George
I now hav a lab
who started life at 8 weeks on short trails with freshly layed blood and a skin or hoof at the end of it for reward ( maybe a tit-bit aswell)
from there I progressed to an hour old trail of 50m's then 100m's onto 400m's
by 6 months of age she was upto 24hr old over 600m's
by 11 months old it was 36 hr old over 600m's
at 10 months of age she was walking to heel off a lead stalkng by my side in the field and had her first find on a dead fallow at 11 months
by 12 months was allowed to find her first live wounded beast, a roe buck that stood to her presence untill it was finished off
from there we spent 2 years on the job purely just on deer ,
some good , some bad and a couple of losses
as a dog that was soley taught to track on a leash , she found it hard to work off one,
as her initial training dictated she worked on a leash
at 3 years of age she had her first season picking up on winged game and wildfowl, never been taught to retrieve she took to it with over 100 retrieves in just 5 days out
now at the age of 4 and a bit
she is more capable of following a 24 hr old trail over 1000+ yards on or off a leash, but works best on a leash as she is more focussed
she gets bored with 36 hr old trails after about 600 yards and won't entertain a 40 hr old trail anymore, but I don't blame her and never pushed it as I'm sure she has worked out reality to just playing at it
she is more than capable of working a track where other dogs hav already worked on and failed
and can work on hoof scent alone or air scent
I used to try and chest shoot all my deer so they would run so she had a chance to track, warm granted but experience needed, but she is a little small and lacks that bit of aggression for bringing wounded deer down & holding them, but that was my choice of lines
best track to date is a head shot munty that went wrong
we got there 24 hours later on a hot summer day , blood trail for about 40 yards with good blood
then spots for about 20-30 yards which faded to nothing after 50 yards
this was not a straight line but semi zig zagged in the undergrowth,
after that no visible sign
for about 200 yards she kept a line whilst still on a leash ,deer found still alive in thick undergrowth
best retrieves to date
A blind retrieve on a goose from across the other bank of 100ft drain as tide was coming in, she had never swam in a tidal river or picked a bird that big untill that point
Another was a marked bird
a 100 yards aproxx duck off a flooded field that was being pushed away from us by the breeze
I don't call my dog a god or treat here as one of the elite , as there are better dogs out there
I've seen them and watch them work, even they still fail to find
so we are all in the same boat
I don't even class her as a dedicated deer dog ,
just a dog trained on deer , then on game
I need a dog that can do and is capable of doing it
I hav a multi-purpose dog
that can follow a cold blood trail the next day and even the day after if needed
I hav a multi-purpose dog
that can follow a warm scent
I hav a multi purpose dog
that can track live deer
I hav a multi-purpose dog
that can track dead deer
I hav a multi-purpose dog
that can hunt game off both land and water
I hav a multi-purpose dog
that can pick game either dead or runners off land and water
I hav a multi-purpose dog
that can be trusted on and off the lead where ever I go and whater ever company I am in
I hav a multi-purpose dog
that can indicate unshot deer
I hav a multi-purpose dog
I can be proud of which has come from good field trial lines
I hav a multi-purpose dog
and it is a Lab
out of interest
what is the end result you are hoping to achieve that is so different from my multi purpose dog , apart from the game side of things
you feel you need from training a BMH or HS for the field ??