Our eight month old pup Raven has been taken on two residential courses by my mum, Tracking, Trailing and search and Rescue and a Drug and Explosive Detection Course. Much to our families amazement he did a fantastic job of everything even outsearching some border collies!!! He LOVES it, he stopped sleeping all the time and could not wait for his turn to try things. He was so good mum is now going to train him for working trials. The trainer is world famous and signed a book mum bought off him "Raven best search and rescue Deerhound in the universe!" We are amazed and could not be prouder only problem is he now can't pass a car without checking it out for "Explosives" he even checks up the exhaust pipe.

Wow, I remember you saying on the forum he was going. You would never think Deerhounds would be capable of doing such a job, that brilliant, you must be proud of him and to beat collies......what ever next!

Yes thats really amazing news. I sometimes Suspect that Deerhounds sleep so much as they get bored. I believe that they are a lot cleverer than we think and that they get bored very easily.

I think you are right Robb. If kept stimulated I'm sure they would reciprocate by staying awake. I watch how our hounds use tracking skills to find wallabies or other little furries.

Hi,
This is Rachels mum. I thought about the boredom but I don't
know how you would be able to keep that level
of stimulation up in any home situation. He is a different dog
when working, my partner was "kidnapped" taken away over a pitch black Air
Field and chained to a concrete block blindfolded! He was allowed to call
Raven once. That pup had the bottle to leave the other dogs and people,
tear away in total darkness (he had a light stick attached to his tracking harness,
it looked beautiful flowing over the ground) to track over the grass to find
him. He was carrying a key on his collar so that my partner could release
himself. This level of intensity does have its disadvantages, he seems to stay
awake for a few days afterwards and came back to a recall this morning
arriving in front of me about six foot off the ground, very unnerving! But his
sits and down are fast and clean. Shame that won't last.

I think it is wonderful that you have found a task for him that you both enjoy. It will be interesting to see if his level of interest remains as he matures.
Good luck and keep us informed on how he goes.

Yes Brollachan, I agree that its hard to keep boredom away in the home environment. We have resident rabbits, the terrior is always alert, checking (and excavating) the holes. The rabbits rarely appear when the dogs are about, they must know and only come out late at night when the dogs are asleep. Ben, my Deerhound is not as interested as the terrior, and although he loves to chase the rabbits should they make an appearance at the wrong time, he seems to know that its generally a waste of time waiting around for them to appear and would rather sleep.