Deer Tracking Dog Training: How To Start Tracking with a Puppy 

Oh yeah, they are great. Elkhounds were the Viking's hunting dogs

Thank you for the support William! It is appreciated more than you know!

@@DogBoneJeremyMoore followed your steps. Sadi caught on really quick. She gets so excited when I break out the bumper. 🙏 loves it

Thank you for your support Preston and don't hesitate to reach out if we can help in any way along your training journey!

@@DogBoneJeremyMoore Thank you so much! I’ve been starting with him and it’s going great!

Just got my package in and my 7 month old German short haired hasn’t stopped giong crazy there nose is unbelievable

That's awesome and thank you for your support! let us know if we can help in any other way

@@DogBoneJeremyMoore Thank you very much. I've been thinking about selling your gear here in Europe. I have a webshop for cats and dogs and I'm expanding with all training related gear for dogs.

I thought I was the only person that uses a belgian malinois to blood trail. He's found several these last years for me.

thank you for your support and let us know if I can help in any way!

Thanks for the support!

Thank you for the support Nicholas!

How do you keep him from following the human scent and to stick on the deer scent when you are dragging that skin that's what I'm wondering.

@@svtruthandpups.6218 You can put the drag line on the end of a pole to get it out away from you if that's a concern. I actually had a chance to put him on a real trail for a deer my Father-in-law shot. All the practice worked out great. The deer made it about a quarter to half a mile. We were able to track it down in less than 15 minutes. The trail was only a few hours old since i had him in the truck already. The last practice trail we did was around 18 hours and it rained nearly the whole time. It took us some time, but he was able to finish the trail.

Awesome! Let us know if we can help in any way!

Glad to hear it! Thank you for the support

@@DogBoneJeremyMoore you welcome you guys are my number 1 on my watch list!

Sounds like it!

Not at all, dogs are capable of doing more than we give them credit for a lot of time... and much of it overlaps. As always, the foundation comes first and is the most important part. Without a solid foundation we can't do anything well. Here is a podcast episode we did that dives into this deeper... hope it helps! dogbonehunter.com/podcast/153/can-i-train-my-dog-to-do-multiple-types-of-hunting-ep-153

We focus on foundation from the day the puppy comes home until the foundation is solid, check out our Bella... Be Good playlist and you will see how much foundation work we do. The foundation is the building blocks, and without it we cannot do the more advanced stuff down the road, such as tracking or any other form of hunting. That being said, we can do drills and tracks like we did in this video during foundation training.

She might like looking for antler sheds. It's technically retrieving but involves tracking. When training you put scent on the shed and they find it work up to real sheds out on walks it's like a surprise for the dog to find lol

Might also try some food puzzle training type stuff like they do for drug and bomb squad dogs

It varies and depends more on scenting conditions than anything else. I typically will add some blood trail scent each time before laying down a track, but the amount I add depends on the scenting conditions, and the difficulty of the track I am trying to achieve.

DogBoneHunter thank you so much for answering my question!

I appreciate the support! ✊🏼 dogbonehunter.com/

This is Belgian Malinois.

It really doesnt matter trained obedience helps way more

Obedience is really communication. You will want to continually teach your dog the rules of your home. SIT, COME, Down,off ect. You need your dog to understand you and visa versa. So I would say you start communicating. teaching Obedience as a pup. 3 to 4 months is the imprint stage, and they learn quickly.. so start Obedience as pups.

No, you can start whenever!

Emily Adkins how long are you aging the trail before fracking with him?

DogBoneHunter we have only done a few sessions so I have been leaving them fairly fresh for him to start, only about 10 minutes at the most. He did awesome on the first session & was glued to the trail the whole time. He slowly started getting very excited with the next couple of sessions & I think he is just anticipating the reward at the end & not focusing on how he’s getting to the end of the trail, just bouncing around on & off of the scent trail sporadically.

My bloodhound doesn’t follow the exact trail that gets laid. I was training him to trail/track for SAR and as long as he is on trail I don’t care if he shortcuts the trail that was laid. Sometimes due to conditions they can shortcut trails by quite a bit. I set a trail for a hound that was being tested and he cut the trail by half. It should have been about a mile, but he cut the corner. Basically, you need to be able to read the dog and if it is on or off the scent. I wouldn’t force the dog to follow the path exactly. Also I wouldn’t make him keep his nose to the ground. They can pick up the scent floating in the air as well.

From my experience, the tracking dog does just that. They track. It really is not specific to a single species of game. Instead it's a generalized concept of putting together pieces of a puzzle or clues when it comes to game finding. in a conversation with the president of the United Blood Trackers, I talked about that with him. He made the point of saying that he believed a dog could be trained to track and recover deer by using women's perfume in training. I was confused, and asked him what he meant by that and he simply said "dog's track because it is a natural behavior for them. All we're doing in training is showing them the game." When it comes to scent discrimination and sorting out clues, that is an inherent trait. Training and experience are the only what of develop that. The easy answer is yes, I think you can train to track on just about anything.

DogBoneHunter cool I guess I’m heading to your shop soon then

NotaSmurf NCM my approach is to start training them the day I being them home and the training is never completed, instead it’s ongoing. I look at it like it’s raising a kid. I don’t set time aside to resist them, instead it is an ongoing and continuous thing. I think at a young age like that, my focus is almost 💯 on foundation building and I have to keep in mind realistic expectations.

hell yeah you can!!! I start my new puppy at 8 weeks she is doing amazing!!!!!

usually it takes no longer than 10 or 154 minutes, just long enough to soften it up.

I don't separate or compartmentalize training, particularly when it comes to "deer dog" skills. Instead, the skill sets overlap so much we approach our training virtually simultaneously, with the exception of some small specific details like antler shape and scent discrimination. My focus may shift simply dependent on the calendar. For example, the next opportunity to do the "real thing" will be tracking come fall. In that case, by the time July or August rolls around, we will shift our focus to be prepared for those opportunities.

2 miles is incredibly challenging first time out. Even experienced dogs lose trails. It was worth a go but I'm not sure you can be too hard on yourself over that one, can you?

I'd pick a better rifle caliber and give the deer longer to die. Wounded deer don't instinctually run for 2 miles, hell in my 2 decades of hunting deer I've never seen one run a mile. That is, without it being spooked and jumped up because of premature retrieval. I always give a deer 30 minutes to an hour after being shot.

@@chadlimber1319 wasn't me shooting I use 308 and never had one run more than 20ft, was called up by friends. By the time I had arrived was 4hrs that had passed. Had blood trail then nothing but drops.

@@LittleTed1000 all his training has been on scent and blood trail, think this year going to put him on deer I know are down, to build up his confidence and put it right in his mind what he is after. Beleive possibly mix signals for him.

We train with a wounded deer foot .

Let us know if we can help in any way!

You could train him as long as he has a good recall, is friendly, and wont run off track.

Hey Zachary, there is not. Especially for tracking, it is very natural and instinctive to most dogs breeds. Make it a game, practice, and get them some experience tracking.

@@DogBoneJeremyMoore We have an older labrador who has excellent retrieving skills and a true passion for it and also a good nose however he has cherry eyes. Be believe this somewhat impacts his vision when retrieving. He always finds whatever is being used however he doesn’t get to it as fast if he and his daughter are racing to retrieve. We have always thought he would be good at it. Do you think this would be an issue with training him for tracking deer? He just turned 7.

TY!

dogbonehunter.com

road kill

@@chickenjoe1003 so that's a no? I've gotta find road kill to mimic that?

You won't need a gland scent. Any deer hide or something similar will work. Remember you're training the dog to find something you want it to find not necessarily a specific scent if that makes sense

@@lepraxronik your actually wrong . Deer recovery dogs actually track the interdigital gland. Dragging hide puts down entirely too much scent.

I'm not sure what you mean exactly by small, if you mean small as in young, then the answer is yes. Our training begins on the first day we get them, but it always starts as foundation first before we can get to anything else. Our Bella... Be Good series on our channel demonstrates just that. Thanks for the comment and be sure to let us know if we can help in any other way!

This comes back to control, which is 100 percent foundation. The dogs can differentiate between different deer based on the scent, and differentiate between a deer that is wounded and one that is not. In other words, the dog is not just tracking any deer, but a specific wounded deer. If you have an issue with a dog chasing deer, it is not a tracking issue but rather a control issue. The tracking training has nothing to do with it.

yes it is!

Joshua Cook I would agree, and in training with more experienced dogs I think that makes sense. This video was simply introducing the idea of the track to this pup for the first time and to be completely honest my objective is simply to make it a fun game to them and introduce a general concept. There were some scent clues involved along with simply chasing down the object visually. As we move further along in training I start to look at and take into consideration some of the contaminant aspects of the line. I don’t think we ever eliminate them completely but we can do some things to minimize them. 👍🏼

www.dogbonehunter.com/product/dog-bone-game-recovery-kit/

Yes, almost all dogs can track. It comes very natural to them, it just takes a little effort on our end to shape it.

Wouldn't recommend teaching this to a dog. You don't want your dog trying to fight a wounded buck that's much larger than it is. A deer that even weighs the same as an adult man is much different than an adult man in terms of resilience and strength.

What would it be called

You can find them all on our website! I'll attach the links below: bumpers: dogbonehunter.com/estore/gun-bird-dog-training-supplies Tracking Dog Training Kit: dogbonehunter.com/estore/blood-tracking-dog-training-supplies Entire site: www.dogbonehunter.com

Yes!

I have not owned one, but I have worked with them. We did do a short series of training videos with one named Arrow and have it here on our channel. Check out the playlists and you should find it there.

Yes, almost all breeds have the ability to track, it's in their DNA!

Yes, especially when it comes to tracking, age does not limit a dogs ability to track.

Mal/Shepard mix

Not everyone has your dog. Plus when teaching new behaviors you never want them to have a bad experience

Oh…I suppose I’m not in peak physical condition these days? Happens to the best of us. #gettingold

My only hope is that’s not your only takeaway from our channel! 🤣

@@DogBoneJeremyMoore no its not just curiosity and a lot of speakers do that its probably just cause you have a lot to say

Thanks for the insight Timbo

I learned so much through your videos and I wasn't being rude

Out of shape? possibly....