At the time of writing I see that 2321 hits have been made on 6pointers site “Poll : Trained deer dog“ and that 82 persons have answered that they have either access to a or a deer dog themselves.
That is 3.5%. Room for improvement here, I think.
But what is more interesting is that 32 people answered that they have a “fully trained deer dog”.
That begs the question: What should a “fully trained deerdog” that might be called in to assist another stalker to help find his wounded deer be able to do?
In my view he should:
1 Be able to sit and stay for a minimum of 25 minutes out ofsight of everything and everybody whilst a rifle shot is fired about halfway.
2 Work out a track of not less than 1000 meters without blood but with diversions like squirrels, rabbits, other deer tracks, car tracks, roads, rivers, impenetrable bushes etc. The track should be not less than 24 hours old.
3 Stop and show his handler each time he has found something from the deer on the track, be it hair, guts, blood or whatever.
4 If taken off the lead at the end he should be able to stop the deer by barking so that it can be approached and shot or, if so trained, use a bringsel.
5 I do not mention PRA Tests, HD tests, size, confirmation, character etc etc. I take these for granted!
Let me be honest. My old "trained deer dog" cannot do it and the young one cannot do it yet!
And yours?
That is 3.5%. Room for improvement here, I think.
But what is more interesting is that 32 people answered that they have a “fully trained deer dog”.
That begs the question: What should a “fully trained deerdog” that might be called in to assist another stalker to help find his wounded deer be able to do?
In my view he should:
1 Be able to sit and stay for a minimum of 25 minutes out ofsight of everything and everybody whilst a rifle shot is fired about halfway.
2 Work out a track of not less than 1000 meters without blood but with diversions like squirrels, rabbits, other deer tracks, car tracks, roads, rivers, impenetrable bushes etc. The track should be not less than 24 hours old.
3 Stop and show his handler each time he has found something from the deer on the track, be it hair, guts, blood or whatever.
4 If taken off the lead at the end he should be able to stop the deer by barking so that it can be approached and shot or, if so trained, use a bringsel.
5 I do not mention PRA Tests, HD tests, size, confirmation, character etc etc. I take these for granted!
Let me be honest. My old "trained deer dog" cannot do it and the young one cannot do it yet!
And yours?
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