Bavarian Mountain Hound

About the Bavarian Mountain Hound

One job shaped the Bavarian Mountain Hound and it does that job supremely well: following the cold blood trail of a wounded deer through steep forest until the animal is found. In Britain the breed sits almost entirely in the hands of deer managers and stalkers, which makes it one of very few hound breeds here whose stud dogs are still picked on working ability before anything else.

Build is medium and light for the mountain but strong with it, around 47 to 52 cm, under a short dense coat in deep red, fawn or brindle, often carrying a darker mask. Temperament gives the breed away: undemonstrative and easy in the house, then wholly absorbed the moment it is put to a line. Noisy or nervy dogs are not typical and are a poor choice to breed from.

There is no long catalogue of inherited disease here, partly because numbers are small everywhere and working selection has stayed strict. Ask for hip scores under the BVA/KC scheme and a current eye certificate, and ask to see the dog's tracking record, because a Bavarian that cannot follow a line has failed at the only thing it exists for. In a population this size, the coefficient of inbreeding for the proposed pairing is a fair and useful question.

Health & breeding

We check every hip, elbow, eye and DNA result you give us against the Royal Kennel Club’s public records by hand, and we record who checked it and when. The Royal Kennel Club’s public records may not include all the screening a dog has had, so a dog with no Royal Kennel Club record showing is not necessarily untested.