Training a Cocker Spaniel to track deer

[Chris Baker]

I've got a 2 year old cocker spaniel who finds and flushes the birds well, recently I've been thinking about trying him on tracking the deer as i've nothing to loose. Does anyone have any advice/tips as I was planning on letting him have a good whiff of the legs of the next beast I cull before hiding them in the woods near me (away from the public) for him to find shortly after.

Is it worth picking up some synthetic blood to form a trail or should I drag the legs on a bit of string through the woods to potentially leave a scent before hiding?

Cheers
C

 

[Nelson]

Chris
My cocker dog will naturally follow scent and find deer . I wouldn't say he tracks it in the true sense of the word but he has found several for me , all dead ones up to now. I can't see any harm in laying blood trails or dragging skins to encourage yours to do it.
atb
Nelson

 

[unicorn71]

Chris , pm wolverine ,cookingfat, Stone or Countryboy , all of them have forgotten more about training dogs than most of us will ever know.

 

[Number8]

If you can get some deer liver from a stalking mate, that is good for laying a trail to start with.

 

[Chris Baker]

Cheers Nelson, its good to hear other folk have been successful with thier cockers in tracking down beasts

 

[Chris Baker]

Cheers flanker and Unicorn71 for the advice,

 

[phillips321]

Too many people forget dogs are dogs, some are just better or more easily to train at specific tasks than others. I have a short haired, smooth coat, terrier (lakeland x jack) who is a wonderful dog. He is very intelligent, strong minded and a great sofa companion.

This dog was designed for ratting, at which he excels, but that doesn't stop me taking him

• beating, which he is proving his worth
• wild fowling, he retires all but the largest, canadian geese just out weigh him and he's not the best of swimmers
• foxing (with rifle), as company and to assist in find any that manage to drag themselves off
• pigeon shooting, which he loves retrieving
• ferreting, he marks holes well but has had too many run ins with the ferrets to be trusted!
• rabbits, he will happily jump out of the truck to retrieve the rabbits

Yes he doesn't have the best nose, yes he isn't the best swimmer, yes he doesn't go through brambles as well as a springer, yes he doesn't retrieve as well as a lab, yes he can't carry big game but he is a dog. Never let people tell you your dog can't:

 

[camodog]

Too many people forget dogs are dogs, some are just better or more easily to train at specific tasks than others. I have a short haired, smooth coat, terrier (lakeland x jack) who is a wonderful dog. He is very intelligent, strong minded and a great sofa companion.

This dog was designed for ratting, at which he excels, but that doesn't stop me taking him

• beating, which he is proving his worth
• wild fowling, he retires all but the largest, canadian geese just out weigh him and he's not the best of swimmers
• foxing (with rifle), as company and to assist in find any that manage to drag themselves off
• pigeon shooting, which he loves retrieving
• ferreting, he marks holes well but has had too many run ins with the ferrets to be trusted!
• rabbits, he will happily jump out of the truck to retrieve the rabbits

Yes he doesn't have the best nose, yes he isn't the best swimmer, yes he doesn't go through brambles as well as a springer, yes he doesn't retrieve as well as a lab, yes he can't carry big game but he is a dog. Never let people tell you your dog can't:

'Praise the Lord' ! At last, common-sense prevails. I've been telling people this for decades, my father before me too. We/I have used lab x alsations for all our
hunting needs and they have all excelled! Dogs are dogs as you mention, it is not 'rocket science', if they have 'good sense' they are able to be trained to do almost anything. A pedigree/pure-breed is absolutely not necessary! Amen to that!

Regards,
Camodog.

 

[bewsher500]

tracking dogs just need one thing...a nose!

I have had my cocker track deer when I already know where they are for practice

Does she display the "deer dog" method and sit/bark when found? No!
Does she find the bloody thing? yes.

job done

cockers are programmed to quarter back and forth IMO
what I find is she will cover the scent trail with this motion which is obviously a little slower (even more so if she puts up a tight sitting pheasant in the process!) but it still gets the job done

not had to use her in anger on anything actually lost but am pretty confident her nose is better than mine