blood trailing hounds?

[Deff]

We just got a new hound-dawg puppy. My old dog was great at treeing coons and bobcat but having been taught not to chase deer -- I never could get her to help blood trail deer or elk. I was wondering if anyone out there ever had any luck getting a dog to blood trail but not harass game.

Her primary use will be as a tree dog for coons and cats  -- but them times when a blood trail  peters  out, it sure would be nice to have a little help!
    Any advise would be welcome !

[Biggie Hoffman]

Marty has a beagle for bloodtrailing. If you keep pulling her back to the blood trail, she'll eventually find the critter. Last time we only had to help her 3 times so she's getting better.
I don't know what method he has used to train her though.

[recurvist]

I have trained a few for this purpose, they were all labs ... I trained the pups on deer hide 1st ..when they could find the hidden hide easily ...then I would start mixing in blood ,this helps them later on a bad blood trail ..keep a little blood from your next deer in freezer and thaw when time to train

[Wickles]

Check out  www.born-to-track.com  John's book is great for anyone interested in training blood tracking dogs. I've got a wire hair dachshund puppy that I've been training and he's really doing well. I run blood trails, a drop every few feet and put deer meat at the end of the trail, he loves doing it. As he progresses put more turns etc in you bloodlines. I can't wait for deer season, I'm just as excited about tracking as hunting!

[tamure]

Thanks for the link. I think I may buy that book and give it a try. Deer season is almost over here, but maybe by next year I could have my dog at least semi-useful.

[Shaun]

I have trained blood trailing dogs and the book will help. Here are some tips: Have a special trailing collar and leash - ONLY put this on for blood trailing - your dog will quickly learn what the collar means. Every time you take venison out of the freezer and thaw it to eat you will have a wrapper with blood in it. This is enough to leave a blood trail and work your dog on real deer blood. Most dogs can learn this work, keep them calm and focused and praise them up when they find the prize at the end.

[Bowmania]

"Tracking Dogs for finding Wounded Deer" by John Jeanneney can be found on the born to track web site.  I read it and followed the directions.  Aug 30th my Lab will be 3, so he's gone through 2 seasons.  Found 8 deer and 2 bear.  He gets on a blood trail 24 plus hours after the shot and the shooter screwed up the trail for 6 hours and he finds them in 10 minutes (last 2).  Guess they didn't screw it up enough.  Bridger is the MAN, I mean DOG.

Bowmania

PS. He's had his picture in TBM.

[tippit]

I have a wire haired Daschund out of the Jeanneney line.  She is the most mild friendly dog around people and kids...But you get Tilly on trail with 30 foot lead and if you're too slow marking blood sign, she'll come back and bite your leg to get ya moving.  Her litter mate brother is the Jeanneney's number one tracker now.  I was planning on breeding her this summer but I'd rather have her for fall deer.  Hopefully breed her this winter.

She trained very easily with deer hide and blood...Doc

Tilly at 10 weeks

 

Tilly now 3 years old...all of 23#

 

[Bill Kissner]

I have a jagdterrier female (Suzy) that will be 2 years old in a couple months. She was easy to train and loves bloodtrailing. She did very well last season and had her first find of 2008 this morning, a nice 4 point (western count) muley. The indian hunter came to camp about 9:30 after looking for more than 2 hours and being unsucessful in finding the deer. Suzy tracked it without visable blood for approximately 350 yards and made one Ute indian bowhunter very happy when she located his deer.

[Hawkeye]

Yay, Suzy!  Neat, neat dog you have there, Bill!!

Daryl

[draco]

I use a Blue Lacy and trained her on blood. Not just deer blood but squirrel, rabbit, hog, coyote as well as deer. That way what ever you can't find, she will,but if you didn't draw blood, she ain't gonna go.      go.

[tamure]

Good looking dogs, everyone. My biggest challenge will be to wake my pup up.

 

[Deff]

Thanks for the advice guys!

Wickless and   Bowmania,  I appreciate the link.   I ordered the book  -- looks to be well worth the money.

Shaun's tip of  using  a special trailing collar and leash  for blood trailing  might just be the ticket.  I had been pondering how I could signal that it is ok to blood trail deer and at the same time discourage her from chasing them while at liberty or when tracking coons or cats.  

Ditto on the "Good looking dogs, everyone."

[tamure]

I've read some books on AKC tracking, but I haven't employed them yet, because it is geared at tracking people, whereas I want my dog to track game. But one of the things the books unanimously advise is to use a long lead (~30 feet) with a tracking harness instead of a collar (a harness that doesn't restrict over the shoulders or at the neck).  The idea is for the dog to pull you along the track, which they can do comfortably in a harness. As mentioned above, it also signals to the dog that it is time to work; we're not just out for a stroll.

[Mr.Magoo]

John's book is a good resource.  Lots of info. on the web.  The Germans have very sophisticated training for this (big surprise).  They train the dog to search independently for the animal; when the dog finds it, he grabs a large tab (that's on the collar) in his mouth to indicate he's found the animal and goes back to the hunter.  The dog then leads the hunter back to the animal.

Until you get to a high level of training, just keep your dog on a long lead.

Here's my Drahthaar.  A one year old blood trailing fury (really more like, I'm always muddy, what did I break now, get another 50 lbs. of dog food, I want to play 24 hours a day fury.)

 

[Wickles]

I agree the dedicated tracking collar is key! When Roscoe puts his tracking collar on he's all business, it's great. Good luck with it, I've really enjoyed working with my dog and can't wait to get him out on some real bloodtrails this season.

[V I Archer]

We recently added a pure bred Beagle to our family.  Missy (short for Artemis) is a great joy.  I have purchased John's book, and a harness specifically for tracking.  Training will comence later this week.  Hopefully have a few easy trails to put her on this year.