Hunting Forum

I have a sheppard and also a lab mix looking for training materal to blood trail unfound deer. any help on training these 2 dogs. any materal aids or sugestions much needed

I don't know of any written material off hand on blood trail training. My lab just took to it naturally. I played a game with him all the time called .. Go Find it. I would hide like a sock, and then let him sniff the other one, tell him to find the missing one, and praise him when he did. He loved to find "children." My nephews and friends kids would come to the house, and I would have then run and hide in my woods, and then send the dog after them. He'd find this in just minutes. He was very good at it. Then it would be other items like animal scents, bird scents, etc. Eventually if I came on say a blood gathering from say a bow shot deer, I could dip my finger in it, hold it under his nose, tell him to go find it.. and the race was on. Once he understood what I wanted found, the rest was easy. If the dog has that drive in them, they will just do it.

Yet how that dog knew it, I still don't know.. but if I had my hunting vest on and my shotgun, he knew we were going bird hunting and that's what he went after.

I asked Ol Abe if he wou;ld follow a blood trail.....he gave me a dumb look and said, "If it ain't a duck, goose, pheasant, dove or quail, I got no interest." Then he rolled over and went back to sleep under the table behind me.....
Sorry, I know of no video's or books on training to blood track, BUT dogs with good genes are smart enuff to track anything if you show patience and love and get them to understand what you want. Bud's lab will shed hunt, blood trail and retrieve waterfowl all from patience and time from owner.

thanks for info. i have limited time to train and don't want to screw up any other advice is appricated.

Ten to 20 minutes a day after work is all that is needed to train....dogs want to please their master....use this to your advantage....patience....and the dog must be first trained to "NO" and "HERE"....and give love and praise when the dog does what you want

Believe this I have a blue/rednoise pit that we trained to trail blood shot deer.First your dog needs the noise for trailing and unless you use a leach she needs to bark.It is my opinion to use the liver of a deer and keep it just out of reach.let her get the smell she hast to get the smell then use a leg or some area with the hide.Now this is the hard part you do not want your dog chewing on the deer so use your way to stop her/he from eating and start barking this will not take many times if she/he is a good dog for the job.some are not meant to trail deer.

You can use a leg off a recently killed deer, deer blood or a deer liver.

With the leg, tie it to a light rope or string and the other end to a branch that is strong enough and long enough to hold it away from you. Drag it, holding it away from you so you can tell the dog is tracking that scent and not yours. Mark where you started the drag, preferably with deer blood or hair and leave the leg at the end of the trail. Start out short and easy, little or no cover with the leg as a reward when they find it. Gradually increase the distance and cover. Use what ever command you want, we use "track it".

With the blood or the liver(use small pieces), use drops or pieces in a similar manner as the leg, but you would gradually increase the distance between drops/pieces. We used the leg with a little blood on it, easy to do at the hunting camp when a deer is being cleaned.

Paula