The American Beagler Forum

Anybody ever seen the Portugese Podengo dogs that are used for rabbit hunting? I saw a giant pack of them on my way out of a hunting area this morning....odd looking little buggers....long legged and thin sort of like a mini greyhound..... I stopped to ask the guys what they were hunting just because I've never seen any before, they said they are bred for rabbits and supposed to be pretty popular in areas. Guess I learned something new today.


Here's a pic of one from the web

Wonder if you saw the same guy i saw a couple years ago. I was bird hunting the day i seem him. I came up over a hill on the dirt road and about 10 of them came out into the rd with more in the woods still. I see the owner coming out of the woods and talked to him for a minute he said he brought his over with him when he moved to the united states. He had some that were long haired and some with short hair like in your picture. While i was talking to the guy a few of the dogs ran a rabbit cross the rd. I think he said he had 15 of them that day and was running no tracking collars and was calling them all by name as they came out.

Probably the same group, I can't imagine too many folks run those in Northern Maine instead of beagles. Odd looking bunch of dogs lined up though....I have no idea how many there were but it was a large number....there were shooters lined all up too....they looked like they meant business.

Do they track with their nose to the ground like a beagle?

Panther Creek wrote:Do they track with their nose to the ground like a beagle?

I'm not sure, I didn't get to see them run....there were so many dogs down I can't imagine keeping track of them. The ones I saw were the ones hanging out on the road and even then there were a ton of them there. I did a little Google searching and they do sight/scent hunt but I'm not sure if it's head down or not.


To me their ears aren't long enough to be a decent scent dog....nothing to help pull the scent up but they are interesting looking.

The day i saw them the guy was up here by himself hunting i believe he said that he comes up quite a bit but i think he was from Rhode island or new jersey area. I didnt get to see them run either except when they put the rabbit across the road, the ones that were running it werent to far behind the others were just hanging out on the rd until the ones running ran the rabbit out to the rd.