Am going out with a stalker on Sunday to be taught how to lay a blood trail.He will bring me cow/ deer blood, a deer head and hooves to put in the freezer for practise.
He is a member of the Bavarian Mountain Dog committee who have now decided to allow HPR's to enter their tests. I will find out the date of their next one and enter Arthur if all goes well. At last , a venue for those who want to utilise all the skills of our breeds and my thanks to the BMDC committee for being so ininivative. _________________ Home of pure German Longhairs ,Ch HV's and Ch GSP's.
He will bring me cow/ deer blood, a deer head and hooves to put in the freezer for practise.
A tip to remember:
When freezing blood for tracking keep it in small quantities ( sufficient for one track) As I found it seems to deteriate quickly in its `tracking' quality once it is defrosted, and if used more than once gives less than satisfactory results. Splitting into small batches makes a little blood go a lot further
Also, dont throw away the clots after `mashing', freeze them seperately, with or without pieces of liver/heart, in sealable plastic bags, as this can make good wound bed markers/rewards at changes in direction and at the `find'. The bags can also be pin pricked and placed into an artificial drag item.
Peter
I have some of that waidwerk Marieke, and agree its good stuff and means I dont have to keep pestering the local abbatoir, or filling up the deep freeze with suspicious little packages
Peter
It was an exceedingly interesting day and thanks to Pete Garaway for his expert tuition His enthusiasm for the Bavarian, it's role in deer management and his commitment to maintaining it's working ethos in the UK was refreshing.
We used a " hot " trail hence the stick but uses shoes for cold trails. Tracking is much more dificult than it looks but it was interesting to see our dogs perform this task with ease. They were inexperienced and so was I but what was evident was their ground scenting abilities are as undiluted as their air.
Their reward for completing the line was a retrieve of the head at the end which they did naturally without prompting, with Bavarians they are allowed to rag the head in training rather than retrieve it. They also speak on command.
We won't do a retrieve again but will keep the head in the cage and make the dog sit by it without touching so with a carcase on their next track they will sit by it.
I have to admit I'm hooked, this is a skill equal to field trialling and I can now understand why our German breeders are anxious we maintain blood tracking skills in our dogs in the UK. There's more to our breeds than pointing birds but I realise I'm in a very small minority here. However for those who have an interest the BM Club will allow HPR's at their tests / training. _________________ Home of pure German Longhairs ,Ch HV's and Ch GSP's.
I have to admit I'm hooked, this is a skill equal to field trialling and I can now understand why our German breeders are anxious we maintain blood tracking skills in our dogs in the UK.
It does have that effect Brenda, it gets even more interesting the more dogs you see do it, whilst I suppose there are breed similarities, I found it is also very much an `individual' animal thing as to how they approach it, some have a hap hazard approach ( but you can still see a purpose to their work), others are more methodical, some are at a steady pace and others can do a line at speed I have to admit that seeing this gave me much the same rush as seeing a dog feathering up on point
Good luck with the training
Peter
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I have to admit that seeing this gave me much the same rush as seeing a dog feathering up on point