collecting blood

nuttyspaniel

Well-Known Member
Today I was fortunate to collect my 1st blood for training. Although it was a chest shot I still bled the beast. Before I used the knife I put my collecting beaker below to collect any blood. I managed to get a fair bit but by the time I opened my small bottle and went yo pour in the blood had started to clot. I mamaged a bit more from inside after the gralloch, but I lost a fair bit with clotting. Can anybody give me pointers to get the most from a beast.


Nutty
 
the last one i did was a high neck shot i then went in quick sharp and bled the animal into a tub it seemed to work well,atb wayne
 
The muslin is much finer than a sieve. You could line the sieve with muslin. This makes the job easier as you can have a large bowl underneath to catch the blood.
 
collect the lot in to a bottle using a small bottle with the bottom cut off, so that you can funnel it better. Then use a hand blender to mix the lot up clot's as well.
 
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You should not add anything to blood that will be used for training a dog to track.

Out of interest, just how much did you manage to collect?
 
just to say the same as jamross, no need to add anything, just filter, and freeze what you not going to use.
 
I've just been collecting the stuff from the chest cavity - not really bled it much, then gralloched it with the animal lying on it's back. You can then either dip the bottle in or lift one end and hold the bottle over where it escapes.

Then I've been mixing it with the same amount of water, and freezing it in ice cube trays - put it in a stocking and hold it with your hand and it will start to drip depending on how warm it is.

Now my pup's following trails without blood, I just put a few drops at the start of the trail and a big amount at the end (near the pelt) to simulate an actual trail.

Probably all wrong but I'm not going to compete with him or anythin, just want him to be OK at helping me find deer!
 
From the little I know on the subject, what we forget or fail to comprehend, is that a dogs sense of smell is far, far more acute than ours, so when you 'think' you don't have enough from a shot beast, the reality is you probably do, at least to lay a shortish training track.

200-300ml is more than enough over a couple of hundred metres or so and that amount should be obtainable from even a roe deer. Any training film I have seen (poor ones) have shown literally pints of the stuff being splattered all over the place. That is not a real scenario so why create it for the dog? I picked up some cheap plastic bottles from Tesco that have a nozzle attached allowing for a few spots to be dropped at a time, although my young dog is still on cleaves and no blood so I have not actually used them yet, but they are in the freezer...

Just by dropping a few spots along the ground intermittently while you lay the track will have the dog showing interest and being able to follow. It may appear that it will be difficult for the dog but it won't be...
 
You should not add anything to blood that will be used for training a dog to track.

Out of interest, just how much did you manage to collect?

Why not? Ive always believed that salt was used to stop it clotting? This is the 1st time Ive heard contrary..

nutty
 
Why not? Ive always believed that salt was used to stop it clotting? This is the 1st time Ive heard contrary..

nutty

Fibrin is what makes it clot. By sieving it out you stop it clotting. You can buy dried blood(food grade) very cheaply from a bate shop. I have 5kg of it that I don't use anymore as I want the dog to follow foot scent only! I may use it to get the dog to indicate blood spots to me though. 20-25:1 means it goes a loooooong way! Association is the trigger for the dog. We make things far too easy for them!
 
Why not? Ive always believed that salt was used to stop it clotting? This is the 1st time Ive heard contrary..

nutty

Why would you add water/salt or anything else to blood?

When a deer is shot, and runs off wounded, it bleeds. It bleeds in a manner dictated by where it was shot and what was damaged, and that blood will be spread depending on how it is then moving. All we can replicate is the type of material left behind as it runs off, and we do that by taking blood (including clots) from an animal that has just been shot. If clots are present inside the cavity then surely it is feasible that there will be clots left behind by the deer as they exit from the wound. A lump of blood clot will I would imagine give off a very strong smell to the dog, interspersed with tiny spots along the proceeding and following route that the deer takes.

So, that is a long roundabout way of saying that use deer clots along the track, see if the dog indicates them to you or shows more interest in them. It is all part of teaching the dog to tell you he has found something.

from what I have been taught and learned I would always use deer blood (or boar) because that is simply what comes from the animals I want a dog to follow and to ignore all other scent along the route.

I agree with deer man in that respect, deer blood to be associated with deer only (although I don't think that is quite what he is driving at), but as for making things too easy??? That is why I was suggesting a couple of hundred ml over several hundred metres, not a bucket poured out along the route.

More importantly though, the dog being trained should certainly be given tracks easy enough for him to succeed at in the beginning...
 
Why would you add water/salt or anything else to blood?

When a deer is shot, and runs off wounded, it bleeds. It bleeds in a manner dictated by where it was shot and what was damaged, and that blood will be spread depending on how it is then moving. All we can replicate is the type of material left behind as it runs off, and we do that by taking blood (including clots) from an animal that has just been shot. If clots are present inside the cavity then surely it is feasible that there will be clots left behind by the deer as they exit from the wound. A lump of blood clot will I would imagine give off a very strong smell to the dog, interspersed with tiny spots along the proceeding and following route that the deer takes.

So, that is a long roundabout way of saying that use deer clots along the track, see if the dog indicates them to you or shows more interest in them. It is all part of teaching the dog to tell you he has found something.

from what I have been taught and learned I would always use deer blood (or boar) because that is simply what comes from the animals I want a dog to follow and to ignore all other scent along the route.

I agree with deer man in that respect, deer blood to be associated with deer only (although I don't think that is quite what he is driving at), but as for making things too easy??? That is why I was suggesting a couple of hundred ml over several hundred metres, not a bucket poured out along the route.

More importantly though, the dog being trained should certainly be given tracks easy enough for him to succeed at in the beginning...


Couldnt agree more, but the question was why not add anything? As I stated already (and Im not saying your wrong or picking an argument) I have heard many say salt helps stop the clotting especially when its being de-frosted, and you are the 1st Ive heard say use nothing. Remember this is my 1st Deer dog and alot is alien to myself and Im on a steep learning curve. Is there a reason not too or does the salt help??


Nutty
 
i would think salt will change the smell to the dog just like if you were to taste it it would be off putting to you and i would imagine the same apply's to the dog, atb wayne ps the scent that the dog smells on a real track will be different to the one you are laying loaded up with salt.
 
i would think salt will change the smell to the dog just like if you were to taste it it would be off putting to you and i would imagine the same apply's to the dog, atb wayne ps the scent that the dog smells on a real track will be different to the one you are laying loaded up with salt.


You may be correct Wayne, who actually knows what a dog smells except a dog..


nutty
 
again i can only imagine but it would probably be hundreds of times better than ours but still i would think the scent being layed should replicate as much as possible to what you expect from the dog ,atb wayne

ps i watch mine all the time and it amazes me how the dog smells deer long before we see them and watching it take in big lungfulls of air whilst circulating it in there mouths with the nose twitching and turning , i can only think the smell of the deer with salt being very off putting to the dog
 
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