Has anyone tried using cow blood to train blood dogs to retrieve deer,beer,moose...?Ive got a one year old lab i want to blood train but have not kept any blood from last falls deer.
Any tips?
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Has anyone tried using cow blood to train blood dogs to retrieve deer,beer,moose...?Ive got a one year old lab i want to blood train but have not kept any blood from last falls deer.
Any tips?
You are a little over one month away from archery season. Might better wait till there is a carcass you can scavenge from. Won't make a difference in the dogs preparedness this season. And fresh deer liver and blood is the best.
To a dog, honestly - blood is blood is blood. I did 90% of my training with Misty on cow's blood, that being said however she was exposed to deer blood on a thinned level. She was trained to track blood in a 50:1 ratio of water:blood - I think it builds a stronger nose, then when she's exposed to whole blood she knows exactly where to go and what to do.
Exposing your dog to blood is only a small portion of training. Obedience, learning your dog, and how he handles in the bush is another thing all together.
Furthermore, liver - while containing the most blood is not a substitute for blood in my opinion. Albeit - it will work, just not as well; You are training your dog to track blood after-all, not liver :)
If you think you've got the obedience down pat, and the dog will listen to your commands without hesitation - you're ready to move on to the next step. It's quite simple really - run a short line of blood in your lawn, 20 feet or so and see how your dog reacts to it. You can sweeten the pot by adding a small treat at the end of the line, however the treat should really be a hunk of deer hide or something like that.
Keep increasing the distance and the amount of time your blood trail sits before tracking it. At this point, it doesn't matter whether or not you know where the track is, the purpose is to teach your dog to follow the track you've laid for it. Keep putting it back on course, and it'll eventually get the idea.
I'm sure I've missed quite a bit in this post, feel free to PM me with any questions you may have. Remember however - there are MANY ways to train a dog, there is only ONE way to train your dog. You need to find what works for you, using these methods as a base or starting point only.
Good post.Quote:
Originally Posted by jweese
X2. I have used thawed ground elk meat which I placed into a bowl of water and steeped for an hour or so. Then I strained the slurry and saved the liquid. My dogs are just fine tracking it, but I will try to keep some deer blood (and feet) from the upcoming season. We have had some success tracking a 5 hour old foot only(no blood) track left by mule deer on pasture. I was very pleased to see how easily the dogs got onto it, and kept on it.
Excellent - keep it up for sure. Misty has been trained to track both blood and track - obviously, she tracks blood much better, but on the hoof in the absence of blood she is able to track as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by marysburg
Glad you are making some progress, please keep us updated.
Last evening, about 8 of us got together to run some tracks. Two fellows went out early to lay lines that would be aged 4 to 6 hours. It was great to see all the different breeds work. We had a border collie cross, an Irish water spaniel, 2 large muensterlanders, a bloodhound cross, and 2 Brittanies. The tracks were about 400 yards long, had a couple of turns, but no wound beds. The cover was short grass, long grass, light woods, and shrubby wet areas.
It was great to hear comments, suggestions and feedback from the group, and very useful practice for us all. We're going to soldier on and see how it all works out.
yes, you can use cow blood, some people train with cow (sheep etc) blood and test with deer blood, say it's more exciting.
ppl liquefy liver in a blender - look it up.
There are decent articles on the net how to train blood tracking.
I have used it with the Dogo in the last few weeks after defrosting his raw food.He has no problems following the blood trail but it is pretty heavy, he appears to be able to cheat as he "air scents" as he trails and will take a short cut right to the source. Dont know ifQuote:
Originally Posted by domination
he will stay at this over the long course and longer distances but a few hundred yards is a good start.Of course he relates the blood to his meal ticket and I run him before his supper.
Apologies to all the Large MUNsterlander and Small MUNsterlanders. I misspelled Munsterlander in a previous post, and I should know better.
I vacuum seal all my deer meat and it draws lots of blood out of the meat to use for tracking. Instant killed deer produce the most blood. My three dogs were natural and the older dog taught the younger one. I always gave them some raw meat when skinning the deer.
In On? I didn't see any Large M here.Quote:
Originally Posted by marysburg
It's spelled Münsterländer :)
Thanks for the info guys.
I will go ahead and start training this week with cow blood.
not good (for training purposes), but not the dog's fault - you should be disappointed if he wouldn'tQuote:
Originally Posted by Gilroy
for tracking training you have to play the wind just as much as for any other exercise; only difference you want to make sure he cannot air scent much at all, hence he has to track
Just my two cents where, for what it's worth - air scenting is not a cheat; in my opinion. Unless you're into this for some sort of competition - the ultimate goal of blood tracking is finding wounded or lost game. Regardless of how your dog goes about finding it; if the end result is the same; then it's a positive result.
When I was doing my UBT testing with Misty we were walking down a roadway to the test starting point, probably a good 500 yard walk at least, while we were walking I noticed she aired something; knowing my dog I know it had to be blood; I remarked this to one of the spectators as well; we continued walking however. When we started the test she took off like a rocket, and sure-as- a portion of that track was close enough to the road we walked on that she could have winded it, and because she winded it we were better able to work as a team to find the end result.
Learn to read your dog, scents aren't just on the ground - blood isn't just on the ground, it is airborne as well. I didn't trust my dog at first, but she hasn't let me down yet and has some pretty amazing tracks under her belt. She knows what she's doing, am I'm just along for the ride most times.
On the topic of blood - as previously mentioned, blood is blood is blood as far as I'm concerned. I've trained with cow blood, puried liver, deer blood, and sheep blood - and always had the same result. The only thing I did differently was trained with a watered down portion of blood (sometimes as high as 50:1 ratio) to better train the nose. I'm not sure if it really works but as a former competitive weightlifter my thoughts are this: The nose should be trained on increasingly difficult scents, the same as a muscle needs to be trained increasingly heavier weights. Then, when it comes to the "lighter weights" or "heavier scents" they are easier to track.
This proved successful to me; what proves successful to you might be completely different.
There is nothing wrong with air scenting, some dogs do it and some don't. I started 2 yrs ago training my dog with two SAR groups, one group strictly uses the 'tracking' method of foot step to footstep with their dogs which are mostly patrol dogs, and another group uses primarily Bloodhounds which have a tendency to 'trial' or air scent. My dog got her TD this year and we are now training for the TDX and UTD (the urban she does very well and has done 12hr old trails in town) - and she is an air scent dog. So both methods will work.Quote:
Originally Posted by Waftrudnir
when using blood to train can the dog get sick from licking to much blood say a heart worm or other blood born illness ,say you are using sheep blood or cow blood you would never know if the blood had some sort of contaminant ,.my deer hounds love to lick up the blood.I have always wondered about this as there are a lot of blood born ailments .Dutch
air scenting is natural for a dog (nothing wrong with that).
however, a track does not necessarily run with a favourable wind. therefore, for training purposes you should teach your dog IMHO an alternative way to get to downed game; i.e. step by step tracking (first with, later without any blood if you so desire)
I wouldn't mind how my dog smells as long as he finds the game. I guess ill see what works best for us when i start training. Picking up fresh cow blood from the butcher and will start training tonight.
I am thinking of training one of my smaller mastiffs (180 lbs). Anyone in the Ottawa region doing training? I had one mastiff who would blood tract but she died 8 years ago Being deer sized could go any where's a deer could fo
I did not read everything so if someone mentioned already I'm sorry for the repeat. When you try to recover big game with a dog following blood trail is one part of it. In Europe these dogs trained to follow individual scent of the animals. What happens when there is no blood? Wait until you can get a deer feet, piece of skin and start with these. You can add some blood here and there.