The pack

On may 1 1991 the “Kweb meute” (KOH=Kweb Otterhound Hunt) was founded by Master and owner Wiljan van den Broek, with the enthusiastic help of a few dedicated club members who became the so called “whipper ins” (the hunt personnel) and later also huntsman & joint Master. The aim was to realise the main goal of the club: to preserve the original qualities of the Otterhound. Which is done best in their natural habitat = in a pack.

This pack was by then the only pure bred Otterhound pack in the world!


Master Wiljan van den Broek with a part of his pack.

Following the classic British historic examples, in hunting costumes too. For example: traditional buttons were made with the KOH logo on them. The pack was paraded on many outdoor events, to promote the breed (instead of bringing them to dogshows). Several newsletters and magazines published about this unique pack.

Of course the main problem in this country is that pack hunting is forbidden. In Great Britain some packs changed to hunting the mink. Not an option over here. So it was decided the pack would act as vermin controllers, namely by hunting the musk rat, a real plague in our country. Another great obstacle appeared to be the fact that there are very few terrains open and available to hunts. Landowners and farmers are not familiar with a hunting tradition and all sorts of prejudices stand in the way. But thanks to great efforts of our huntsman and a whipper in with theright connections we succeeded to find terrains, mainly with farmers. Before they could really work as a pack, years of training and exercising went by, using the so called slip hunt technique. (An artificial scent trail, laid by one of the whipper ins.)

The KOH enjoyed many years of great days out in the field, many joyful events where the hounds were paraded, the Master and whips went on a few trips to Great Britain, to study the English packs at work. Alas, several circumstances made it unavoidable that the pack ended its activities in 2008. Lack of terrains, shortage of fresh and young whipper ins and lack of time for the Master (three boys were born and grew up since the start of the pack) were the main reasons. A very unique and special period came to an end.