re: OB Puppy Training advice?

Buy a harness and a bell. Use these two items only when trailing. Soon the dog will associate the harness and bell with the job he needs to do. As far as training him to trail you can start super simple and work up. Drag a hotdog weeny across the yard a very short distance. The first time you do this make sure it is so simple that a dog without a nose would have success. You can tease him with another weeny until he is excited then let him eat it. After he swallows it put his nose on the begining of the trail. He should smell it and then start looking. When he finds the trail weeny he gets to eat it and you make a big deal about it telling him how awesome he is. Make your trails longer as he gets better at it. When you are confident he has started associating the harness and bell with trailing you can make the move to blood. Never drag a deer hide. You want him to trail blood not deer. When you shoot a deer the chances are there will be more deer in the area. You only want to track the one that is leaking blood.

As far as getting blood to train with you can use pork, beef, or any four legged animals blood. If you have trained him this way he will track anything you put him on. A 1:10 ratio of blood/water will do the trick. Use a spray bottle while wearing rubber boots to lay a trail for him to follow. Remember to leave a prize at the end of each trail you lay. As he gets older you can increase factors to make his hunt more difficult. These factors include time, right angles, crossing paths, backtracking,and many many other things.