Which dog breed is the best for tracking?

[cantexduck]

Dang, Ace is getting big!!!

Steve-Male. You walked up to me when I was holding him. Remember I said something about JR.?

Can a dog after a while tell the diff. in deer vs. pig blood?? Lets say I shoot a deer. Some how even though I make a textbook shot due to my super archery skills. The deer runs off into a creek bed. He leaves a decent blood trail. After 80-100 yards the blood stops.While waiting for Elle to show up a group of pigs flush the deer of its bed. So the dog is put on the track. She follows the blood fast. When the dog reaches the creek bed(where the blood stopped) the dog will track useing the scent of the deer? Would the dog know the track she was put on was deer from the get go? I geuss this is only for dogs that have tracked for a while on both pigs and deer.

[Dusty Britches]

Mike - did you get that pup from Tom? He's bringing us a pup this weekend. He called me this morning and may have a yearling pup coming back to him. Something about the owners didn't realize how much energy they have and didn't like the fact that it was a squirrel killing machine.

[cantexduck]

Tracey, I got the pup from Mike and Mis Brooks.

[Jimbow]

This has probably been discussed a few times, but the Lacy looks a lot like a weimeraner, sounds like they may be a smaller version.

[Jerryg]

This 7 month Lacy belongs to Bob Gilbert his name is Speck.....first blood trail about 800 yards this weekend and a nice reward at the end for James Bailey. Hell of a buck...I forgot to tell him he couldnt shoot this deer since I had it seperated for myself.....he is no longer on the lease

[Deer Tracks]

Jerry, was there any blood on the ground? If so, how much?

There are many differences between lacies and weims, especially physical characteristics. The Weimaraner is actually a conglomeration of many different German hunting breeds.

[SaltwaterSlick]

Duck, A tracking dog trails blood, and any kind of blood whether it is deer, hog, javipig, cat, etc. It's the blood they will be tracking. When training we use all kinds of blood sometimes even mixed. What I suggest you all do who want to train a dog is to keep a "blood kit" with you and have your buddies do the same. No matter what kind of animal you kill, save it's blood. On a deer, hog, etc, when you gut it, there's always lots of blood clotted and unclotted in the cavity. Instead of dumping it out on the ground, get yourself a watebottle with the top cut out and use it for a scoop and dump the blood in good quality ziploc bags. Throw them in the freezer for training later. Also keep strips of the hides, heart pieces, etc, so at the end of your mock trails, the tracker gets a treat... When you thaw the blood to use for tracking, you can get some saline solution and dilute it to dissolve the clots, and it's good as new to make trails. It's a real hoot too to make a trail once your dog is getting pretty good to try to make a trail that you think will outsmart them... I did the old double back routing, cross the creek, go upstream/downstream in the creek, etc. And once the dog gets the hang of it, you ain't gonna fool them. They're amazing to watch. As I posted earlier, mine is a yellow Lab, and I can tell you, for just a tracking dog, I personally would go with one of the smaller breeds, if nothing else for self preservation. My Lab about kills me trying to hang on behind her at the end of a lead.

[duck or bleed]

How do bird dogs do on blood trailing? They have great noses, so I would think they would be okay. I have access to some German shorthairs.

[Bones]

Mike,

I had no idea that you were buying it! I thought that you were just messing around.

If your question is "will a hog dog leave a blood trait to catch a hog?" The answer is yes, they sometimes will. I know that if mine hit hot hog track while on a blood trail, they are most likely going to get themselves a pig! Ellie will choose blood over hog. I think that question in particular has more to do with where you focus the training than anything else.

[cantexduck]

I see. Thanks for the info!!

I am not planning on training a dog for tracking. I was just wondering.If worse came to worse I could try out the black dog. Oh, and I was messing around at first. **** impulse buys. Not really impulse ,but S&M Hogdogs have some sweet dogs so I snatched one up.

[Deer Tracks]

GSPs are really popular in Europe for blood trailing.

[SaltwaterSlick]

The German Shorthair is the #1 Breed for the National Versitle Hunting Dog Assn... I did a bunch of research some time back after hunting birds over them. I thought I wanted a dog to do all things, so I got one from a very reputable breeder... great dog, but just not my cup o' tea... them pointers are just too HYPER for me. I'm a lab guy, and a disciplinarian. I had that shorthair long enough to train it to retrieve ducks and was starting to do tracking with it and just plain run out of patience with it.

But they do have great noses and can be taught to do about anything if and it's a big IF, you have patience, patience, and patience... It is not in their nature to behave like a well trained lab...

[Ricky T]

Rooster, Lonestar looks just like his momma. Stinker is money on a trail. I'm sure Lonestar is too. Palmer's dogs are all good.

[Solocam]

How do bird dogs do on blood trailing? They have great noses, so I would think they would be okay. I have access to some German shorthairs.

I have a Pointer/Cat mix. I have been told he is full blooded cat and also told he is full blooded pointer and deaf.

He was just a pound pup I got for $50 and he seems to be very promising. I have only had him on 2 live tracks. One with a lot of blood and the other with just about no blood. Found both.

[huntresss]

duck or bleed- the breed doesn't matter so much as the individual dog's trainability. A dog with a strong desire to please it's owner is the easiest to train to track blood. While you can force train a dog to retreive birds, the only way to train a dog to track is if they want to do it. It's hard for most dogs to resist the temptation of taking off on a hot trail when following a cold track, so the dog has to be smart enough to differentiate between the two. The only way to do that is to have a relationship with that dog so that it wants to hunt for you, not for itself. While our dog loves finding the animal at the end of a track, she will eventually leave it to come get us and take us to it (assuming it's dead) because that pat on the head is more important to her than wooling on the dead critter is. It's something that's really hard to describe here, but anybody who's ever had a close working relationship with a dog knows what I'm trying to say...you can just tell when a dog loves doing that job and that's what you have to try to find. Either a dog is going to be a good tracker, or it isn't.
-Cheryl