Wild Boar (Sanglier) Boars in Europe have been considered game since the very beginning of mankind. By game, we mean game in all the very technical senses this word may express. More precisely, boars are appreciated for their ability to hide or escape, for the thousand difficulties man or dog may have to find it and catch it, for the skill and experience required, but never ever for the violent aspect of the hunt or boar's ability to fight.

Boars are game and only think of escaping, and do it with talent, any kind of fight is an accident. Even in close conact, boar is feared but not even as much as the stag following the old hunter's saying: "Au sanglier la civière, au cerf la bière..." This means that the boar sends you back home on a "hand barrow" when the stag would dispatch you in a coffin!" The hunt with hounds is called "La Chasse à Courre" and is based on the same principle as the better known "fox hunt" in the Anglo Saxon world. The goal is to "take" an animal from beginning to end with only the skill of the pack, the trick being that the pack must be able to resist to change and must not switch to a fresh quarry during the hunt.

Boar hounds are tall, fast and strong dogs. The first difficult step is to shorten the distance between the "foot" found early morning and turn it into hunting of real boar. A limited pack of perhaps 6 or 10 skilled dogs is used for this. Hunted boars are usually going straight and fast, its scent is good but light, At the end of the hunt during the part called "ferme" (firm), or "ferme roulant" (rolling firm), just before being put at bay, the boar will choose a thick covert and turn around inside it giving difficulties to the tall dogs. It may also choose water like a pond, river or swamp. Dogs of the pack are always bred to avoid physical contact at bay. Those who are too "brave" do not last a long time. Only bark and cut retreat.

"La Chasse aux chiens Courants", is found in the southern part of France. Boars in these hills have decreased in size and weight but are fast, wild and agile animals. Typically, a group of 10 to 15 hunters will select a ring of about 1000 ha for the day. All guns will depart and choose strategic passes. Meantime, the dog master will go inside a "ring" with dogs on the leash and will try to find a fresh enough "foot", usually called literally a "foot of the night”. During this time, the guns are waiting and it can be quite a long wait. The master has his best dog (sleuth hound) on the leash and one or two assistants (piqueux) will have the rest of a limited pack of 5 or 6 hounds. The dog will confirm the quarry, he is unleashed and then the rest of the pack is unleashed to start hunting.

The hunt is not automatically successful and many sorties for the chasse are simply means of recreation under the umbrella of keeping down the boar population.