Use and hunting qualities
The Deutscher Jagdterrier or Jagdterrier is the hunting dog par excellence, from top to bottom a hunting dog made for the hunter. It is a small dog which gets big results, very instinctive, tough, courageous, gifted with a great nose and good spoor loud (voice on the trail) active searching and a great sense of direction. It is willing, always ready to work, energetic and with great endurance, docile and sociable. It is an adaptable jack-of-all-trades and its malleability permits it to hunt any quarry, in any terrain.
The Jagdterrier excels in hunting in the burrows of a fox or badger, which is what they were initially bred for, and also in hunting wild boar, where it is capable, alone, of finding and taking on these often much larger aggressive animals – proof of the jagdterrier’s proverbial toughness and persistence. Of course, it can hunt any other ungulate, down to small animals like rabbits and hares.
It possesses a great love of water, conserved through time by selective breeding; its excellent swimming ability also allow it to hunt ducks and other waterfowl. Its persistence, its nose, its intelligence and its sense of the wild permit it to work as an excellent and reliable retriever of wounded ungulents.
Notwithstanding its amazing hunting qualities and its determination, the Jagdterrier is also very sociable and good with children. However, this doesn’t make it a ‘designer pet’ or a ‘house dog’. In these environments it could never express that for which it was created, and as such it would be wasted.
Considering its great qualities as a hunter, its instinctive nature and its boundless energy, this dog requires the steady and knowing hand of an active and constant master who is able to give it the right training, and knows how to valorise its many talents.
