Tracking

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Sun May 28, 2006 7:54 pm

Does anyone here do tracking with their bird dogs? I was wondering how one falls into this sport. I want to start doing it with my GSP and have no idea where to start. How does one train for it? Anyone know a good site I can get on to find some information.

Post by **Ayres** » Mon May 29, 2006 12:07 am

I may be totally off base with this, but it seems like tracking and bird hunting require almost contradictory training. I have no doubt that almost any bird dog could excel in tracking, but tracking is, in essence, a form of hunting. The movements a dog goes through when tracking differ a lot from hunting though, most notably the position of the head. In tracking, the nose is on the ground, following the trail of the target. In hunting, the nose is up gathering as much scent as possible in order to find a possible target.

And don't get me wrong, tracking is helpful for the hunting dog to find crippled game. I just don't know that I'd want to encourage the nose to the ground all the time thing.

Again, I've not entered the tracking realm so I may be off base with that assessment.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Mon May 29, 2006 12:11 am

I thought that too but over the past couple days of looking into it I have talked to a few people and they said you can cue the dog in for tracking so he will hunt head up.

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Mon May 29, 2006 2:09 am

Keep the dog off rabbits and it won't hunt head down.

The tracking harness is the cue.

EastBeast · Post by **EastBeast** » Mon May 29, 2006 6:22 am

Margaret is right on. They learn what the harness means.

Kurzhaar · Post by **Kurzhaar** » Mon May 29, 2006 2:28 pm

I regularly use my DKs for recovery of wounded deer by following blood tracks. I also expect my dogs to track wounded game, whether fur or feather, land or water.

Jim

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Mon May 29, 2006 2:29 pm

How do you train for that?

Post by **Ayres** » Mon May 29, 2006 10:03 pm

My dog tracks wounded game pretty much by instinct. And, I've even had him do it when game wasn't an issue, but rather a selected toy. I've taken a toy he was playing with, mixed it in with all his other pup toys of like kind, and thrown them all over the living room floor. He will go and pick out the one toy that he had to begin with, leaving all the others.

I've never really trained for that sort of thing though.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Mon May 29, 2006 10:53 pm

I want to put some titles on him. I am going to start with some birds and move to human articles.

Post by **Ayres** » Tue May 30, 2006 2:01 am

Go for it! I'm sure he'll do well.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Tue May 30, 2006 2:02 am

Ayres wrote:Go for it! I'm sure he'll do well.

I can only hope.

Post by **Ayres** » Tue May 30, 2006 11:39 am

Don't worry. If he's got a nose for hunting he can do tracking. It's all in the training.

Texrab · Post by **Texrab** » Tue May 30, 2006 12:12 pm

Here is a good book on blood tracking http://www.born-to-track.com/tracking-wounded-game.htm
You can get info on AKC tracking here http://www.akc.org/pdfs/events/tracking ... _guide.pdf

I am starting tracking training with my pup.

PAHunter · Post by **PAHunter** » Tue May 30, 2006 12:27 pm

Ryan,

Have you started doing any tracking games?

Example: Mark the start of the drag. Drag a piece of chicken skin through the grass (upwind) hide it behind a rock or tree. Bring your dog to the mark let him smell your fingers(chicken skin sent still on them) by putting them to your dogs nose, then down the drag line and quickly remove your hand. Give the dog a command like (find it, dead bird or track) Make sure the drag is short to start then increase it in length. The first couple of time you do this don't hide it make sure its easy to find and when the dog does reward the heck out of him with verbal praise, but the chicken skin is usually all the reward necessary. Now if you don't have chicken in Canada you could use pc of steak of hotdog.

Eventually transition from food to freshly killed dead birds. Mark the start of the drag with some feathers.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Tue May 30, 2006 12:31 pm

PAHunter wrote: Now if you don't have chicken in Canada you could use pc of steak of hotdog.

Take off Eh.

No I havent done any drag games with him yet. He has done a few pheasant tracks when we are our running. I see them in the ditch all the time so I stop. Usually the bird runs so I take him to where the bird was and he follows the scent along usually until the bird flies or he gets confused where it went.

Texrab thanks for the links.

Vizsla Vince · Post by **Vizsla Vince** » Tue May 30, 2006 6:45 pm

Zoomie, @ 5 1/2 mos, tracks deer in the forest preserve all the time. I can pretty much tell how freequent a deer trail is used by how intense he gets. Of course, he could just be searching for deer scat :pukeleft:

SteveB · Post by **SteveB** » Wed May 31, 2006 8:25 am

"...The first couple of time you do this don't hide it make sure its easy to find and when the dog does reward the heck out of him with verbal praise, but the chicken skin is usually all the reward necessary. Now if you don't have chicken in Canada you could use pc of steak of hotdog.

"

I was told by a pro that you want to use the chicken or hot dog to lay the trail, but at the end you should leave a bumper or even a plush toy and NOT the food. The theory is you don't want the dog eating what's at the end of the trail, but he should retrieve it (unless it's a deer then we have other options) to hand.
I don't think the first time or two it would hurt to let the dog have a treat but he should be hunting for you and not for himself.
Again, I'm just repeating what I was told but the theory seems sound.
Steve

Gun Dog Forum

Tracking

Tracking

Bloodtracking and Wounded Game Tracking