Training a tracking dog

DCG

Well-Known Member
Ok Guys ,
Ive got a four year old black lab that I've trained and been using for rough shooting etc, she's got a good nose and although not champion standard (my training not the dog) she's not bad.
My question is I'd also like to use her when I'm stalking, are the two disciplines compatible? Is she to old to train? and how would you go about training her.
 
Hello , i'm sorry but i dont think the dog will come to it , i work a lab on deer & use as a peg dog at which she excells , but the first job was deer , two full years on deer so she is rock steady, she walks to heel, sits under a high seat unteathered, deer come within feet of her dos'nt move a muscle, will sit and not move if she scents a deer i've not spotted(this gets me 4 or 5 a year) but this must be the first job , nothing but deer ,scent trails sit &stay heel work.if they have been used for rough shooting groundngame is there number one occupation.......The upside is any dog is better than no dog
 
my old lab lucy had allways bin a rough shooting dog picking up ect I got her at 4 year old i started to take he stalking and she fit in IT was if she turned a switch on in her head walked be hind me and when i shot a deer told her to find it and she did I had a runner told her to find it she did and gave voice when I found her she was laid on it bargain IT was if she could tell the diff shotgun or rifle
 
Hi DCG,
I am in a simlar psition to you with a 4 year old lab bitch that has been used as a peg dog and for a bit of rough shooting etc. She is no FTCh but is steady enough. Since starting stalking I have tried laying some trails with cleeves and been extendending these gradually and she seems to be getting the idea and will follow them well (and has remained steady to deer on the shoot thankfully). I have yet to take her stalking but think I will do shortly. While she maynot ever be as efficent as a dedicted deer dog (what ever the breed) but she is good company and has a better nose than me.
I often think dogs are more able to understand whats required in different situations than we give them credit for and I am sure they pick up on cues we don't even realise we are giving (she behaves differently if we are out rough shooting/beating/on a peg/in a hide/or out rabbiting with the .22 or sitting out for a fox).
My advice would be to give it a try
 
Hi DCG,
I am in a simlar psition to you with a 4 year old lab bitch that has been used as a peg dog and for a bit of rough shooting etc. She is no FTCh but is steady enough. Since starting stalking I have tried laying some trails with cleeves and been extendending these gradually and she seems to be getting the idea and will follow them well (and has remained steady to deer on the shoot thankfully). I have yet to take her stalking but think I will do shortly. While she maynot ever be as efficent as a dedicted deer dog (what ever the breed) but she is good company and has a better nose than me.
I often think dogs are more able to understand whats required in different situations than we give them credit for and I am sure they pick up on cues we don't even realise we are giving (she behaves differently if we are out rough shooting/beating/on a peg/in a hide/or out rabbiting with the .22 or sitting out for a fox).
My advice would be to give it a try

You should give your Lab a chance to prove herself, i'm sure she will come good, dogs are very versatile, Labs more than most, I have have two, a spriger and now a GWP, my old Lab, sadly has cancer, hence the new dog, but she was itroduced to deer at about four, mainly Muntjac, but she took to it with out any specific training, she to is steady to all game, including deer. Give her a go or two, I bet she will be ok, plus it adds another pleasure to stalking when your dog helps you out. I never go shooting with out one.
Good luck. Navaran5.
 
My stalking buddy and I use a lab but it is trained for deer work solely .labs are versatile but I think you will always have doubt in your mind as to wether the dog is following bird scent / rabbit scent Ect or the deer you require it to track ,by all means take the dog as a stalking companion and see how it does or how will you know if you don't try ! After all far too many so called deer dogs sit in a kennel and don't get to see a deer let alone go stalking on a regular basis .
good luck
norma
 
Thanks for all of the replies guys, from initially thinking it wouldn't work, I'm deffinately going to give it a try. If it works I'll let you all know, if you don't hear anything then you know how it's gone!!!
Dcg
 
Hello , i'm sorry but i dont think the dog will come to it , i work a lab on deer & use as a peg dog at which she excells , but the first job was deer , two full years on deer so she is rock steady, she walks to heel, sits under a high seat unteathered, deer come within feet of her dos'nt move a muscle, will sit and not move if she scents a deer i've not spotted(this gets me 4 or 5 a year) but this must be the first job , nothing but deer ,scent trails sit &stay heel work.if they have been used for rough shooting groundngame is there number one occupation.......The upside is any dog is better than no dog

Wow
with out actually seeing the dog work you come to the decision the dog won't make it
how strange...!!!!
I hav an eight year old spaniel that could prove you wrong and that is a dog that has been trained as a beating from the off
but there are plenty of working bred dogs out there that are not interested in deer , so no point using them to find a lost deer because they simply won't work a track or trail , even on simple tracks/trails
been there , done that
is that the sort of dog that is better than no dog ??

the upshot is , if you hav a breed of dog that is keen on hunting
then the chances are it will hav enough wanting drive to follow a simple blood trail
if it cannot then you will know if your dog is worth taking to the next level and training or harnessing it's abilities towards deer work
if it shows potential then yes persue
it may not be the best dog in the world but should help assit you to recover some deer that you alone may not be able to find
but there are people out there with dogs trained to a very high standard that are willing to help try and find the lost deer you are not able to
sort of fall back plan just incase
 
Dcg ....I was WRONG....after i replied to your post i was talking to a mate of mine who stalks & shoots & we decided to try his dogs on deer ,lab & a cocker.The lab is 5 the cocker 3.the lab is used just for picking up& peg dog,the cocker for rough shooting & a little beating.We started with the useual sent trail & reward,but also took them stalking (only one of us carried a rifle ) ,my dog was left in the vehicle much to her disgust.The lab showed no real intrest in any part of the job other than what edible rewards were on offer,the cocker on the other hand was keen as could be ,so much so we gave up on the lab to concentrate on the cocker.Given its only been 6 or 7 weeks ,abeit fairly intensive the cocker is stunning ...i have let her "find" every deer.taking her to the point of impact to follow a very short trail to the dead animal ,always on a long lead ,the first few she found with our help obviously ,but after only 5 weeks she had that nose down arse up attitude........This morning i shot a pricket ,it took off,i could see the front leg out of sync & and blood pumping , it made the fairly deep ditch before the wood but never came out the other side.From the point of impact to the ditch is only about 25 m but it had done a semi circle leaving a very clear blood trail.This was a perfect chance to try the cocker on a good trail with the deer out of sight .I waited 15 min ,then went to check that the deer was were i thought it was,i approached the deer from a totally different angle to the one the dog would take if it was actually following the scent,the deer was in the ditch.

We started out to the strike ,the dog quartering the ground in front,it has to be said this little dog quarters the ground non stop indoors outdoors anywhere it goes its back & forth ,as we got up close to the strike it stopped,then went nose down & away , we could see the blood trail & it never ventured from it ,straight to the deer.


My earlier reply was based on two other dogs that we tried on deer neither one could be relied on to follow sent ,both would come of trail to follow ground game.Hence the reason i went the deer /shooting route with the dog i know use.Although this dog wont be able to come out stalking of lead we will keep up its training .My mate is made up with the fact that he has a good tracking dog in the making.Its only taken me 6 or 7 weeks to realise the old saying is correct ....there is no fool like an old fool......My reply now would be its down to the dog ,give it a try.
 
Dcg ....I was WRONG...., My earlier reply was based on two other dogs that we tried on deer neither one could be relied on to follow sent ,both would come of trail to follow ground game.Hence the reason i went the deer /shooting route with the dog i know use.Although this dog wont be able to come out stalking of lead we will keep up its training .My mate is made up with the fact that he has a good tracking dog in the making.Its only taken me 6 or 7 weeks to realise the old saying is correct ....there is no fool like an old fool......My reply now would be its down to the dog ,give it a try.

to be fair
i would not class you in the old fool stage but just in the uneducated fold
today you hav realised there is a bit more to it all and some real life education has shown you a different light
fair play to you for realising the difference
this is wot finding the right lines and trying to train in the right direction is about
​ some feeling aye
 
Stone my referance to being a fool was based on my decision not to try training dogs that had been worked on game ,i have trained several dogs deadicated to deer only .Having many years ago tried a couple of dogs that did'nt come to the job i gave up on the belief that dogs already working game would make good deer dogs,this was foolish.I have trained several deadicated deer dogs for me and friends in the past,and am looking to train another to follow on from my present one.My earlier reply given in good heart was a mistake that i will put in my list of mistakes ,i belived my 1st wife would be at my side for life not on my back,Westham would win the european cup,shergar would race again ,& i would regain all the knowledge i had as a teenager when i knew everthing.......All wrong........Uneducated........some may say that but at 60+some its probably to late to sort that,might as well go stalking again tomorrow.....

PS How old do you need to be before you stop making mistakes ...must be wonderfull to be perfect
 
The German thinking would be that a dog must do both jobs unless it is a highly specialised scent dog such as a bavarian mountain hound. In their hunting tests,(which all dogs must pass before being allowed to breed) they work on bird first and progress on to deer. I believe if your dog is steady and walk to heal then you should have no problem training it. because she is older it may take a little longer to train her though. If you put a harness or special collar on her when doing her deer job then this may help the dog understand what task she is now expeced to do and will learn to associate the harness with stalking.
 
Stone my referance to being a fool was based on my decision not to try training dogs that had been worked on game ,i have trained several dogs deadicated to deer only .Having many years ago tried a couple of dogs that did'nt come to the job i gave up on the belief that dogs already working game would make good deer dogs,this was foolish.I have trained several deadicated deer dogs for me and friends in the past,and am looking to train another to follow on from my present one.My earlier reply given in good heart was a mistake that i will put in my list of mistakes ,i belived my 1st wife would be at my side for life not on my back,Westham would win the european cup,shergar would race again ,& i would regain all the knowledge i had as a teenager when i knew everthing.......All wrong........Uneducated........some may say that but at 60+some its probably to late to sort that,might as well go stalking again tomorrow.....

PS How old do you need to be before you stop making mistakes ...must be wonderfull to be perfect

As I said
not foolish just un-educated for reasons whatever
you learn by mistakes and this is what life is often about
what you hav realised and then posted about the findings at 60+ with the cocker is what I realised when I was 20+..... Over the last 20 years I hav then learn't from my mistakes and still got 30+ years ahead of me I hope to carry on learning
only in the last 10 years did I realise the importance of choosing from the right lines from which a dedicated dog should be chosen from so to ensure it will do the job on even the most difficult of tracks
the Internet has shown me just how many others are out there to help share that passion with
so yes get out and keep stalking especially at your age ,
when carrying the rifle gets to much hopefully you will still get the chance to take the dogs out and look for wounded or lost deer for others keeping that passion going for many years to come
as i still hav 30 years to go before I hopefully hang up my rifle so 30 more years to try and perfect my knowledge and dogs , as I will never be perfect
my primary school teacher made that clear years ago
​i think she was right...!!!!
Regards
 
I'd possibly put a collar or harness on the dog when ur tracking or traing tracking to act as a sort of 'switch' same as the more dedicated deer boys do, so when the collar goes on it knows to ignore ground game and focus on it's tracking.

To be honest it probably isn't really needed as dogs are far cleverer than we give them credit for and it will know the difference between ur stalking gear and driven clothes but it might help to keep the things seperate in both ur's and dogs mind.
 
Help Please!!! Does anybody know where I can buy a munti or Roe skin? I have one in the freezer which I defrost and use at the end of a training blood line etc. But a dry one that I do not have to keep re-freezing would be better. I know nothing about processing a skin and have not got the time or energy for it anyway! If anyone knows where I can get my hands on a couple of skins please let me know. i want to stuff one with straw and stitch it up and use the other as it is. Sorry to use this thread to try to find out.. seems I cannot post my own threads yet!!
Re; your lab.. I have heard and read deer firstly then other game. After just a few blood lines in training I'm sure she your lab would get the idea very quickly and be very keen to follow. Maybe sitting under a high seat with a pheasant or hare walking up to it might be a stretch! I leave my irish Water Spaniel in the car and have her if I need her. No jokes about the car being the best for an IWS please.. She is actually very effective and stalks with me to heal. I have even botherd to try her under a high seat cause there are too many pheasants where I go! Good luck with her...
 
All you do is rub salt into the skin and peg out to dry sorted. It will not look pretty but will last .
 
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