Tracking a healthy deer

[Wolverine]

sorry totally disagree as from a young age a puppy is and should be trained on [liver ] which is blood blood scent after it progresses it will eventually move on to scent if desired or good enough, i would never train my dog to move alone through a forest or ground barking to stop or turn a deer /boar unless it is working in a group controlled be trackers . lastley a dog working at night tracking blood should be on a lead never off unless it works to heel in the day. I hunt tracking with my dog and with a bow and he will work with me with no sound untill i get a kill somtimes 15 meters away, the use of a dogin tracking [not blood ] is to indicate a fresh track to you if you decide to follow it the dog will aid you in closing down on the prey, but it is a two way effort all skills needed to be used by both ......

How does dog track without blood then,when there is none and you have a young dog not an experienced one?
This method of training negates the need for experience and awaiting the dog to gain experience IMO
Numbers shot over a dog helps any dog gain experience but if trained properly you also have confidence in dog,if you know there is no blood at shot site or very little
If it works for you it works but dragging blood is not natural,deer do not fly over the ground dripping blood
Experienced dogs will cotton on but younger dogs take a bit of time when you may lose game

 

[jamross65]

Out with the pup (22 weeks) last night for a bit of training and we bump a young Roebuck out from the stream that separates 2 freshly sown fields. It came up from the stream, crossed the corner of one field and over a strip of grass separating another 2 fields. It ran off over this one to the small forestry strip about 150m away. The dog had not seen it so I took her down to the area I assumed the buck had been working in. She got onto its track and was back and forth working out where it had left from. It took her about 5mins to do this and she jumped over the stream and followed the track up onto the first field and across the strip of grass where it had stood for a few seconds before running off. When she got onto the soil of the second field I could see that the buck had been bounding off across it with large gaps between the footprints. The pup started well but then began to run about a bit silly back and forth across the track. I didn't have her tracking lead or collar with me so put her back on her slip lead. She immediately put her nose to the ground and began to track it properly. She would stop and lick and scrape at the first few prints in the dusty soil at the start but then took off nose to the ground until we reached the fence it had crossed into the forestry. Very happy.

It has been explained to me the importance of a dog being able to track live uninjured deer, and I know she had done this a few times back in Belgium. She has progressed to this stage from a dragged skin. This example was obviously on a very hot scent but she has progressed to this from a dragged skin. She will be going on to scent shoes being introduced next week with the skin, to the skin being dropped from training completely over the next few weeks.

As has been said, foot scent on its own, or with blood, bits of lung, liver or whatever is natural. No foot scent at all on any track is never going to happen so why not train the dogs on the very thing they will have to track, whether uninjured or not?

 

[barongcw]

sorry totally disagree as from a young age a puppy is and should be trained on [liver ] which is blood blood scent after it progresses it will eventually move on to scent if desired or good enough, i would never train my dog to move alone through a forest or ground barking to stop or turn a deer /boar unless it is working in a group controlled be trackers . lastley a dog working at night tracking blood should be on a lead never off unless it works to heel in the day. I hunt tracking with my dog and with a bow and he will work with me with no sound untill i get a kill somtimes 15 meters away, the use of a dogin tracking [not blood ] is to indicate a fresh track to you if you decide to follow it the dog will aid you in closing down on the prey, but it is a two way effort all skills needed to be used by both ......

Not certain if it is you or me who is confused.

What we have been talking about on this thread is how to train a pup from a tracking breed to find a live unshot deer by following its tracks. Jamross65 just describes hid experience on this. Trained this way it will find wounded deer later with ease.
Blood does not come into it at this stage. That comes later nor do I need to test the pup with liver. A skin is good enough.
We have not invented the wheel. What we are describing is what we have been taught by the professionals of the German tracking breed societies. They have been doing it for 100 years+ and their dogs are amazingly good.

Agree with you 100% that you should not track at night without a lead or that the whole is a team effort.