers are generally used to hunt mammals. Terriers tend to locate the set of the animal to target and then bolt off, quickly capture, and kill the animal. A working terrier could go underground to kill or drive out the game. Such hunters who use such dogs are referred to as terriermen.

10. Curs are very similar to terriers, although they usually hunt for larger game. These dogs are used to hunt boars, raccoon, rabbits, cougars, and other large animals.