Taking care of your Small Jura Hound means, first of all, to understand what this breed needs to thrive, to accept its personality and help fulfill its natural needs. Keep in mind that every dog is different, has a different character and personality - even if you compare two dogs from the same breed with the same age. Of course, each breed has its own basic personality and hereditary traits due to their history and gene pool, their lives alongside people, their purpose and the way they were bred.
The Small Jura Hound is a scent hound. Dogs, in generally, have a very high sense of smell that is much more developed than ours. And the scent hounds, as the name suggests, have the best scent of all dogs. Apart from their highly elevated sense of smell, they have other important attributes: persistence and tenacity to use these senses in their hunting games. These hunting games usually involve seeking and pursuing quarry, which they would follow relentlessly. Here are some attributes of a scent hound: they love the outdoors, where you'll usually see them with their nose stuck to the ground seeking out any scent they can find; once a scent is tracked they are very easy to convince into pursuing it and are determined to find it, sometimes with or without our consent; they have a great amount of endurance and stamina, they will keep on the track of the scent for hours; generally their coat hair is short and have long dropping ears.
The most 3 important factors for keeping a your Jura Hound happy: Exercising. Short walks will not be enough for these energy-packed dogs. They love long walks over a wide terrain with plenty of scents to keep them occupied physically and mentally engaged. Of course is not always easy to provide real hunting games for your hound but here are few tricks you can do for them. One of them is to hide a scented cloth or their favorite toy for them to seek it out. Step it up a notch and make it difficult for them by trying to confuse their nose with different scents (spray) or other objects to throw them off the trail. Apart from the mental challenge, you can create some obstacles in the field for them to climb, jump or even swim.
Proper feeding. Keep in mind that a scent hound will always track food scents, therefore, best way is to feed it little and often, but make sure it is a nutritionally packed food. Food high in sugar and carbohydrates is not good for them as they would get a spike of energy but only for a short time, making them flaggy for the rest of the day. Make a game out of the feeding time by hiding the food for them to track it down.
Bonding and communicating. Scent hounds are very sociable and enjoy the company of people and other canines. They usually communicate by barking and howl to signalize their presence, require attention or scenting out a trail. They can be fairly stubborn and it is always good to train them, especially if you are a first time owner.
If you enjoy playing outdoors, find interesting the games like hide and seek or even treasure hunting, then having a scent Small Jura Hound as a your pet will be perfect.
