indy's tracking

mereside

Well-Known Member
well a few on here know i have a bmh and for the last three weeks spent time bonding and socialising her and after coming on really well i took her for a break to scotland on my ground and then to drop some highseats off for someone on here.
i had layed a track at my ground prior to coming and it was a basic straight track with a 90 deg bend to the right with some treats at the end, the track was done the night before and before work i put her on it to see how she faired. well she did very well although a little too fast i slowed her down abit on the long lead and at the end she had lots of praise so i was well chuffed.
A few days later after work set out to my ground we got there in good time and kitted up to see what we could find my intentions were to hopefully shoot a buck but to just give her different scents to come across and see if we could mark a couple of tracks of deer we would hopefully find. we started off down the track road and straight away nose down and was obviously following something but i had no idea what . so heres my first question should i encourage this want to track all the time as she seems to want to be nose down following interesting things or discourage this whilst out . we found a couple of does browsing down the road so spent an hour watching where she was just locked onto them and fair play she didnt even murmer just fixed and every now and then looking back at me as if to say whats that. i marked my postion and ranged them so i had a point to come back to the next day so back tracked off in the other direction.
after a while i let her off the lead to see how she was away from home and again did very well till we walked straight into another doe which was around 20 yrds i just thaught oh crap and she moved forward as if to go and i just tapped her bum with my sticks and she sat down shaking with exitement . now that could have gone abit pete tong so back on the lead for safety we ended the night sat on the clear fell watching more does and this was interesting as i was expecting her to winge and whine abit but she just was fixed on the deer until she decided to have a chew on some sticks and then she nodded off on my lap so at that point headed off back before dark .
Day 2 we went back to where i had marked the spot to see how she coped with that and straight away off pulling hard with her nose down flicking her ears with her paws as she went. we followed around 40yrds before heading off up a grass bank to a couple of couch marks so with lots of praise and a few treats headed off we went down to one of the lochs for abit of playtime and time out and then off back to the van for dinner later on we had another stalk but only came across does so back to the van for bed but on the way back we spooked a roe which started to bark well the look on her face was really funny she had no idea what the hell it was and was abit concerned her hackles came up and tried to catch a glimps but it was deep in cover barking as it went.
our last morning we set off up another track and she just locked up winding and as we stopped two does skipped across the track and away still transfixed i heard a noise down the bank into a woodland i couldnt see anything but knew there had to be one i spent an hour glassing but no joy headed off and after another hour hadnt seen anything so headed back and we slowly made our way back to the first spot and down into the valley a buck was mooching along the river bank up on the sticks and i let the 270 go and with the good reaction the deer jumped the fence straight towards us although we were up on a vantage point indy again fixed on the buck in its last throws of life lay down in a gully so with all the comments and help from other members took her down to the buck to see her reactions on a real deer up close well as i picked up the buck she just started leaping about ,backwards and forwards and i shook the bucks head and she started to bark so well chuffed with her reaction. i gralloched the buck and tried to give her the kidney but she wasnt having none of it,or the liver and didnt even try the heart so next time other treats needed.
we left the buck hung in the tree so i could return with the van and to put her on the start of the trail it was a cold wet morning and an hour and a half later after collecting a seat we headed back i know it wasnt long enough to be a cold scent but just wanted to see how she reacted to a real track which she followed well but again quite fast. i know we did alot in a weekend but hopefully give her an idea of what we where after and not just tracking rabbits or some other animals.
I will leave her now and start again on cold tracks in the coming weeks once a week with treats. pictures to follow with hopefully a small vid clip . she is now laid out in front of the fire dreaming and back to normal life ,any input or things i have done wrong feel free to add ,thanks wayne
 
just uploading some now ,in my rush to post the vid i have managed to delete the whole of indy's reaction to the buck which im gutted about i have managed to save just the shaking of the buck to try and get her to bark ,wayne
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i will say that now i will just concentrate on doing cold tracks and hopefully get her strong on that before going back to live stuff but at least she knows abit of what were doing , atb wayne
 
nice looking little bitch Wayne,

try a roe head in a cage at the end of your cold track this sometimes triggers you dog to bark, you can leave it out all night without fear of anything els getting it to if you have laid the track the day before.
nice to see your training is going well.

Tony
 
Before the gruesome two some jump in :)rofl:) Nice start. I have always believed that if you can get a dog to know what is required of him/her the job is so much easier. IMHO Tracking, whether hot or cold is asking the dog to use his/her abilities to find something (a wounded deer) that you are looking for. Through completing this task and then praised the penny drops and thereafter whether you use blood or cleaves only he/she knows what the game is. I think you have achieved this. Training to achieve the best from the skills of your dog is a must but again IMHO experience in live situations is where a good dog really learns his trade.
 
Hi Wayne

Glad to hear she is doing so well.

The following opinion is really as a result of many discussions and advice from friends and only a small part on my own experience.

I would be wary of encouraging this constant nose to the ground on what could be very fresh (hot) scent, and as you said no idea of what left the scent. I only say this as she is still an inexperienced dog and having gone through something similar with Whisky recently, the dog should really be well versed in cold scent before getting too much hot. The reason being whilst tracking on something several hours old the dog has to know to stick with that track, and not be tempted to come off it in favour of a hot one crossing it.

The two recent examples I gave on here were acceptable (I was told by Rudi) as the deer had to be found there and then and there were many other lessons and experiences to pick up on during them, not just the actual track itself. I did however listen to what I was told and took the GWP out with me as well over the next few days stalking. Once in a blue moon would be acceptable, no more until completely steady and experienced on cold tracks.

As for the barking, that is also something I have managed to encourage recently and discussed with my friends. The fact she has done it once already is the first major step. Personally, on that reaction I would have spent the following several minutes playing with the carcass and getting her really roused up on it. I have now found with Whisky that I am able to use just a head (as Cooking Fat says above, a head may be enough for training...) on a piece of string and drag it about the garden, having her bark whenever it moves and as soon as I stop she stops. I have even gone as far as encouraging her to sit next to it when it stops moving. Thereby simply trying to install that a wounded beast moving is barked at. I also found that when dragging a carcass causing it to flop[ about she goes daft at it but again stops the moment it stops moving. She will do this none stop for as long as I drag it which I suppose is good as she could easily be expected to hold a beast at bay with barking in the future for that length of time and longer. I will try and discourage this in the future but only after I know that she is completely sure of when the barking is needed and when its not.

I took some video of her doing it the other day and will try and attach it on here.

Hopefully some others who know their stuff will respond Wayne and if I have got any part of the above wrong will correct me...
 
thanks to all who have responded and helped out i was unshure as to stop her or not as she is so willing to nose so didnt want to stop her for fear of doing something wrong she is like this even when we go out for walks on a night so have tried to keep the interest with me but so much going on for her .
I will concentrate on the cold scent from now on and have plenty to go on so will go over what we started doing .
I will give the head in a cage trick a go at the end of a track i could put it swinging with a piece of string so i can move it to intice her.
like you said brian as soon as the buck stopped she stopped darting about and sat down so it was interesting to see the instinct to get in the way and bay its a real shame i cut off the video by mistake because when the buck layed there the moment she clapped eyes on it she ran round it and was jumping backwards and forwards checking it out, atb wayne

now i just need to get her to sleep as she doesnt really settle without me being near although last night we had a breakthrough and she slept till 5 am so hopefully the penny has dropped there that i am not leaving her
 
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Thats the tricky bit Wayne, you don't want to discourage her in any way from tracking, but only tracking what you want her to!!!

It's difficult to corrrect Whisky when she does wrong as simply raising my voice at her sees her going in the huff for 5 minutes and walking behind me! Bloody comical to be honest...

Drop Widu or Rudi a PM if you have any queries, they will both offer advice and have a lot of experience in training tracking dogs, including BMH...
 
My opinion on this is if your dog dose something wrong give her a bollocking if she goes in a huff as mine dose then so be it ,the wife the bloody same when she gets told no which is not very often. Tracking and then barking i have a head and hold it when she gets close a we prod with the antlers will let her know that they hurt and she barks praise this and your on to a winner. Wayne i know what you mean with the dog i can go for a **** with out her sitting at the door but i just leave her she whines for only a few minutes then settles.Dont leave her on your roe bag i came back to one with only one strap left :rofl:.
Is she a polish delight mate or one of the German models
 
that made me chuckle ,i am led to believe she is of eastern european origin .time will tell how she fairs with her health but shes a lovely little thing although at 1-2and 3 in the morning i did want to throttle her but after a bit of kip i came round to her sad little eyes peeping at me ,atb wayne
 
hi wayne glad to see the dog is doing alright do you want the dog solely for tracking or for to be a stalking companion if you want the dog solely for tracking you will need to keep it from scenting all the time you know the continentals only get the dogs out at the end of the hunt to find anyy lost animals and they always use a long lead i got my dog for peice of mind i didnt want any lost animals for myself but i am only a recreational stalker not a pro so the dog very rarely needs to go with me but i have him with me all the time and i dont use a line i let him stay at the bottom of the high seat and walk by my side if you want a all singing dancing fully trained tracking dog you need to spend a lot of time laying trails and training her if you just want the dog to find the occasional deer its a different matter its about your personal choice of what you want from your dog


cheers tom
 
thanks tom i do want a companion for stalking but i am willing to put the graft in i am going to solely work her on cold scent from now and see where i get i was hoping that if enough works gone in that she will work both as long as i keep up the cold scent work and not give any hot scent trails till further down the line. my reason for the stalk on the buck was hopefully showing her the end goal and whats required so all the cold work will end in the same result as finding the buck and hopefully switching her on to deer work, but i am new to all this so it might be totally wrong, atb wayne
 
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