Black lab

In the process of 14 month dog lab, got him a tracking harness and line, done a couple of blood trials and all going OK. He is getting the routine of the shot, harness on, taking to shot site and "find it". A bit too keen but the line gives you control. Fresh kidneys as reward.
 
Anyone trained there lab for stalking thanks
prob more Labs working deer than there are other breeds . Thing is many owners don't shout about it, i have a friend who is well known in DTUK who has just Labs . Got Labs myself the old dog i never really trained other than for wildfowling and having been in on a few deer i was struggling to find. Give a lab something good to eat though and they remember it for life LOL . A Night culling friend has a good but differently trained one , it only comes out after dark . Once a beast is bled he goes off to the next and just sits by it and is located silently by its eye shine in the torch .
of course we are talking about the worlds most popular breed of working dog yet its bred for shooting but its also a major player in Bomb work , drugs , Assistance work ( one of mine settled himself into athsma alert work with one of my daughters and now does seizure alert minutes before it happens ) needed to see it one time that.s it! smelly deer " peace of cake " . Think deer are hard? try a wing tipped goose on a large estuary under the moon. They aint very barky but will when they need to or are trained to .
I have two , i very rarely need to track but my old dog did an exemplary track his first time out and the only none Bird work he had ever done at that point , i got that " you seriously coulnt find that ?" look .
Previously i put many hours into a GWP for deer , never again!
 
My figures could be a bit out of date now but i doubt they will have changed that much in last 10 or so years.

But the danish swissch? hound assoc, official tracking group there make up of dog breeds was roughly a 3 way split between labs, hounds and hpr's, all have to pass the same tests and do exactly the same work.
And they are working to a pretty high standard
 
Had a few,great tracking dogs and steady. I use pointers now and the only benefit I see from my experience is the pointers are a bit easier to get them to pull down deer as they are a bit more naturally aggressive than labs but you can get labs switched on in time. ( it’s always hand if they will take down deer as there will always be a mistake at some point )
 
Mine are trained for the beating line ie don't touch the bird just get it airborne. Second season give or take they differentiate between beating and picking up. Some get it first season, depending on dog.
Will track deer if client puts a shot in too far back and it takes off, never been taught to do so but they all have done. Don't know what the attraction is, unless it's curiosity or more likely the chance of a dinner out the gralloch 😂
Wouldn't think it would be difficult to train one purely for deer work,if it's eager to please you then it'll do anything you ask it to. Don't know about pulling deer down, doubt mine would do that and I'm not sure I'd want them to either. I certainly wouldn't be welcome on many estates on pheasant days if they did🤔
 
Mine are trained for the beating line ie don't touch the bird just get it airborne. Second season give or take they differentiate between beating and picking up. Some get it first season, depending on dog.
Will track deer if client puts a shot in too far back and it takes off, never been taught to do so but they all have done. Don't know what the attraction is, unless it's curiosity or more likely the chance of a dinner out the gralloch 😂
Wouldn't think it would be difficult to train one purely for deer work,if it's eager to please you then it'll do anything you ask it to. Don't know about pulling deer down, doubt mine would do that and I'm not sure I'd want them to either. I certainly wouldn't be welcome on many estates on pheasant days if they did🤔
Deer are the natural prey of dogs , pheasant , duck etc aint ! The weird bit is actually the fact we got dogs into hunting birds at all when you think of it a while
 
Labs have fantastic noses and ability to find things. No reason why they cannot find deer. A decent gundog can differentiate between a shot and still running bird and an unshot one, so no reason they cannot follow a blood trail.

I am not sure of the wisdom of having a dog that will pull a wounded deer down. They have sharp pointy things that can do a lot of damage to a dog. Much much better IMHO is simply to use a dog to locate so you can then dispatch. A good reason to follow up with dog on a leash, and to give time for a deer to stiffen up / die quietly before following up.
 
I've got lab, Fox Red. We had a doe down in some nightmare clearfell that the shooter lost the mark on, less than 100 yards, but the brush cover was terrible, so we decided the dog could have a go. Went back and got her, she found it in about three minutes. She's only ever retrieved feathered game before, but she went straight to it and sat , nose in the air to indicate where it was under the brush. As someone said, they work out how they can help!
 
Anyone trained there lab for stalking thanks
yes ive allways stalked with a lab ,nearly 40 years now and could never understand why other people didnt. when i first started german wire haired pointers were all the rage in the limited circles i knew but soon worked out these stalkers / guides couldnt shoot and they needed a baby horse to catch them after they shot a front leg off .
first lab was mainly used for wildfowling before a i got into stalking and used to run in to the shot .so got another lab for stalking, so easy to train for stalkin walking behind and only coming out to one side to sniff wind if deer in front .ive had 6 labs over the years all great stalking buddies
i went off the boil (stalking) a few year ago and my lab at the moment was 1 or 2yrs before she came stalking although she seen plenty come past the peg or in the beating line .
first time out with her i spotted a doe out on the stubble behind thick hedge at about 80 yards and she haddnt seen it, made her sit n stay , walked about 20 yards to gap in hedge shot doe and had a smoke.
after 10 mins called her up and sent her out, she got to about 40 yards off doing 100 mph in the wrong direction and turned on a tanner when she got wind of it, gave her a while to have a bit lick and called her back and gave praise , walk 20yrd right but closer and say where is it and off she goes again ,same thing 2 or tree times and you got yourself a stalkin dog.
shes never on a leader or tied up when im in a high seat and deer and hares walk by close
this ony works if you can stop and recall
 
I’ve got 2 labs the older of the two will be 9 this year and has never been used for anything other than tracking deer never known her to fail the younger one is showing good promise Haveing only been used for picking up for the last five years wouldn’t be without either whilst out stalking labs are terrific steady dogs for the job
 
I'll just add any lab will have the ability to smell the scent/track line with the right training.

But some labs may lack that final prey drive to take a deer down ( if u want ur dog to do that) I'd say going with a more old fashioned type of lab u might have more prey drive and be a bit harder.
Olus the thicker proper coat will help if if long periods of slow walking standing/sitting about

I mind 35 years odd ago the neighbouring keeper had his own line of labs looked like crossed with rottewiellers great big square heads and big bodies, back then his 'vermin'/fox days were notorius for the ammount of venision that got shot and so were his dogs, any deer that mistimed a jump over a fence would be taken down by his old lab shot or not.

Like anything if u want a lab to stalk with u would be as well to search/wai till u find the right litter bred by a stalker to maximise ur chances, just as if u want a wildfowling dog ur best buying 1 of a fellow wildfowler
 
Many a happy stalk with mine, I’ve found her daughter who is yellow to be more obvious to the deer, but if you pretend to be a dog walker and not a hunter the deer can still be very forgiving and assume you’ll just walk past……
 

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Anyone trained there lab for stalking thanks
Labs make first class deer dogs. They will find deer with the best of them and of course are excellent for wildfouwling ,game, walking up ,driven days and picking up. indeed they are a jack of all trades and master of many. probably the easiest of all dogs to train. they make first class house dogs, quiet and good with kids
 
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