I want some legs/hooves and blood

[jlirot]

In the meantime, you can practice with anything you feed him. I drain off the blood from his raw food, dilute it and put it in a little squirt bottle. run an interesting trail and hide his supper bowl at the end of the line.
If he is on kibble, soak them and drain off the water. Started this when my Draht was a wee pup. He doesn't trust his eyes as much as his nose.

This was a great idea. I feed her some raw in addition to kibbles. I get it from the local butcher and it's ground scraps. I just thawed a new batch so there wasn't any blood in the bottom of the container yet - so I took itsy-bitsy pieces of the food and made a trail in the back yard (we have about 1/2 acre fenced in the back) with a bowl of raw goodies at the end of the trail.

I whoa-ed her on the step and then told her to 'find'. It took her less than 30 seconds to find it. She followed the trail and had a blast doing it. Looks like I've got a new way to feed her the raw part of her dinner. I need to make the trail a lot more difficult. This was way too easy. But, it was a good start and I'll keep on it.

Still want to use some blood and a deer leg so she understands that it's not just food at the end of the trail.

This was a total blast and I'm looking forward to working her a lot more over the next couple of weeks.

[mastercaster]

A couple of guys I know were discussing their dog's abilities to track,,,,one has a DD, the other a griff. The one guy said he would have never tracked down this amazing specimen that he shot without the help of his griff!

40358196_10215061008937516_461516097338736640_n by Brent Davy, on Flickr

[jlirot]

That's AWESOME.

A couple of guys I know were discussing their dog's abilities to track,,,,one has a DD, the other a griff. The one guy said he would have never tracked down this amazing specimen that he shot without the help of his griff!

40358196_10215061008937516_461516097338736640_n by Brent Davy, on Flickr

[jagen mit DDrs]

I don't know if you guys are letting your dogs "free track" blood but I wouldn't do it since tracking is a team event.The purpose of bloodtracking is a dog that works slow and controlled on leash and not off leash.Any well bred dog can follow a blood trail but proper blood tracking training will enable a dog to stay on it when conditions are getting tough and a dog that is not conditioned properly,too fast and laxadasical will fail.
There is only two rules to train blood tracking,motivation and no punishment.
Motivation=get to know what drives your dog.
No punishment=put your ego aside and enable the dog und never punish your dog on a blood track.

[jagen mit DDrs]

Mucho appreciated!

If I get some supplies (hooves and blood) I can even work on training the dog during the time I'm in Vancouver. It will be fun to watch the folks who see her come running out of the woods at UBC with a deer hoof in her mouth....

In blood tracking your dog should not be able to retrieve whatever you have at the end of it.This is a bad habit to get into.Bloodtracking is leash work not free work.

[mastercaster]

In blood tracking your dog should not be able to retrieve whatever you have at the end of it.This is a bad habit to get into.Bloodtracking is leash work not free work.

How would you suggest doing it? What progressions should the handler and the dog go through?

[jagen mit DDrs]

For starters you have to differentiate between a drag and a track.A drag is followed by your dog in a free manner in order to find injured small game,whereas a bloodtrack is a combined effort between dog and handler to follow blood scent on leash (min 21ft long).
Your young dog should be taught to follow a relatiely fresh scent (blood)for 30-50m,drops of blood every 2 steps and a piece of sausage or meat in it.At the end should be a deer hide fastened on a piece of plywood (so he can not pick it up),on top of the deerhide should be a a generous amount of food.Praise your dog lavishly and make sure your dog watches you at the end to take the hide in posession.
When your dog gets the idea why he is following the blood its time to extend the distance and age the track.
Your dog has to learn to follow blood slowly and you got to make sure he picks up every piece of food you put on the track.In order to be sucessful you will have to mark your blood trail so you can correct your dog if he gets of track.If he works too fast you have to slow him down,a fast working dog is bound to fail in a difficult trackig situation.Don;t ever punish your dog or he will sour and refuse,that's why it is important to be able to motivate your dog and not get into a pickle.

Generally,a motivated dog will be able to do 400-500m blood tracks that is aged 4-5hours in less than a three weeks.