Indy is a four year old German Shepherd. She's originally from Holland and is trained in Schutzhund. At the moment she belongs to the Thames Valley police as a brood bitch, I'm looking after her until after her next litter then she gets signed over to me.
I'm using her as a security dog and also to train her to track deer. I started of going back to basics as she really needed it! I then read up on Schutzhund training so I could get a bit of her back ground training.
I can't say it's been easy,she's willful and has nailed three of my other dogs but now she seems to have calmed down, thank god!!
I started her off by putting blood under one of three flower pots and praising her and rewarding her with her ball when she chose correctly, which was 99% of the time.
This became to easy so I then used a bit of one inch diameter dowel and dipped it in some deer's blood, I then buried three of them just under the surface in my training field, she found all three in no time at all, again it was all to easy, I pondered this for a while until I realized she was following my scent to the buried dowel.
After reading a comment by Jagare on here, I then used a deer's leg and tied it behind my Landrover and laid a fifty yard trail, I put her on a lead and told her to "find" twenty seconds later she's found it. I then laid another trail two hundred yards long and put a bend on the end, she followed it exactly, I praised her and then gave her reward. I did the same again yesterday but put a few twists and turns in the trail, again she followed the scent faultlessly but actually over ran the leg.
I have no doubt that she will track deer, but any advice on what to watch out for or what to do next are most welcome.
I have trained working dogs for twenty five years but I'm a novice at this, but loving every moment of it. My actual aim is to have a bitch from her litter and train a deer dog from scratch.
This is the pack, the Shepherd in this photo isn't Indy.
Meet Elwood
I'm using her as a security dog and also to train her to track deer. I started of going back to basics as she really needed it! I then read up on Schutzhund training so I could get a bit of her back ground training.
I can't say it's been easy,she's willful and has nailed three of my other dogs but now she seems to have calmed down, thank god!!
I started her off by putting blood under one of three flower pots and praising her and rewarding her with her ball when she chose correctly, which was 99% of the time.
This became to easy so I then used a bit of one inch diameter dowel and dipped it in some deer's blood, I then buried three of them just under the surface in my training field, she found all three in no time at all, again it was all to easy, I pondered this for a while until I realized she was following my scent to the buried dowel.
After reading a comment by Jagare on here, I then used a deer's leg and tied it behind my Landrover and laid a fifty yard trail, I put her on a lead and told her to "find" twenty seconds later she's found it. I then laid another trail two hundred yards long and put a bend on the end, she followed it exactly, I praised her and then gave her reward. I did the same again yesterday but put a few twists and turns in the trail, again she followed the scent faultlessly but actually over ran the leg.
I have no doubt that she will track deer, but any advice on what to watch out for or what to do next are most welcome.
I have trained working dogs for twenty five years but I'm a novice at this, but loving every moment of it. My actual aim is to have a bitch from her litter and train a deer dog from scratch.
This is the pack, the Shepherd in this photo isn't Indy.
Meet Elwood