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brian
09-04-2007, 06:44 PM
I love dogs. In the next couple of years I'd love to get another dog. Now I was thinking to myself, it would be excellent to get a dog that can help out tracking wounded deer or use their nose to sniff out game and let you know if something tasty is in the area. So I have a couple of questions. Do many people hunt deer with dogs? If not are there reasons people don't? Where does one start with training such an animal? How can you customize a dog to the sound of a rifle shot when I can barely stand it with my crappy hearing? Do people have any recommended breeds or what type of breeds are generally prefered? These have been a few of the questions rolling around in my brain lately.

loki
09-07-2007, 06:07 PM
Well first off it is illegal in BC to hunt deer with dogs off chain. Dogs are not to be used for herding, harassing, or pushing game, and as a rule of thumb should stay on leash if there are deer in the area. If a dog chases ungulates a CO is allowed to shoot the dog on sight, and if it chases onto private property then the landowner is allowed to shoot the dog on sight. I know, this is a sore sport for people that are very connected to their dog, but the fact is that is the CO and landowners right, and the law. So this is probably the main reason people don't hunt deer with dogs...

Now that's been covered...

Before training your dog to hunt, I'd recommend to train it for obedience. This will save it's life, and perhaps yours, as untrained dogs have been known to run from bear and bring it back to you. Not to mention that if it doesn't at least have a good recall, you can expect confrontation with people, as not everyone likes a strange dog to approach them.

To train an animal for scent tracking you can approach from a few different directions, in fact I recommend a bit of all of them. First and foremost find a friend with an already established scent hound and train with that, you'll find that after a few good runs and scent stalks your dog practically does it by nature. Secondly, keep some blood from the game you want to scent stalk, and get the dog to recognize it, roll a favorite toy in it or something. From here just take it out, make it do some obedience tricks, and get it on some good blood trails, the rest comes with instinct.

For Canine gun training, again start with obedience training, as this will have established a level of trust with the animal. Once the dog trusts you, it will follow you into uncomfortable situations, and put up with strange sounds. From there, in my experience, leash the dog, start the dog off at a comfortable range (20 yards, or more, depends on the dog/trust level), and command it to sit. Dump off a couple of mags and allow the dog to get used to the sound. Continue doing this and shorten the leash until the dog is right beside you. Of course watch the dogs behavior as you shorten the leash, shortening too fast will ruin the entire exercise and may set you back months in training and trust.

People will recommend lots of different breeds for scenting/hunting, but what you have to do is research the breed and see how it fits with your lifestyle, home, and family. Just because it's a good hunting dog doesn't mean it's going to be good for you. First find the breed that fits your household, then seek hunting traits.

Good luck.

Bowzone_Mikey
09-08-2007, 10:39 AM
Buddy of mine is training a Basset hound to find downed deer ....
is working out well for him

brian
09-08-2007, 11:02 AM
Yeah I assumed that obedience would be a must. And thanks for the heads up on the laws, definitely important stuff to know. The blood scent training and rifle training all sounds brilliant, thanks!

Barracuda
09-08-2007, 11:07 AM
Well first off it is illegal in BC to hunt deer with dogs off chain. Dogs are not to be used for herding, harassing, or pushing game, and as a rule of thumb should stay on leash if there are deer in the area. If a dog chases ungulates a CO is allowed to shoot the dog on sight, and if it chases onto private property then the landowner is allowed to shoot the dog on sight. I know, this is a sore sport for people that are very connected to their dog, but the fact is that is the CO and landowners right, and the law. So this is probably the main reason people don't hunt deer with dogs...

Now that's been covered...



Good luck.

I would suggest you check in to that, as you seem to be confused. dogs can be used for hunting off leash certain big game species and small game species. (look in the regs)
the points were covered in a previous thread. no person other then a legal officer is allowed to shoot an animal for chasing game be it on pvt property or crown land. now if the dog were viscously harrassing livestock then that is a differnt story.

loki
09-08-2007, 01:38 PM
I would suggest you check in to that, as you seem to be confused. dogs can be used for hunting off leash certain big game species and small game species. (look in the regs)Well I was talking about ungulates (deer, moose, elk), even used the word deer in there a few times, and assumed that anyone reading would understand that. Obviously I was not talking about bear & cougar (or small game), as those are legal to use dogs to tree/chase them.


the points were covered in a previous thread.

Please point me in the direction of this previous thread, as just telling me about it doesn't really help. I have not read it yet.


no person other then a legal officer is allowed to shoot an animal for chasing game be it on pvt property or crown land. now if the dog were viscously harrassing livestock then that is a differnt story.

I agree. However, it's hard to prove that your animal was doing otherwise if the landowner does shoot it. For me, I keep my dog on leash when entering or moving through private land, just to be safe. It's a responsible landowner that identifies the animal the dog is chasing before dropping the hammer, and not everyone takes the time to identify, just sees the dog and bang flops it. If this does happen, the landowner can always claim that it was one of their livestock it was chasing to avoid trouble, then it's your word vs theirs. I'd rather be safe than PO'd about my dead dog, that I should be in control of in the first place.

Barracuda
09-08-2007, 11:31 PM
if you use the search function you should be able to find shooting dogs and others that have been hashed to death. (bit of a gong show)

. your first sentence was correct(deer, moose,sheep ,goat,caribou are on leash the rest are not) but you then went on to make reference to GAME ."Dogs are not to be used for herding, harassing, or pushing game, and as a rule of thumb should stay on leash if there are deer in the area".
which would cover alot of animals and alot of methods in which dogs are
used,.

I highlighted this as these were the points i was refering to

Dogs are not to be used for herding, harassing, or pushing game, and as a rule of thumb should stay on leash if there are deer in the area. If a dog chases ungulates a CO is allowed to shoot the dog on sight, and if it chases onto private property then the landowner is allowed to shoot the dog on sight. I know, this is a sore sport for people that are very connected to their dog, but the fact is that is the CO and landowners right, and the law.

Even a CO has to follow protocall and they cant just go postal on a dog unless they assess the situation and make a trained decision as to weather the dog is actually at large and a potential risk to wildlife or engaged in legal off leash hunting practices . (our dogs wear bright tracking collers and are pretty easy to identify as tracking dogs)

a land owner cannot shoot a dog for tresspassing or chasing wildlife even if they were to chase a deer across thier property . they can shoot only for the protection of thier livestock or person and the animal must be visciously pursueing ( intent to injure not just harrassing) . as for the rights and laws they protect both the landowners and the dog owners and proof would be needed to uphold their actions(video by farmer, wounds on animals , dog is known to be aggressive etc) . if joe farmer or property owner said he shot the dog cause it entered his property or ran a deer across his land then he would be in deep do do and would very likley find themselves on the defensive end of a civil proceeding .

I hunt my hounds during deer season in areas that have deer because their are lawfull seasons open for the other game species that i pursue. to suggest that i should have them on a lead during deer season (most every where has some deer population) is as ludacris as saying that other forms of hunting should not engaged in during hound season if they overlapp. .