Disappearing Scent

Kit

Well-Known Member
Twice now I have a bit of a poser.
Big blood spash at point of impact,deer has legged it.Visible blood trail tapering off as trail continues.so far so good,dog happy nose down going well.Then suddenly nothing nada gone,dog cast out as normal nothing cast again as normal nothing.After half hour plus of casting dog goes off like a hound from hell and deer is located. The gap in the scent both times has been about 75 yards and this has happened to two diffent dogs,one deer fallow doe other a buck.Dogs both experienced.Weather dry but windy.one deer lung shot other belly(rifle was sent off for some practice) Any ideas or theories?
 
The scent has not gone just the blood has run out, try getting your dog to follow scent trails as well as blood, this has happened to me before too, , just lay trails with hooves and no blood for a while that should work.


C F
 
The scent has not gone just the blood has run out, try getting your dog to follow scent trails as well as blood, this has happened to me before too, , just lay trails with hooves and no blood for a while that should work.


C F

+1 on above

Sounds like you are also letting the dog work loose on fresh scent
I hav found with air scenting, quite often that will cause your dog to drift as it follows the scent in the breeze
consindering Deer are a large animal by comparisons they leave a massive amounts of fresh air scent mollecules hanging in the air
whilst there is a good line of blood there is also a good line of scent
blood runs out the scent line changes to a different scent
as the dog in-hales huge amount of fresh scent it is still following the scent it has in-haled and not the new scent along the trail where the deer has headed
so invertedly causes it'self to lose the trail
nasal passages clear, dog now confused and starts to search possibly in the wrong direction

Try going back to where there was blood and fresh signs , then try working on a leash to help concentrate the dog to search at a steadier pace
there should be adequate scent there for the dog to pick up and follow along the ground for a good few hours
 
Thanks Stone
BUT, as I sell them all my dogs wok either on Collar and leash or harness.Your comment about concentration is probably worth a bit of consideration as most deer are dropped and it is unusual for us to really have to work the dogs hard.perhaps a bit of P**s taking by the dogs may be happening, Wirehaired Vis does airscent, A spot of regrouping is currently being carried out both by handler (me) and dogs
http://www.muntjactrading.co.uk
 
I take it these are young dogs in training then by your last post...
which dogs had the issuse with loosing the trails and at what point did you realise they had lost it
as it may just be the dogs were to keen to please and just overshot the mark a little and in do ing so lost the trail aswell
 
I'll throw in a few additional points that might be worth considering if you haven't already.

The blood and biological scent markers may cease for a time because the wound is closed by skin moving across muscle - dependent on how the deer was standing at the time of strike, (i.e head down, leg forward might close a front end wound when the animal gets moving - and/or coagulation could be a factor.

The air scent will disperse relatively quickly, and unless the dog is nose down he might veer away from the track left by the interdigital and other scent glands that cookingfat has mentioned. There will also be scent from the crushed vegetation mingled with the above which will increase in strength as the biological scent markers decrease.

The weather can be an influencing factor. Dry, and windy, (maybe warm?), might be less than ideal. Better to wait until the air temp cools a bit and allows the retained ground warmth to start the scent rising - early evening would be a good time.

Which brings us to the optimum time to start tracking after the shot. IMHO if you suspect either a gut shot or a relatively mobile animal, (non-fatal leg, brisket etc.), then far better to wait a few hours if you can before following up. It gives the deer a chance to settle into a wound couch and stiffen up, so it will either die quietly or be less likely to be pushed on by the dog if mobile.

I'll post this again because although it isn't specifically about deer tracking it's a good read if you want a grounding in how dogs scent and what they are actually following. It's certainly made me a bit more observant and appreciative of what my dog is actually doing when he's on a track:

View attachment 3261

And it's only a few quid on Amazon :) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scent-Scent...9420/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288778631&sr=8-1
 
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I shot a doe last week it was hit it ran off over the clearfell I saw which way it went . I found the strike point lots of blood the dog started to follow then just as above lost it .The dog was then cast out again but could not find any thing
and started to go in the oppisite direction this was an area where deer had been. I called him back and cast him out again this time his nose went up and he was now going straight out from me still in the wrong direction.I thought trust the dog let him work it out he went out 80 to 90 yards air senting stopped looked back and then turned sharp right over a few drains and disapeard over a bank I could now see he had stopped he had found it dead in a hollow 120 yards+ of where he turned right.now going back to the strike point and looking over to where it had fallen my last viewing of it was at the first drain and it puzzled me why he had stopped while on the blood sent where he has followed foot sent and found them

Kevin TRUST YOUR DOG HE HAS TRUST IN YOU
 
Pendle,

From your description it sounds as if the dog has started on the track scent but maybe then picked up on the air scent coming from a different direction after the deer changed course. Maybe it confused him initially and that was why he was off in the other direction.

I'm not trying to create division here but I'm picking up on the term 'casting the dog out' in a couple of the posts. Does it mean that the dogs are running free and quartering the ground in the hope of picking up on an air scent from a downed animal, rather than working on a long leash and following the scent trail to it?
 
my dog was running free and on the blood sent i was also following the blood to start off with then i lost it . The dog then started to quarter and he had lost it we then went back to the strike point and let him free run again. I do let him air sent and he has worked on a leash tracking. Out of 22 roe since this time last year he has only missed 2 of them my fault we then got an older dog in she found them in very warm conditions. easy ones are made hard he has to find them all
 
I'm not trying to create division here but I'm picking up on the term 'casting the dog out' in a couple of the posts. Does it mean that the dogs are running free and quartering the ground in the hope of picking up on an air scent from a downed animal, rather than working on a long leash and following the scent trail to it?

It can be confusing as most people cast a dog to hunt on & off a leash
just hav to work out from the wording which method they are working their dog too

But I think you are spot on with Pendle's dog getting confused by a swirling wind, a common problem with air scenting as the dog is hunting the wind/breeze than they are the blood trail
as the air scent is by my guess a lot stronger and easier for a dog to detect as it does not hav to work to find the scent
 
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