tracking two deer

woodmaster

Well-Known Member
Hi guys. I am looking for a little advice.
I think I am getting on very well with my little gap/lab x. She has made a number of good live tracks and complete many laid tracks in good time and with accuracy. She is now only 7 months old so not wishing to push her too hard.
How ever she does show great promise. On two occasions now I have had reason to take the first deer and a second with a follow up shot. Although good shots the deer have run. Since I have the dog with me I have put her on the tracks.
On the first occasion she made a very convincing find of the first but then due to my mistake (I dragged the deer out to the edge of the wood) she didn't seem to understand there was another track/deer to find.

This was also the case last weekend where both deer ran. in a similar direction from very close to each other. On this occasion I left the first found in the wood and went back to the second shot site. There was very little sign of a hit but I knew the shot was good. Jet (the dog) just couldn't get a handle on a second track.

My question is how would you go about training her to go onto another track very soon after a successful track?
 
Hi Woodmater,
firstly
its good to see how far your Jet has come since I saw her as a puppy early this year, she worked very well then for a such a young dog, since that time you have gone on and put in a lot of time into your training and by the few posts you have put up on the site it would seem that she is really getting a handle on what tracking is all about.
well done to do for putting in the time.
as for your question it's some times hard for a young dog to work out two tracks that are very close together, this comes down to experience and the more work she gets the better she will become at this problem, starting off from each of the shot sites is probably the key thing, as you and your dog gain more experience you will read her better and she will learn just to track the animal that is wounded even if it is within a group of sound animals.
As I have said I shouldn't worry to much at this stage as it sounds like you are really pushing things well on for a seven month old.
good luck with your training and look forward to seeing you again soon.

Tony
 
Hi!
There are several issues, why the dog may have a problem with two very fresh tracks next to each other:

First, both tracks are very fresh, so a lot of scent around the footprints, which makes it difficult for the dog to follow one individual... We call it "still warm track". On our driven hunts we always have similar problems, when the ground and air is filled and covered with fresh deer and boar scent, mixed with some individual wounded tracks...

Second, its still a very young dog, perfect she performed like this already. But, she needs more experiences on following individual (cold) tracks. Also having an obviously high success rate, will get her very excited about following all kinds of tracks...

Its not a problem with doing another tracking right after a successful search, its a problem with two individual fresh and warm tracks next to each other.
Go another step in advance when training her: Use your scent shoes (you do train her with them, right?), and lay two tracks next to each other, seperating after a couple of 100 meters. Let her work the tracks, with some positive result on the end of both after a couple of hours (4 hours and more). Hold her on a shorter leash, dont give her the full length of it to keep her on the right track. That should help. Its some hard and expert work to find a track through a fresh scent filled ground, but its all about training...:old:
 
Last edited:
When a deer is shot and runs, does it not release a different scent than a normal deer track. Should these trails,cleats from a shot deer be the primary training for a dog to find the deer.
Does it not mix up a dog if you track normal unshot deer until the dog knows through experience what the difference between the two trails are. Due to the fact the dog is a young dog should it exclusivly track only cleats from shot deer at this stage in its training ?
 
Yes, there is a different scent of healthy or wounded deer..
But that would mean to collect cleats from badly wounded deer which suffered for a while...
Not an option, so please concentrate your dog to focus on one, on THE track, no matter if wounded or healthy...
The Verein Hirschmann, the club for Hannoverians over here, train their dogs on natural tracks of healthy and still alive deer....
 
I am sure this will come with time and practice, once the dog gets the second success it will learn to trust you when you are putting it on the second trail.

Kind Regards

Dave
 
Some good advice there. I had thought I should lay two tracks which then make an obvious split, ending in jets normal reward. I would eventually seek to bring those tracks closer to each other at t he shot site and perhaps cross each other along their length. Obviously I don't want to over complicate things for such a young dog but do feel jet has the ability to get to such a stage over the next year or so.
I have myself often wondered if there was a noticeable difference between the tracks of a healthy and wounded deer. It seems the dog has such a honed nose that it can differentiate between them.
Do you think it would benifit jet for me to leave the tracks longer? In most cases I have her with me so she goes onto these hot tracks, so I have tended to replicate this in her training. I tend to lay a track and then track it anywhere from 2-4 hours later.
I could lay a track and leave it over night then lay a new (hot) track near it and ask her to track the older one. Would this be a good exercise?
Any ideas welcome as jet loves her work and shows no sign of being troubled or put off. I am loving having her with me and seeing her ability grow. I do realise she is very young so don't want to over face her but I also don't want her to develop poor technique or mind set as I am as new to all this as she. Thanks for the guidance guys.
 
I could lay a track and leave it over night then lay a new (hot) track near it and ask her to track the older one. Would this be a good exercise?

Good idea, that will help!
:thumb:
 
Back
Top