The start of tracking training

[Jagare]

Taff my Ladrador pup Is a couple of day shy of six months old. So today I've started hin on tracking training. A couple of years ago I decided not to get another dog . So like never buying another gun that decision went out the window. I also got rid of most of my dog training gear.
I did keep a couple of harnesses, a tracking lead and some plastic lab bottles that had laid unused for years but really ideal for dropping blood.
A half litre of frozen cow blood was purchased from my local supermarket and that is in the bottle watered down 50/50 with water.
I have collected enough boar and roe hooves for training.
Apart for a couple of short hunt the hoof in the gardenover this last week and this morning was the first track with blood, hoof, harness and long lead.
The track was about 80 straight down a ride and the pup impressed me with his nose to the ground and apart from a couple of distractions found the hoof easily.

 

[pendle]

Nice looking lab pup

 

[foxinmad]

Cracking looking young dog

 

[Popeye1974]

good luck with the training, hope it goes well, sounds like a promising start

 

[Moaky]

Taff my Ladrador pup Is a couple of day shy of six months old. So today I've started hin on tracking training. A couple of years ago I decided not to get another dog . So like never buying another gun that decision went out the window. I also got rid of most of my dog training gear.
I did keep a couple of harnesses, a tracking lead and some plastic lab bottles that had laid unused for years but really ideal for dropping blood.
A half litre of frozen cow blood was purchased from my local supermarket and that is in the bottle watered down 50/50 with water.
I have collected enough boar and roe hooves for training.
Apart for a couple of short hunt the hoof in the gardenover this last week and this morning was the first track with blood, hoof, harness and long lead.
The track was about 80 straight down a ride and the pup impressed me with his nose to the ground and apart from a couple of distractions found the hoof easily.

Ive got a pup currently about 4 months old, and I wanted to start her on some sort of tracking training. Ive got a couple rabbits in the fur currently in the freezer I havent decided what to do with yet...I thought I could potentially thaw them out and drag them through a wood to make a sent trail? Would I need to train the pup specifically to blood or deer if the idea was to use them as a tracking dog? I have zero experience with this, wanted to see if you have any advice. Never thought about the blood trail, that makes a lot of sense.

 

[Jagare]

Ive got a pup currently about 4 months old, and I wanted to start her on some sort of tracking training. Ive got a couple rabbits in the fur currently in the freezer I havent decided what to do with yet...I thought I could potentially thaw them out and drag them through a wood to make a sent trail? Would I need to train the pup specifically to blood or deer if the idea was to use them as a tracking dog? I have zero experience with this, wanted to see if you have any advice. Never thought about the blood trail, that makes a lot of sense.

Save the rabbits for a pie or stew. Source some roe, fallow, red ,boar hooves. It matter not what you use. Some say you need matching hooves from identical twin deer but any fresh deer, boar hooves will do. They can be frozen and taken out when you need one. Blood, I buy frozen cow blood from the supermarket, no you don't have to use deer blood. Decant an amount of blood into a sqeezy bottle, washing up bottle works well. I water the blood 50/50 with water because I'm tight. When you have laid a track with hoof and blood they can go back in the freezer. Use a new hoof when the old one starts getting a little manky.
Buy a harness and long lead. The one the dog is wearing in the photo was less than a tenner. Niggeloh harnesses make the dog owner feel good but contribute zero to training a dog.
Start the pup of in the garden make it a game . The pup will soon think the hoof is the best thing going.
Blood, I use blood sparingly the trail should not look like a chainsaw massacre . When you start laying a track drag the hoof on a couple of mtrs of string whilst dripping blood to the side. Tie of the hoof at the end of the trail and leave in a different route than you played the track. Lay the track with the wind to your back , that helps the dog use ground scent and not air scent.
The harness goes on the dog just before you start tracking as does the long lead. You need a command to start tracking and at the end of the track let the dog play , not eat the hoof. I use the command, dead, and the track is over.
Important thing to learn when the dog is tracking is to, STFU, no clicking. grunting or other strange noises should come out you mouth, if your making a lot of noise that you think is encouraging the dog then you not concentrating on what the dog is doing. Save all the praise for when the dog finds the hoof.
.

 

[Moaky]

Save the rabbits for a pie or stew. Source some roe, fallow, red ,boar hooves. It matter not what you use. Some say you need matching hooves from identical twin deer but any fresh deer, boar hooves will do. They can be frozen and taken out when you need one. Blood, I buy frozen cow blood from the supermarket, no you don't have to use deer blood. Decant an amount of blood into a sqeezy bottle, washing up bottle works well. I water the blood 50/50 with water because I'm tight. When you have laid a track with hoof and blood they can go back in the freezer. Use a new hoof when the old one starts getting a little manky.
Buy a harness and long lead. The one the dog is wearing in the photo was less than a tenner. Niggeloh harnesses make the dog owner feel good but contribute zero to training a dog.
Start the pup of in the garden make it a game . The pup will soon think the hoof is the best thing going.
Blood, I use blood sparingly the trail should not look like a chainsaw massacre . When you start laying a track drag the hoof on a couple of mtrs of string whilst dripping blood to the side. Tie of the hoof at the end of the trail and leave in a different route than you played the track. Lay the track with the wind to your back , that helps the dog use ground scent and not air scent.
The harness goes on the dog just before you start tracking as does the long lead. You need a command to start tracking and at the end of the track let the dog play , not eat the hoof. I use the command, dead, and the track is over.
Important thing to learn when the dog is tracking is to, STFU, no clicking. grunting or other strange noises should come out you mouth, if your making a lot of noise that you think is encouraging the dog then you not concentrating on what the dog is doing. Save all the praise for when the dog finds the hoof.
.

Awesome! Really good, concise info. This is just what I needed to get started. Thanks so much.

 

[RCS Deer Management]

What’s the idea with the harness and long lead?

 

[Jagare]

What’s the idea with the harness and long lead?

Harnes and long lead is so you can control and follow the dog.

 

[RCS Deer Management]

You can’t do that without?

 

[Jagare]

You can’t do that without?

I'm sure you can . I'll bet you'll know a much better way to train a tracking dog?. I stick with the the swedish/ European way of tracking training that has worked well for a long time.

 

[RCS Deer Management]

I'm sure you can . I'll bet you'll know a much better way to train a tracking dog?. I stick with the the swedish/ European way of tracking training that has worked well for a long time.

Iv always let mine track without being hampered by my presence. In states in America where tracking dogs have to work on a long lead the average a 20% lower success rate than in states where the dog can work un hampered.

 

[Jagare]

Iv always let mine track without being hampered by my presence. In states in America where tracking dogs have to work on a long lead the average a 20% lower success rate than in states where the dog can work un hampered.

My knowledge of tracking in the US was zero so I had a quick Google. I stand to be corrected but there are still states where it illegal to track a wounded animal with a dog. The states that allow tracking, in the main, the dog must be on a lead. United Bloodtrackers who seem to be the leading tracking organisation in the US train there dogs with a long lead and most of the tracking photos the dogs seem to be on a long lead.
There are a lot of stalkers who have a "tracking dog" that will find hot game and work off a lead. What they really have is a stalking companion. Nothing wrong with a four legged stalking companion but have very little or no chance to track a cold track or follow up a wounded deer.
I'm hoping to train Taff my pup to a reasonably high tracking standard but his main purpose is as as retriever on duck and pheasant shoots. My view is that a dog that is not trained to get the best potential out of it is, just another, "any old dog". The shooting world has plenty of, just another any old dog in it.
So I'll keep training with a long lead because I know it works.

 

[RCS Deer Management]

My knowledge of tracking in the US was zero so I had a quick Google. I stand to be corrected but there are still states where it illegal to track a wounded animal with a dog. The states that allow tracking, in the main, the dog must be on a lead. United Bloodtrackers who seem to be the leading tracking organisation in the US train there dogs with a long lead and most of the tracking photos the dogs seem to be on a long lead.
There are a lot of stalkers who have a "tracking dog" that will find hot game and work off a lead. What they really have is a stalking companion. Nothing wrong with a four legged stalking companion but have very little or no chance to track a cold track or follow up a wounded deer.
I'm hoping to train Taff my pup to a reasonably high tracking standard but his main purpose is as as retriever on duck and pheasant shoots. My view is that a dog that is not trained to get the best potential out of it is, just another, "any old dog". The shooting world has plenty of, just another any old dog in it.
So I'll keep training with a long lead because I know it works.

There are both states where tracking is needed to be done on a long lead, and states where the dogs can be worked free, there are good podcasts on Spotify by people who track in both kinds of states, there is a lot of work going into trying to push long line states into ditching their laws.

 

[fallowfellow]

Great start for Taff!

Moaky, unless you want your dog to track rabbits, use deer legs or skin to make drags to start with. You can set up air scents with skin set up on a stick and bring the dog in from downwind.

As it gets better, move onto tracks with hooves making steps using tracking shoes or out the hooves on the end of a stick.

To train a dog to follow one deer, I’ve read that you should use matching hooves… it does seem logical. How else are they to learn to pick out a single track from many. Similarly, the blood is said to be best matching the animals from which to hooves came. Not difficult to achieve. Just bring a water bottle on a stalk, scoop blood into it, I also water down and add salt to help stop congealing too much. I freeze the bottle with the matching hooves in a plastic bag together.

Build up to laying tracks the night before and going out in the morning. I sometimes leave a leg or ear etc at the end of the trail… but if a risk for the overnight ones but good to have a natural end to the track.

I did a lot of following deer tracks/ air scent with our dog. Just go some where deery, walk across the wind until they pick up a scent and then let them follow it. See how close you can get. Train distance and discipline while doing it. If ranging? I found a sit command effective as it doesn’t break the direction of travel.

I take her on every stalk, every shot deer is tracking practice with a great reward at the end

All of my training was with a longline either as a slip lead or onto her collar. One thing I have noticed is if the dog is a bit speedy/ excitable, hitting the end of the line can be interpreted as a command not to go that direction by the dog.

Recently, with the dog now a little over three, we have done a few off lead. One in particular with an injured deer approx 4 hr old track and with it seen headed towards a boundary. I felt it crucial not to influence the dog so let her off lead and range a bit. Made her sit if getting too far. Track was close on 1km and I had given up thinking the dog was messing about especially after crossing a stream twice but then just after second crossing she dove into a clump of grass and there was the deer. Very gratifying. The training does pay off!

Good luck Moaky. Jagare, sounds like you are onto a winner, do keep the updates coming!

 

[fallowfellow]

An example. Deer well expired but a good rag allowed as a reward.

 

[Jagare]

An example. Deer well expired, but a good rag allowed as a reward.

After two weeks, the pup is making good progress with the tracking. Next week, I'll be extending the track and the age of it. I'm hoping to do the provisional tracking test in April / May and then the three open class tests over the summer. The months of January- March are our coldest months, and snow will bring a halt to training.

My advice on hooves is different than yours. Don't see how what animal the hoof comes from makes a difference . I would have thought that in Sweden, buying cow blood from the supermarket was the normal thing to do for tracking training. Neither would I hang up skin for the dog to air scent. I want the dogs nose on the ground. I've read people advising dragging skin , liver, deer heads, etc. There is more than enough scent in a hoof for a dog to follow. The same with blood. I use blood very sparingly. The half litre of blood I bought will do for the pups training.

Tracking is easy to train a dog to do, and I have noticed that in the UK, it tends to become a black art that is made over complicated. I think the hardest part of tracking for many is the time element.

Many years agoi I bought a teckle pup for a mate in the UK. In those days, a pup had to be a year old before it could travel from Sweden to the UK. I trained that teckle up to pre-test standard and told my mate to carry on with the training. A while later, he rang me up all excited and said that he had tracked a leg shot fallow over a km . He too thought the teckle was lying to him till the dog found the deer, and it was dispatched. It was no great surprise to me and would have gladly kept that little bitch for myself if he had decided not to take her.

 

[cookingfat]

Tracking is easy to train a dog to do, and I have noticed that in the UK, it tends to become a black art that is made over complicated. I think the hardest part of tracking for many is the time element.

You have hit the nail on the head Alan

I tell people this all the time, track training is the easiest thing to train a dog to do, its the time that people struggle to find to do it.

Good luck with new dog and look forward to watching her progress on here.

Tony

 

[Jagare]

You have hit the nail on the head Alan

I tell people this all the time, track training is the easiest thing to train a dog to do, its the time that people struggle to find to do it.

Good luck with new dog and look forward to watching her progress on here.

Tony

Hej Tony, I'm very lucky that our hunting ground is only a easy ten minutes drive from my house and is large enough that I could lay a fresh track every day on clean ground. It's not so easy if a person's hunting or training ground is a distant away.
I do a track with the pup a couple of times a week and so far he's doing well.
Obedience training and dummy training has been a doddle so far. I'm waiting for him to be a challenge and refuse to do something but so far so good.

 

[norma 308]

Gotta make a start with the Herbert on the right she’s a bit immature for 8 months but my faithful fox red is coming to the end of her career rapidly so I’d better start at least preliminary proceedings