Hi all. This is my first post so I wanted to introduce myself & ask a ??.

I have a Texas Blue Lacy (State Dog of Texas). Ranger was born Dec. 1, 2008, so he's still a puppy. These dogs can be exceptional when used to blood trail wounded deer, which is what I would like Ranger to do. So far I've been using hot dogs to run him on trails in my back woods. (Can't find blood)

I have drug a hot dog along the ground & left bits occassionally along the track, with a larger prize at the end. The last track he did was about 20 yards long. He basically raced past some of the bits, but he was about 20' away from me and made it to the prize.

Any tips or basic advice on teaching trailing like this? I have ordered a book on blood trailing deer but don't have it yet.

I don't have any tips, but WOW! You have have a Blue Lacy? My dream dog! Good luck with your pup.

PS from the original family?

Try this book http://leerburg.com/964.htm

That's the book I just ordered--LOL! No, Ranger is NOT from the original Lacy family. Actually one of the Lacy decendants (Marlo Riley) has the Breed Registry and because of such a small gene pool ALL our dogs are related in some way or another to the 'originals'. I believe Marlo is actually mentioned in this book.

Thats a great book, Deb.:smile:

I've only tried to train one dog, a JRT, for blood trailing. He has found 3 deer airscenting, but never showed much interest in blood trailing. Maybe him, maybe my training. Don't know.

Since my one attempt didn't turn out that well, I don't feel comfy giving training advice on tracking of any sort.:smile:

I do feel comfortable talking about tracking deer, though. Do you have much experience tracking deer by eye yourself?

The more you know about tracking deer and identifying wounds and their severity, the easier it will be if your dog turns out.

The book you are ordering goes over the human portion of blood trailing very well.

It also talks about Roy Hindes quite a bit. He uses lacys in Texas. I don't know him or anything, but if he is close, he would probably be worth talking, too.:smile:

Keep us updated. I'm fascinated with tracking, and hope to one day have a good blood dog myself. There is just something very primal to me about blood trailing with a dog. Hope all goes well with Ranger.:smile:

Good luck with Ranger. We have people around us who use hounds to track wounded deer. I don't know how they trained but it is fascinating...better than trying to track a wounded deer on your own...that's for sure!

(Oh, would it be selfish of me to ask for a picture of Ranger? Please?)

I will have to mail pics from home but no, I don't mind sending you one (or several--LOL!). You can go to http://lacydog.com/Default.aspx to see lots of Lacy pics too!

I've heard they are easy to train for this since they seem to pick it up instinctively.

Do you know any hunters or butchers that can give you a bit of blood to try? I'll bet your pup will be a natural.

Freezing and then defrosting meat (of any sort) will cause the meat to leach out a fair amount of blood.

You could try freezing for 72 hours some cheap meat, and then thawing it in a bowl, to obtain some blood to work with.

Here are pics of Ranger:

At 10 weeks:



At 13 weeks:



At 15 weeks:



With my son chillin':