Track laying question

[fallowfellow]

You can lash a leg to a broom handle/stick. That’s what I did to start with.

While this may lay more human scent, my dog doesn’t tear about scenting where I have walked without deer hooves!

 

[grauerjager]

Sounds good! And yeah, the price of those scent shoes...they're rather dear (pardon the pun)

For a small metal heel and a bit of leather it's actually outrageous what's charged for them. I may have a go at making a pair myself.

 

[K9 Contact]

A big thanks to everyone who offered their advice - we've been in Ullapool and Aviemore this week for our first deer tracks.

Over the past four days we've laid and run 6 tracks (the first my dog has ever done). I'm very proud of him and how well he's taken to it!

• Over heath, birch forest, pine plantation, hiking tracks, open grass land, and everything inbetween - practicing in the real environment really got him in the mindset, instead of starting in a field.
• As an aid, the tracks often handrailed some barrier (such as Gorse or large rocks), and tended to follow a trodden path (which is inevitable from me walking to lay the track). This helped provide direction and connect the dots so he could more easily understand the larger picture of a scent trail
• I laid tracks with a pair of herding-deer hooves tied to the soles of my boots, and fairly generous drops of artificial blood ("instant tracking powder"). This really helped build immediate drive like you guys suggested.
• I included trodden scent pools along the track to give dedicated decision points, making the path finding more obvious. This also meant I had known points of obvious scent to reset from if need be.
• He was off-leash, just on his remote collar, which made a tremendous difference. On a long line he was conflicted and disorganised. The moment the leash was off and he was free to be a dog, it was a light bulb moment. Me finding the confidence in the motivation (in this case, the promise of deer) was a big part of this.
• The final artical was an A4 sized scrap of deer pelt with chunks of venison inside. There was also general celebration and play, but the central reward comes from the work itself. So to that, I put alot of effort into judging the difficulty of the track to get the right amount of challenge. Starting with a 6 hour delay like people said was key to this.
• My dog would air scent directly to the artical the moment its detected, so being concious of the wind was big. I would also make sure the track was big enough that the artical's scent wasn't immediatly obvious.

We started with a short track less than 100m, about 4 hours delay. The next day was a 110m track, 6 hours. The immeditaly onto a shorter but more demanding 60m 6 hour track. A day off, then day four was a 600m track at 8 hours.

On this final track he accidently found an actual deer. But as it was litterally on the track I had laid, and was only 50 meters from the artical, I decided that counted lol. That was today, and we're just back from a walk in the area where he alerted to two seperate deer that I then confirmed were there. And was a magnet to any scent, so much so that I was able to find the trotted path in the dirt based on his bodylanguage.

I am thrilled! And a big thank you to everyone who gave advice and guidance again!

 

[carthorse]

I have a little bit of knowledge and experience here, taken from talking to other stalkers and trackers.

A dog, generally will be interested in all the deer scent, getting them to focus on the one you are looking for is the hard part. I use a couple of things, fresh hooves of shot deer, on the understanding that the hormones will change with the rush of adrenaline, seems like good logic. I also use the lungs blended in a blender for laying a trail as this is quite different from blood, again, makes good logical sense as we shoot heart/lung. As I say this is my way, to get the dogs to focus on the animal we are looking for, rather than the other deer that have transited the area.

 

[Bavarianbrit]

Sounds good! And yeah, the price of those scent shoes...they're rather dear (pardon the pun)

They are specialist items with not many customers per year, my pal had them made in Poland from aluminium to add to his range of stalking tracking equipment, the mark up was not very much after paying the maker in Poland. He has now stopped the business after 15 years it was called sFa. Not sweet f**k all BTW. Sicherheit fuer alle.