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re: Decided to get into deer recovery/blood tracking (new pup) 2/14 update (End of Season)
Posted on 5/13/20 at 10:27 pm to Yukon7
Posted on 5/13/20 at 10:27 pm to Yukon7
I'm gonna piss in your cheerios again a bit, just to put out my opinion after training some tracking dogs, and being around hounds my whole life. Sounds like you've done your digging and know what you're getting into, so this isnt directed at you as much as me just running my mouth. I've had way more failures with dogs than successes, gone through scores of dogs to end up with a handful of ones I like to talk about.
I'm of the belief that just about any dog that handles well can track shot deer. I think tracking a shot deer is cake for any dog with a half of a nose, the real battle is getting them to understand that's what you want them to do and getting them to do it all the time. Hounds track game that isnt shot, not bleeding, not all that stressed out and probably passed a long time ago. They can smell anything, smelling a 12 hour old liver shot deer trail to them is probably like smelling dog shite after we step in it for us.
Beagles have spectacular noses just like all other scent hounds. The challenge is him know to track the wounded scent, and stay on that instead of that herd of does that he just jumped in a briar patch. Convince him that the job is to find the dead deer and you'll have a tracking machine
I have a 12 year old lab/bloodhound mutt and he is a true deer finding machine. If he can catch up to it we will find it. I've never put him on a track that we didnt find and later proved it was dead. I'm 100% convinced that every dead deer I've ever put him on, we found and never had any evidence to contradict that. I can read that dog like a book and he knows when it is time to find the deer. We know within 10 minutes of him passing where the deer was shot if it is dead. It's one of the most satisfying things I've ever had in my lifetime of all types of hunting with dogs. I wish you the absolute best in your training and I hope you end up with your once in a lifetime dog like I have now. It's a spectacular feeling to watch a kid put his hands on his first deer that he wouldnt have touched if your dog hadnt found it.
I'm of the belief that just about any dog that handles well can track shot deer. I think tracking a shot deer is cake for any dog with a half of a nose, the real battle is getting them to understand that's what you want them to do and getting them to do it all the time. Hounds track game that isnt shot, not bleeding, not all that stressed out and probably passed a long time ago. They can smell anything, smelling a 12 hour old liver shot deer trail to them is probably like smelling dog shite after we step in it for us.
Beagles have spectacular noses just like all other scent hounds. The challenge is him know to track the wounded scent, and stay on that instead of that herd of does that he just jumped in a briar patch. Convince him that the job is to find the dead deer and you'll have a tracking machine
I have a 12 year old lab/bloodhound mutt and he is a true deer finding machine. If he can catch up to it we will find it. I've never put him on a track that we didnt find and later proved it was dead. I'm 100% convinced that every dead deer I've ever put him on, we found and never had any evidence to contradict that. I can read that dog like a book and he knows when it is time to find the deer. We know within 10 minutes of him passing where the deer was shot if it is dead. It's one of the most satisfying things I've ever had in my lifetime of all types of hunting with dogs. I wish you the absolute best in your training and I hope you end up with your once in a lifetime dog like I have now. It's a spectacular feeling to watch a kid put his hands on his first deer that he wouldnt have touched if your dog hadnt found it.
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Posted on 5/13/20 at 10:47 pm to Yukon7
I got a Catahoula named Amos in August that I have been working with. General obedience has been a big part so far.
As far as tracking, I always start his trail by jingling his bell and clipping it on him and pointing to the starting place and saying “dead deer”. Don’t get too frustrated if he doesn’t do as good as you hope every time but freak out with praise every time he does find the prize. 1-2 trails a week is enough. This will be his first season so I am excited and nervous to see how he does. I recently ran out of blood and ordered the dog bone blood trailing scent and it is taking an adjustment period
As far as tracking, I always start his trail by jingling his bell and clipping it on him and pointing to the starting place and saying “dead deer”. Don’t get too frustrated if he doesn’t do as good as you hope every time but freak out with praise every time he does find the prize. 1-2 trails a week is enough. This will be his first season so I am excited and nervous to see how he does. I recently ran out of blood and ordered the dog bone blood trailing scent and it is taking an adjustment period
Posted on 5/14/20 at 8:34 am to weisertiger
That’s a beautiful Catahoula, that was my 2nd choice. But ultimately i decided i wanted something smaller that i could bring to work with me.
One thing i noticed about the hide from the dog bone kit that you have. Yours looks dry and stiff? From what i read, we are suppose to soak it for 4 hours in water and keep it in the freezer? Seems like it would stay soft and loose. I bought 2 pieces of the hide, one for a toy and one for the actual training. I watched some of dogbone’s videos , they seem really helpful.
Good luck this season! And keep us updated on how Amos does.
One thing i noticed about the hide from the dog bone kit that you have. Yours looks dry and stiff? From what i read, we are suppose to soak it for 4 hours in water and keep it in the freezer? Seems like it would stay soft and loose. I bought 2 pieces of the hide, one for a toy and one for the actual training. I watched some of dogbone’s videos , they seem really helpful.
Good luck this season! And keep us updated on how Amos does.
Posted on 5/14/20 at 9:57 am to Yukon7
Long post incoming. This is how I trained my 2 Lacy's, and both are surpassing UBT-2 certification standards at 6 and 8 months old.
I started with short liver drags. Like 10 paces short. Let the line age for a an hour so that the scent isn’t overwhelming, or else the pup will be all over the place. Aging this long won't hurt the puppy. It's nose is probably already fully developed for scenting by now. It's the brain that you're trying to develop with mock tracks.
These short liver drags are meant to just get it excited about tracking. Once it shows enthusiasm, switch to a piece of deer hide. I used the Bone Dog Hunter hides until I was able to get a deer and freeze the hide from it.
Continue with the straight line drags. Drop some blood in the hide and then on the ground every step
Once your puppy is consistently finding the prize at the end of the line (I use a high value treat like a hotdog wiener or something and TONS of praise), make it longer or the line older. Once you know your pup can handle a straight line, regardless of length and age of scent line, switch to deer hooves and add a turn. I zip-tie mine to the end of a broom handle.
Your focus is now on the turn. You don’t need to walk a mile and then turn. You can go 20-30 strides, dropping blood along the way, then make a soft turn left or right, walk a few more paces and then drop the treat.
Make the turns sharper as the pup gets better.
Once it has that down, you can add a second turn.
Eventually you’ll want to cross back over the main track, like an “X” shape, add water, and train on some lines where the deer would literally just turn around and walk the same way it came, but that’s way later in training.
This is called “Modular Training”, where you focus on a single goal (straight line, turn, crossing water, etc) until you’re confident the dog can work through that module in the field.
I only change one variable each track (length of time the track is aged, distance, amount of blood, number of turns, after a rain, etc.)
I only do mock tracks maybe once a week, and sometimes every other week depending on my schedule and the weather. I've noticed that if the weather is super hot and humid, my dogs will just lay down without really even trying. I started waking up at 4am to lay my tracks, and run them before it gets hot outside. That fixed the laying down and not trying part.
I never ever ever correct my dogs if they go in the wrong direction. I just let them work it out, and they always find the treat in the end. I always put the same collar on my dogs, always use the same permatack lead, and always use the same tracking vest. When those come out, they go from hyper as hell to straight business.
My goal is to get them to work through a complete mock track with all modules and no blood, because if there was a good blood trail after the shot, a tracking dog would not be necessary unless the deer just needed to be bayed and finished off.
Buy the book "Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer" by John Jeanneney
You can go to a butcher shop and buy beef blood. It doesn't have to be deer blood. Blend it to keep it from clotting, put it water bottles and freeze.
Collect deer legs from deer that you know ran after the shot. The interdigital gland between the hooves puts off a distinct scent when the deer is stressed. This is how the dogs find wounded deer where there is no blood trail to follow.
Oh and use some flagging tape on tree branches or ground stakes so that you remember where the scent line is.
Follow Louisiana Blood Trailing Network, Mississippi Blood Trailing Network, and Arkansas Blood Trailing Network on Facebook. Tons of good info there.
I started with short liver drags. Like 10 paces short. Let the line age for a an hour so that the scent isn’t overwhelming, or else the pup will be all over the place. Aging this long won't hurt the puppy. It's nose is probably already fully developed for scenting by now. It's the brain that you're trying to develop with mock tracks.
These short liver drags are meant to just get it excited about tracking. Once it shows enthusiasm, switch to a piece of deer hide. I used the Bone Dog Hunter hides until I was able to get a deer and freeze the hide from it.
Continue with the straight line drags. Drop some blood in the hide and then on the ground every step
Once your puppy is consistently finding the prize at the end of the line (I use a high value treat like a hotdog wiener or something and TONS of praise), make it longer or the line older. Once you know your pup can handle a straight line, regardless of length and age of scent line, switch to deer hooves and add a turn. I zip-tie mine to the end of a broom handle.
Your focus is now on the turn. You don’t need to walk a mile and then turn. You can go 20-30 strides, dropping blood along the way, then make a soft turn left or right, walk a few more paces and then drop the treat.
Make the turns sharper as the pup gets better.
Once it has that down, you can add a second turn.
Eventually you’ll want to cross back over the main track, like an “X” shape, add water, and train on some lines where the deer would literally just turn around and walk the same way it came, but that’s way later in training.
This is called “Modular Training”, where you focus on a single goal (straight line, turn, crossing water, etc) until you’re confident the dog can work through that module in the field.
I only change one variable each track (length of time the track is aged, distance, amount of blood, number of turns, after a rain, etc.)
I only do mock tracks maybe once a week, and sometimes every other week depending on my schedule and the weather. I've noticed that if the weather is super hot and humid, my dogs will just lay down without really even trying. I started waking up at 4am to lay my tracks, and run them before it gets hot outside. That fixed the laying down and not trying part.
I never ever ever correct my dogs if they go in the wrong direction. I just let them work it out, and they always find the treat in the end. I always put the same collar on my dogs, always use the same permatack lead, and always use the same tracking vest. When those come out, they go from hyper as hell to straight business.
My goal is to get them to work through a complete mock track with all modules and no blood, because if there was a good blood trail after the shot, a tracking dog would not be necessary unless the deer just needed to be bayed and finished off.
Buy the book "Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer" by John Jeanneney
You can go to a butcher shop and buy beef blood. It doesn't have to be deer blood. Blend it to keep it from clotting, put it water bottles and freeze.
Collect deer legs from deer that you know ran after the shot. The interdigital gland between the hooves puts off a distinct scent when the deer is stressed. This is how the dogs find wounded deer where there is no blood trail to follow.
Oh and use some flagging tape on tree branches or ground stakes so that you remember where the scent line is.
Follow Louisiana Blood Trailing Network, Mississippi Blood Trailing Network, and Arkansas Blood Trailing Network on Facebook. Tons of good info there.
This post was edited on 5/14/20 at 10:01 am
Posted on 6/23/20 at 8:35 pm to Yukon7
Reba will be 14 weeks old Thursday, she has done 6 training tracks so far and it is going great so far. We did her furthest and most difficult track today, about 150 yards with about 0.5oz of blood (mainly put it on the drag, not much on the the ground). I think next week i will do a similar length but 1300 yards straight line and add a turn and go about another 20 yards. Don’t have much blood, been collecting what i can from when i thaw out packs of deer meat.
Posted on 6/23/20 at 8:54 pm to Yukon7
Will you be using more blood? 150 yards to 1300 yards seem like a huge jump in distance unless there is more blood
Posted on 6/23/20 at 8:57 pm to Outdoorreb
That was an error on my part, i meant 130 yards 
Posted on 6/23/20 at 9:09 pm to Yukon7
You can use beef blood if you're able to get it from a local butcher. They will give it to you for cheap or free since they have to pay someone to dispose of it anyway. Best advice I can give at this time of year is don't run any tracks on super hot days unless its early in the morning or late in the evening.
Posted on 6/23/20 at 9:13 pm to Outdoorreb
My dogs first real track was well over a half mile and he nailed it. If they know the game theyll get it
Posted on 6/23/20 at 9:24 pm to Yukon7
Try to make sure the wind is favorable for the turn or put extra scent at the turn. Last thing you want to do is for the dog to lose interest or “help” it find the turn.
Posted on 6/23/20 at 9:39 pm to Ol boy
Thanks for all the tips. One question i did have for everyone, all of my tracks so far have been “new” at what point should i start doing older tracks? I guess i could start with 1 hr and work my way up from that right now.
Posted on 6/23/20 at 9:50 pm to Yukon7
Let your dog tell you!!!
If she is running them fast and knocking it out the park then stretch it out an hour or so with the same or even more blood. If that’s still a slam dunk then farther and less blood and longer time.
Learn your dog and you will be able to tell if she’s on a trail or looking and getting frustrated or disinterested. Every dog is different some will give up quick and some you can bring back several hours later and they will still want to track the scent!!
If she is running them fast and knocking it out the park then stretch it out an hour or so with the same or even more blood. If that’s still a slam dunk then farther and less blood and longer time.
Learn your dog and you will be able to tell if she’s on a trail or looking and getting frustrated or disinterested. Every dog is different some will give up quick and some you can bring back several hours later and they will still want to track the scent!!
Posted on 6/24/20 at 7:34 am to Yukon7
A key point to remember is that your puppy's nose is already as good as it's going to get. The whole point of running mock trails is to help it learn how to work through those situations where there isn't a ton or any amount of blood, and the deer didn't run in a straight line. It won't hurt to age it for a couple of hours and then slowly work up to tracks aged overnight. Beagles have cold noses anyway, so she will catch on quickly.
Posted on 6/24/20 at 8:57 am to Stitches
I have noticed one time when we passed by an area that we did a track 6 hours prior, she went straight on the track to where i put the dummy. She has more than exceeded my expectations at this age. I think I'm more excited about tracking this season than actual hunting!
Even when we aren't tracking, she is always nose to the ground to find something. Ive been paying attention to her actions while tracking When she is trying to work something out , her tail goes to slow short wags. And when she finds the scent she wags it furiously. I have a gif of the track but not sure how to attach it to here for everyone to see. IMGUR didnt work.
Even when we aren't tracking, she is always nose to the ground to find something. Ive been paying attention to her actions while tracking When she is trying to work something out , her tail goes to slow short wags. And when she finds the scent she wags it furiously. I have a gif of the track but not sure how to attach it to here for everyone to see. IMGUR didnt work.
Posted on 10/12/20 at 7:43 pm to Yukon7
Reba did her very first live track last night. She decided to start her tracking career with a buck named Showtime. At 7 pm i got the text. Left my stand and went get Reba. I told her it was Showtime and it was her turn to shine! A dog wasn’t quite needed , there was plenty of blood to follow. But she was presented with an unique obstacle , earlier that morning a doe was shot in the same location , ran down the same trail for at least 10-20 yards as the buck. And was drug out the same way. Reba took off about 10 yards until she got slightly confused for about 30 seconds, went back to the arrow. Then the chase was on! It was only about 50 yards, but she brought us all the way with her nose to the ground. She loved every second of it! I was so proud of her and look forward to many more. Not bad for only 6-1/2 months old. 
Posted on 10/12/20 at 7:46 pm to Yukon7
Good job Reba!!
Posted on 10/16/20 at 3:32 pm to Yukon7
A lot of good info in this thread. And cool to see the update.
Posted on 10/16/20 at 7:40 pm to pdubya76
Thank you for doing this. I plan on getting a tracking dog soon. Same story, lost an awesome buck and wish I would’ve had a dog
Posted on 2/14/21 at 2:26 pm to Yukon7
Now that the season is over for the most part. I decided to update this post.
As some may know, I had torn my bicep back in august and had surgery. I ended up only tracking for mainly friends and family since i didn’t want to put myself in any unfamiliar situation where i would be in a bind with my arm. I get the all-clear from the doctor later this month and should be able to do a whole lot more next season.
Reba has turned out to be more than i could ever ask for. She has been a great hunting partner/ office buddy/ house pet than i could ever ask for. We finished the season with only 5 tracks. 2 recovered, 2 confirmed still alive (1 hit and 1 miss), and 1 we tracked for over a mile before calling it off. We still have lots of training ahead of us, and i feel we are on pretty good track to being a great team.
Reba in all her glory today
After her 2nd recovery 
Focused on going on a track 
Her first encounter with a Bear, we will possibly try tracking one next season 
Her first encounter with a deer, before we ever did her first track 
As some may know, I had torn my bicep back in august and had surgery. I ended up only tracking for mainly friends and family since i didn’t want to put myself in any unfamiliar situation where i would be in a bind with my arm. I get the all-clear from the doctor later this month and should be able to do a whole lot more next season.
Reba has turned out to be more than i could ever ask for. She has been a great hunting partner/ office buddy/ house pet than i could ever ask for. We finished the season with only 5 tracks. 2 recovered, 2 confirmed still alive (1 hit and 1 miss), and 1 we tracked for over a mile before calling it off. We still have lots of training ahead of us, and i feel we are on pretty good track to being a great team.
Reba in all her glory today
After her 2nd recovery Focused on going on a track Her first encounter with a Bear, we will possibly try tracking one next season Her first encounter with a deer, before we ever did her first track Posted on 2/14/21 at 2:34 pm to Yukon7
Thanks for updates, very cool
You have to share the bear story though
You have to share the bear story though
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