Blood trails

nell

Well-Known Member
How often would would you use blood trails when training a young dog??


Rgds

Nell
 
Depends on the pups age, temperament and drive. Young dog maybe once or twice a week maximum. Less can be more! Do not bore it with constant easy trails, once the association is there you can progress quite quickly.
 
Nell, deerman is right it depends a lot on the dog, the age, type etc. one of the keys to success is motivation and you have to be careful not to dampen this, but that said motivation is linked to reward, the prize at the end in this case, which it is important you get right. Not all dogs want a deer leg.
The idea that one track a week is enough is a good bench mark, especially for the more advanced dog but like all dog training don’t be fixed in your approach. You need to be able to read your dog training requirement, If he is mad keen you can move him on faster than if he is hesitant or bored.
Man tracking dogs are started on multiple tracks each day. This can be the same with pups. It is no good training once a week when conditioning and starting the young dog or six months later you wont have progressed far.
All dogs are different so adjust your training program to your dog. More important than the early tracks themselves is what is at the end. The dog must want to get to it. Don’t go making the track look like the Texas chainsaw massacre, a six week old pup has more than enough nose to do a blood track but what they don’t have is concentration. Saying that handlers in my experience generally tend to underestimate their dogs ability and don’t push them enough, tending to train in the human sense world rather than the dogs. The ‘if I cant see it the dog wont’ approach.
This is a vast subject Nell but its not the rocket science it might at first seem. if I can help feel free to give me a bell as my typing is hopeless.
Regards
Mark
 
slovensky kopov

i have a slovensky kopov here in canada. She is just the best thing when i go to my cottage in Perry Sound Ontario. She will chase white tailed deer ,bear ,and hopefully i could get her on some moose . I tried to get her on moose for the past few years ,but for me to go in the bush of northern ontario with her is just too thick.My cottage is better access. It is true that they chase the deer just about 20 min or so,but i have had her go 45 min aswell . Sometimes when we are at the cottage i leave her outside so as to keep black bears away . Only problem is that she chases them and they go up a tree then she sits there and barks at them for an hour or so ,but who knows it sometimes could be moose .
 
Thanks for replies guy's

A friend and i both have tried and tested deer dogs, both labs,they like past dogs have bells attached to their collar and set out to find dead or wounded deer. Last year i took a litter of pups from my bitch my friend and i kept a pup each, they are now almost 9mnths old and comming along nicely wiyh general obedience.
We decided that we would try and train the pups to track on a leash after reading so much on the net and think it is the way forward. They have had a couple of easy track that posed no real problems, so the question of how often arose, my pup, a bitch has heaps of drive and is a pleasure to watch trying to work out a lost dummy needing little if any encouragement.
We laid a couple of trails on friday and all went well,whilst exercising my pup this morning i watched her put her nose to the ground and work the same line its full length of approx 60 yds,i would like to think it was more than coincidence :lol: is it possible that she could still take scent after 72hrs???
PP i might take you up on your offer of a chat sometime if thats ok??
Always keen to learn more :)

rgds

Nell
 
I am very new to blood tracking but do have a lot of experience with GSDs and man tracking. There are obvious differences but the principle of motivation/reward is the same. I believe that progress is very much up to the dog combined with your efforts to find what motivates your dog to track.

I firstly used a food reward which was ok but now use a skin which has increased the motivation greatly. Using food, any more than one track the dog would have lost interest. With the skin and having a bit of a play with him during which I allow him to win "his skin" he finishes one and is ready to go again. I don't do more than one track as I as want to keep the motivation high. I have been going with every second day, let him have a very short play with a skin before I lay the track just to remind him of what we are up to and then it's up to him to track if he wants more fun. Maybe not text book but seems to be working for me and the dog.

I am listening to Mark's advice to keep pushing the dog but I believe this must be tempered by the dog always "winning" his track. That must be based on watching the dog and judging when to move forward with a bit more.

Although not a Police dog handler, during my service with the Police I saw many working. The best tracking dogs were the ones who loved what came at the end of the track.
 
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