Training to track blood...

[BigRedDog]

Dogs are amazing animals, which have all of the tools it takes to do this job.
Of course, it helps if you start with one that already has drive, smarts, and a great nose.
I have been training a pair of Texas Blue Lacy Game Dogs since last August to help recover lost deer.
If you have a dog that you are training, or have already trained, I would love to hear about it.

[Herne]

Had a little teckel for a while - well 2. One (brilliant self teaching dog) was spectacularly good. The second was good, but only because she did a lot of it. My partner Trevor Humphrey and his wife run the Teckel Society of GB, and he has a herd of them. 3 are astonishingly good trackers - one the full sister to my first.

Did a lot of deer tracking/finding, especially as we shoot to one hour after sunset, so night time retrieves in the dark are pretty common.

[André]

Czar, my 6 year old Lab was never formallly trained as a bloodhound. Like many labs he's very good at retrieving small game but, having grown up surrounded by roedeer, he has developed a tracking skill on its own. Often I shoot quite late, shortly before sundown and, if not dropped on the spot, deer will run for cover and even if they flee for a rather short distance, finding them in the darkness of the woods can become quite a challenge. Here's where Czar comes into play and he finds the downed animal in a matter of minutes.

Here's Czar, recovering a doe. I was blinded by the flash of the gunshot and couldn't even tell which way she fled.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/Othello041990/Chevreuiltrouv.jpg

[BigRedDog]

Labradors are commonly used to track in the southern US, and many of them have picked it up on their own.
That is one small deer!

[Altjaeger]

Labradors are commonly used to track in the southern US, and many of them have picked it up on their own.
That is one small deer!

Roes are small. Though they vary in assorted locations an average mature buck in Germany is roughly 40 lbs. I suspect that doe is closer to 30-35 lbs.

[ncboman]

Labs are probably tried more but I believe non-hunting breed dogs make the best blood trackers.

Personally as a bowhunter, I look at tracking dogs as the absolutely last resort. If it takes a dog to find my deer, my hunt failed.

ncboman

[BigRedDog]

A tracking dog is just another tool which, when needed, is quite handy to have around...
There are instances when even good hits produce very little sign, and a deer that has traveled enough distance that recovery is difficult.
A good tracking dog can easily smell what the human eye cannot see, and will save time that might otherwise be wasted on an arduous track for an animal that may not be dead yet, but which would not recover from a wound, and ultimately be lost.
In my opinion it is the duty of a hunter to make every effort possible to recover any animal which he has taken a shot at.
Using a tracking dog should not be considered a negative...

[Herne]

Roes are small. Though they vary in assorted locations an average mature buck in Germany is roughly 40 lbs. I suspect that doe is closer to 30-35 lbs.

Your roe there are pretty small- our are running those sorts of weights head and legs off, on the hooks.

Tracking. NCB, I think you are being a little hard. Or maybe with us shooting much later into the dark a tracker is more of a benefit.

I had a springer who would track very well - but she was a bit fidgety as springers are prone to be. A lab, being a bit quieter would be a better proposition to leave at the bottom of a stand or have to sit still for hours.The teckels were very good because the working ones are simply a nose on legs, and for that sort of work beat any gundog hands down. Tracking ability is staggering, as in tracking a butt shot doe after a night of tropical rain. No blood trail, never faltered for 800 yards before finding. Or a wounded muntjac for 1500 yards at night. Tool for the job. They don't mid being parked at the bottom of a tree for a couple of hours at least and if its really cold, you pop the dog inside your jacket, and take it up the stand with you - hot water bottle!

I wouldn't call them intelligent dogs like a springer. No hand signals and all that stuff. Just heel/sit, nose - smell - deer - track. Or pick up deer scent on wind in front of you and give you advance warning. Great for that, but not such nice people as springers. And some seem determined not to learn...

[ncboman]

Herne,

only regarding bowhunting do I feel this way.

Gun hunting, I have no problem with a tracking dog should it become needed.

ncboman

[dave-t.]

I might be interested in having a tracking dog, if I had longer seasons to use it. For the few deer that I shoot, and even fewer that I have issues with finding, the dog would be so out of practice by the time I needed it, that it would just be another thing to lose in the woods.

For a club, lease operation, or bigger group though, I could see that having one on hand would be worth the effort.

I just couldn't keep a tracking dog in good order with 2-5 deer per year.

[Herne]

NCB - I just liked the convenience. Lazy mans stalking perhaps, but any deer that went out of sight had the dog put on the track. Makes life very easy.

Dave also has a point, and no dog is going to get really good on very little work. This I felt was an advantage of the teckel - its so short legged that almost any deer, well shot or not, is a good tracking exercise, because it will have been out of sight to the dog.

[Hi Ball]

Well, we have a few dogs in training as of Monday (6 ) but they are being tutored on birds instead of deer, or some other animal. I have one little 8 month bitch that is a Jim Dandy little lady named STAR. Her daddy is the 2008and 2009 national quail hunting champion FC Bingo Buck, an own son of NFC Heide HO'S MRT a national field trial champion.

Then we have this little gal dog out of my #1 stud dog MAJOR, who is a son of NFC MRT. Major was bred to our TARA an own daughter of NFC MAGNUMS TOUCH OF GOLD. This little bitch is called Blazie and she is got more energy than two diesel locomotives. They both are bird crazy!

I guess I forgot to mention that our dogs are German Shorthair Pointers!

[BigRedDog]

Well, I guess I waited long enough to add some pics. But, here's my male, Jones, with a great buck that he recovered last November, when he was only five months old...
http://thequailshed.com/images/jonesbuck4.jpg
And, here's Jazz, my female in the back of my truck last month, over in Texas at a blood tracking seminar, where she showed her stuff!
http://thequailshed.com/images/jazz11.jpg
They are both one year old now, and I cannot wait to get them on some recoveries this Fall!

[Hi Ball]

Big Red Dog........Yeap, tuff to beat a Red Bone! Well, yes we got a few dogs we are training but the very early mornings and keeping my wife company at night past 10 o'clock are a thing of the past. I got to hit the hay at 9 o'clock are I cannot fuction at all next morning and that comes early at 5:30 ok.

The dogs can't take that 95-98 degree heat while in the field! So It's start them when the sun is still down and temps are in the 70's. By 8 o'clock they hit the 80's and the dogs are done for the day.

We have 6 dogs to start to the gun next week, along with honoring another dog on point and returning on call of the E-collar beeper. The breed is German Shorthair Pointers. ;) :D :D

[BigRedDog]

WRONG! Those aren't Red Bone hounds!
They are registered Texas Blue Lacy Game Dogs...

Hounds have great noses, but tend to get really distracted by hot scent of live deer, when they need to be tracking blood. And, the ones I owned were not the brightest dogs either...

These little cur type dogs are a whole lot smarter, and don't open on trail.

[Hi Ball]

Big Red Dog.....Sorry about the miss named breed! In any event, they are nice looking cure's for sure. I have a good friend of mine in Wyoming that crosses Red Bone with Rodesian Ridgebacks and a little Rottweiler to boot. All for the purpose of hunting mountain lions in the high country. :)

[ncboman]

Well, I guess I waited long enough to add some pics. But, here's my male, Jones, with a great buck that he recovered last November, when he was only five months old...
http://thequailshed.com/images/jonesbuck4.jpg
And, here's Jazz, my female in the back of my truck last month, over in Texas at a blood tracking seminar, where she showed her stuff!
http://thequailshed.com/images/jazz11.jpg
They are both one year old now, and I cannot wait to get them on some recoveries this Fall!

Beautiful pups.

I want one. How much would a female pup of the unregistered variety go for? :rolleyes:

[ncboman]

I looked at a website about them. The registered variety is fairly pricey but I still want a female pup.

They look almost ideal for my purposes and 'Puppy Dog' is gettin kinda old. :rolleyes:

[BigRedDog]

I don't know anyone who has unregistered Blue Lacys. Registered pups sell in the $400 - $700 price range.
Most breeders have waiting lists, and it is hard to find a pup, without planning ahead.

[ncboman]

I don't know anyone who has unregistered Blue Lacys. Registered pups sell in the $400 - $700 price range.
Most breeders have waiting lists, and it is hard to find a pup, without planning ahead.

well, Puppy Dog ain't dead yet so I guess I'm kinda planning ahead. :D

No such thing as a $200 Blue or Red Lacy bitch pup I doan guess? :o

[BigRedDog]

I don't know of any...
You can get an original mountain cur, which is a very similar dog, in that range...