What sort of leads, collars and or harnesses are stalkers using.

Heym SR20

Well-Known Member
as per the title. I am using a rope slip lead as it's quiet. But what are others using. Ultimately N will be at heal off a lead, and will sit quietly by my side every time I pause and stop. But she has problems reading the book so is on a lead quite a bit of the time whilst I am out with her.
 
as per the title. I am using a rope slip lead as it's quiet. But what are others using. Ultimately N will be at heal off a lead, and will sit quietly by my side every time I pause and stop. But she has problems reading the book so is on a lead quite a bit of the time whilst I am out with her.
For my two pennies worth.1) A rope or leather slip with an added bit of rope/leather to slip over your shoulder. 2) Harness bought offf eBay, sorry cannot remember the name but I care very much about the comfort of my dog whilst it is on her. It is made of neoprene and has orange braiding around it, a top ring for tracking lead attachment and cost the princely sum of £24.99. 3)Tracking lead. Biothane orange, 10 meters £18.99, I think that was off a company called K9.
So in brief there is no need to spend loads of dough on Niggelough and all that crap. Buy something like my little set up and have a nice days stalking or a few beers on the savings.:)
 
Imo train the dog to 'not need a lead' a voice or hand command should suffice.
WE have the same stuff here with owners of companion dogs for stalking sambar deer..blokes talking about the dog tangling the lead in the bush etc.
Train the dog and no lead is needed..work work and more work..its up to the owner.
 
Imo train the dog to 'not need a lead' a voice or hand command should suffice.
WE have the same stuff here with owners of companion dogs for stalking sambar deer..blokes talking about the dog tangling the lead in the bush etc.
Train the dog and no lead is needed..work work and more work..its up to the owner.

Totally agree and that is certainly my aim. But she is still young - only 13 months - and very forward and is principally the family dog that will work with me. She is walking to heal where there are not too many distractions, and this is improving by the day, but I am not able to get out into the woods amongst deer every day. At the moment she is off the lead when in non deer parts of the farm, but on the lead when there is the chance of a shot. Most of the time she is walking quietly to heel, but head goes down every time she smells a track and she will follow these if not on a lead. A quick "leave it" and she is back by my side. What I don't want her to do is to get into the habit of being able to rush off after anything she chooses.

On Monday evening shot a large buck in the thick woodland on the side of an old volcanic plug - was on wee bit of a cliff looking down into the wood. N was very aware that he was there, indeed she pointed him out - he was well hidden. She sat down quietly as I crawled forward and took the shot. He went down and then rolled into deep cover. She was off the lead as we climbed down to him and she went straight in and found him wedged under an old fallen pine. On the way back she was at my side making sure that I carried it out properly.
 
For my two pennies worth.1) A rope or leather slip with an added bit of rope/leather to slip over your shoulder. 2) Harness bought offf eBay, sorry cannot remember the name but I care very much about the comfort of my dog whilst it is on her. It is made of neoprene and has orange braiding around it, a top ring for tracking lead attachment and cost the princely sum of £24.99. 3)Tracking lead. Biothane orange, 10 meters £18.99, I think that was off a company called K9.
So in brief there is no need to spend loads of dough on Niggelough and all that crap. Buy something like my little set up and have a nice days stalking or a few beers on the savings.:)

Thanks and thanks for the pm - I am using a version of 1) at the moment, although do have a harness for her as well.
 
Hi,

I use a Niggeloh jager 3 in 1 tracking lead from Muntjac trading. It does it's job but it always gets in the way. I'm now shifting to getting the dog to work just in front trailing 4 metres of rope which I can stand on if I need to stop the dog. Most of my stalking is narrow paths so a dog at my side means one or other of us is crashing through the verge, so the dog needs to be in front or behind. I've opted for in front so I can see her working. I will train her to walk behind on command in due course. She already walks to heel nicely. She's still learning to walk at my pace and to stop when i stop, but it's coming on nicely with lots of gentle encouragement.

Back to leads, I've tried webbing leads (a little noisy where the clip attaches to the collar) and a long slip lead, either used conventionally or tied to a belt or attached to a carabineer, good in theory, but sooner or later you are going to get your sticks tangled just when you don't want it too.
 
Personanlly i would not be taking a dog out with rifle if not fully trained to wot ever level u want it too.

It will only make the training harder and more chance for her to learn bad habits that are often far harder to cure than not letting the dog develop them in first place.
Dogs generally know when u are paying attention to them and when ur not, when ur not they tend to take advantage if they can. If ur not careful ur dog wil quickly associate when she goes out with the rifle she can misbave more as ur concentrating on stalking too. When she's almost at a level u want either go stalking with a mate so he stalks and u can focus on dog or go pretend stalks where u have a rifle but no intending to use it (stalking into does out of season etc) so dog gets used to stalking but ur still concentrating fully on her. It just will ease her in more gradually, many dogs are ruined by doing too much too soon.

Put in the basics now, at 13month i'd expect most dogs should be heeling fairly well on/off lead but every dog is different. Getting it heeling well even with distractions makes ur whole famiies life far easier for walking her anytime. Even go to ur local training/obediance classes, can be good for teaching heel, sit and recall in a room full of other dogs/smells/distractions.
Total pain if u have to have it on lead full time esp if going throu cover and evn more so if its tied to u (ignoring any safety issues)
 
Personanlly i would not be taking a dog out with rifle if not fully trained to wot ever level u want it too.

It will only make the training harder and more chance for her to learn bad habits that are often far harder to cure than not letting the dog develop them in first place.
Dogs generally know when u are paying attention to them and when ur not, when ur not they tend to take advantage if they can. If ur not careful ur dog wil quickly associate when she goes out with the rifle she can misbave more as ur concentrating on stalking too. When she's almost at a level u want either go stalking with a mate so he stalks and u can focus on dog or go pretend stalks where u have a rifle but no intending to use it (stalking into does out of season etc) so dog gets used to stalking but ur still concentrating fully on her. It just will ease her in more gradually, many dogs are ruined by doing too much too soon.

Put in the basics now, at 13month i'd expect most dogs should be heeling fairly well on/off lead but every dog is different. Getting it heeling well even with distractions makes ur whole famiies life far easier for walking her anytime. Even go to ur local training/obediance classes, can be good for teaching heel, sit and recall in a room full of other dogs/smells/distractions.
Total pain if u have to have it on lead full time esp if going throu cover and evn more so if its tied to u (ignoring any safety issues)


Agree with everything you say here. Fundamentally when I am out I am taking a rifle with me so she gets used to it and feels that going out with a rifle is perfectly normal. The rifle will rounds in the magazine, but not in the chamber. Keeping stalks short in time - 30 mins max, ideally 15.

General walking to heel is coming on well - both on and off the lead, and when on the lead, I just lay it across her back. Dogs I have had in the past have never needed a lead once trained.

My priority this year is to go out regularly with her, primarily training her and getting her used to stalking. It will mean that we bump deer, make too noise, loose deer etc but you have to break eggs to make an omelette. If stalking seriously, then she is staying at home. Yes and I have twigged that she tries to get away with things if I am not concentrating on her.
 
It sounds like ur not far away then and u know wot ur doing. I'd just stick to ur normal slip lead then, doubt u'll ever even need it on for normal stalking but handy to have in ur pocket just incase.

Just putting in the hours and being consistant
 
Sit/stay can be achieved in 10 mins with an 8 wk old pup AND a handful of mince meat.
The hungry pup will learn so quickly it will amaze you.
Reinforce the command every time in every situation as further 'proofing' without the mince.

At the age of 12 months a dog should be almost fool proof...allowing for minor indiscretions and mistakes here and there.
There is no substitute for work and if you don't have country acres to train on the back yard with no distractions around is far better than down the dog park.

My dog used to do the lions share stuff when it came to feed out time and as soon as I walked away he took the bitches tucker...I simply locked him out of the feed area and he had to watch the bitch get the lot ha ha.

He got nothing! Three times of this and he subscribed to the law of sharing!
Simple little things go a long way to training/letting them know what you want.

As above its work work work..like a runner in training.
Never allow a dog to break a rule or have its head,you must remain the skipper at all times.
I dont pet,ONLY when they have actually done something of value out in the field.
 
Apologies for being a bit late on a old thread, my GWP is used as a general purpose shooting dog from ferreting up to deer, as a pup I used to use a slip lead being dragged alone the floor when on deer, I have now got her a harness for deer stalking, she will stay close to me and steady and be in deer mode, she is never attached to me whilst stalking, if I am in the high seat I will tether her then as after a few hours she can begin to creep forward when bored, as soon as harness is off she is back into the rabbits and birds, this seems to work for me .
 
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