will do. thanks
thanks good info, cool website. thank you.
When I used to dog hunt, we would always use our cold nose trail dog on a lead to find shot deer. They were my cousins dogs so I can't really tell you much on the training.
I know that I used him several times personally and he always went right to the deer.
Old thread, but I would suggest using an old cold nosed hound.
That's what I do above. I've never actually trained a dog to trail blood, just the deer scent. I guess they just remember the blood scent from shooting deer in front of them. One of the dogs I have now you can see her lock down on the blood and she's a trailing machine. I've only found 2 with her but her previous owner found several more with her. If you shoot a buck in front of her, she'll run it down, catch it, and take a sample of the hams. When she goes silent you better get in there if you want any of the venison 😆
I would personally use a beagle if it were a strictly blood trail.They have great noses,don't eat much and if you ever tried holding the end of a leash of a large dog on a hog that was not dead you may be going for a ride.Once my buddy ass shot a doe with a bow that left very little blood but we put a beagle-walker on it and found her dead in about an hour.Dogs can track wounded game with very little or no blood,I have seen it done.
I trained two dogs to blood trail deer and they both turned out pretty good. One was a Jack Russell and the other is my springer spaniel. Basically what I did:
When the dogs were young I would have them nearby whenever a deer was hung for cleaning. I would give them a little piece of the bloody meat and tell them "Find the deer". I would always use the same exact words whenever I was working on their training. Always "find the deer". Every time anyone shot a deer I would save the lower parts of the legs, the bloodier the better and store them wrapped up in the freezer. From time to time thaw one out and have a buddy in rubber boots (so the dog cant scent him) drag it on a string from a starting point thru the woods and hide it. Then bring the dog out, make a game of it, take her to the starting point, call her name and tell her to "find the deer". The dogs catch on to this game pretty quick and in pretty short order you cant hide the leg to where they wont find it, especially when they know they get a little more venison as a treat for finding it. I would try to always have them track going down wind so they cant cheat and catch the wind and this makes them have to put their nose on the ground to get the scent. This makes them better in the long run. After doing this for a pretty good while you can make the tracking longer and harder and then I would start taking them everytime someone shot a deer whether it needed tracking for 10 yards or 100...like I say, use the same words" Find the deer" while they are tracking and give them a reward and make a big deal when they do it correctly....They love doing it...both dogs I trained turned into really good trackers and can find a dead deer with very little blood on the ground. The last two deer my springer found in probably less than a minute or two in the dark, in the thick woods after we had looked for quite a while and knew we werent going to find the deer without the dog. Once they figure it out, they go to them pretty darned quick, you just have to believe the dog and stay with it, cuz sometimes the deer aint where you thought it would be....probably why you didnt find it in the first place.
A few things to consider. Always make sure the dog succeeds on the first several times so track deer even though you know where they have fallen and let the dog take you to it so you can reward them and they start to get it. They just want to please you so its all good.
If you know the deer is hit and you know you are going to use the dog, dont let everyone walk back and forth over the blood and scent trail before calling in the dog, especially an inexperienced dog...it just makes it tougher for the dog.
You might want to get one of those little cow bells for the dogs collar and put it on a second collar that you put on when the dog is going to train or track. This way the dog knows its time to get serious and get to work and if the dog tracks fast and its dark (a deer shot on the afternoon hunt right at dark) it will help to have the bell on to locate and stay up with the dog. I dont keep my dog on a lead when it tracks, I just try to stay up with her.
Dont know how it will work if you try to get them to trail both deer and hogs....might....mine dog also rounds up shot squirrels pretty good....
Hope it helps....it worked with mine...
