Jack Russell Terriers in Germany, Working Jack Russell terriers in Germany 2002 - Conquest Terriers, Buffalo, New York USA

Serving Brantford, Hamilton, London, Milton, Toronto, Niagara, St. Catharines, Fort Erie, Buffalo New York.

Deep in the German forest                                      Watching the dig with extra light

As I sit down to write this article, I reflect that it has been too many years  - 6 years in fact - since this overseas trip took place. Trying to recall all of the details are impossible but following you will read about are some of the highlights of this wonderful tour.

A huntsman from England was judging a terrier trial in Germany. As an attending Canadian, I was invited to come along on their planned hunting trips. Since this was to be an epic hunt, at least for me, I brought my camera to take pictures if and when time allowed. We went out on two different occasions and had quite a bit of fun hiking along with the terriers looking for signs of an active sette.

German's countryside is breathtaking and the part we were in - the large forests reminded me of home, thickly forested with rolling land. Sadly, I have only very few pictures of this area to share.

FIRST HUNT - Walking through the forest at last we came to an interesting area filled with smells and one terrier entered. We staked out the others to keep them out of the way. The quarry kept just out of reach of the terrier - enough that the terrier could see it and was baying, but always just around another corner that the terrier could not negotiate. Finally after quite a bit of digging the quarry bolted. To our amazement it was a "wild cat".  Not a feral cat but some type of species slightly larger than a domestic house cat. It had twists of hair coming off the tip of it's ears like a bobcat. It was very a interesting critter but left too fast for a picture. Obviously we and the terrier had been outsmarted:)

SECOND HUNT - The next day we traveled to a farmer's field.  Our host had been told that there was a badger den established in one of the farmer's fields and the farmer wanted the animal removed.
We found an opening along the edge of the field and it looked like an active den. A terrier was dropped to the ground and he eagerly entered. It didn't take long for him to "tell" us that something was occupying the den. Using a locator box we found that they were moving around a bit so we waited until they settled in one spot. It didn't appear to be a deep earth so my initial thought was that this would be an quick, easy dig.  How wrong I was!
As the dig was started we found the ground to be brutally hard. Luckily there was lots of back-up muscle and they all took turns chipping away at the hard packed soil. Progress was made slowly and as they finally broke through into the tunnel but the quarry moved away another 6 to 8 feet down the tube, with the dog following. This was not a pretty sight.......there was more digging ahead of us and blisters were already forming on the hands of some of the men. Our host went back to talk to the farmer to see if he had an iron bar which could be useful in the chipping process. The rest of the men started a new hole. It is hard to believe but digging this one was like concrete and only small chips of dirt would fly off, like digging through frozen ground.
Once our host returned he brought back a big, heavy iron bar which would be very useful for breaking this impossible ground. He also told us why the ground in the middle of a field was so hard. The farmer has shared with him that during the war, that field was part of a main roadway that supported troop movement, along with tanks and other assorted heavy military equipment. Hmmmmm, now it  all made sense, why it was so hard packed along with gravel. It took quite a bit of sweat and blood (from the blisters) before the dog and quarry were reached, but finally I had a chance to see my first badger in real life.
The dog was removed and the badger was relocated.

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