Congrats to you Deb and to Ranger for an excellent job well done!


Wow to the pup who passed level 1 at 4 months old!!

Thanks. To be honest, these dogs aren't trained at all. Ranger has run less than 10 tracks in his life. It's just natural for them. The 4-month old was so cute!! His daddy wasn't planning on doing anything -- he'd just come to watch. Head of our organization convinced Dad to give Camo a chance to show what he could do!! He'd never even run a track before Saturday!!

This is awesome, Deb!

Y'all did great! Wish we had something like that here.

Would you mind going into a little detail about the work that you guys have done to get to this point?

And don't tease me with talk of your blood dog and not give me some video. I neeeeeed it.....pretty please, with sugar on top.:smile:

Way cool...it's always interesting to learn about the different things people do with their dogs.

leih

Fabulous job, and very interesting!

Congrats! That is fantastic.

I took a tracking clinic with Cali, and she rawks! The person running the clinic asked if we were interested in S&R. (Like you say, natural ability.) She loves it too. I practice a couple of times a week with her on our own. Since the snow flew here all the tracking opportunities shut down-at least I can't find anything active. But the dog club we joined will start up again in June and I'll be back at it with her. It uses her body and her brain, and she just lights up doing it. It's really fun, isn't it?

Deb, sounds really cool...keep it up and post some videos if you get a chance.

OK -- first I REALLY hate to disappoint you Michael, but no video that I know of. We were all too busy running dogs--LOL! I don't even know of any on the Lacy website.

The best book is Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer This is the 'bible' we all use.

Most dogs doing blood tracking require minimal-to-no 'official' training. The 4-month-old puppy that passed had not even BEEN on a track until Saturday AM. He ran all 5 tracks Sat., each progressively harder. #1 was (I'm going by memory now) 40 yards, straight line, 8 oz. blood, with a deer carcass (frozen then thawed) at the end. #2 was 80 yards non-straight, etc. #5 was 1/2 under brush thickets, 1/2 open ground, 6 oz. blood with one wound bed, 2-90's, 200 yards. All had deer carcasses @ the end that we encourage the dogs to bite at, worry, and get excited about 'their' find. They are allowed to spend time gnawing at the meat. We teach 'out' to leave the carcass on command.

These tracks (one per station) were all laid around 8-9 AM Sat. morning. We started @ 10AM so the first station had already 'aged' 2 hours. We use previously frozen deer blood that people have collected.

The dogs are allowed to work on or off leash @ each station as this is what is legal in Texas. Each state has different rules about using tracking dogs to find wounded deer. Some states REQUIRE the dog to be on lead at all times, and sometimes leash length is specified.

We had to start with the group we were assigned to, but after that we didn't have to do them in order, as each track & track layer had something different to offer in regards to training. So Ranger & I actually did 1,3,4,5, and THEN went back to #2. #5 was when the track layer pointed you to the first blood spot (ribbon tied to tree) and you were on your own!! He never even left his truck. You either found the deer or you didn't!! He gave you no direction whatsoever. Ranger completed that track in ummmm, 5 minutes or so at a fast trot and never had to be redirected. I was breathing heavy when we finished!

You are supposed to look for blood spots, but I actually have trouble finding them because (1) I'm not a hunter or even a 'woodsperson', (2) Ranger works so fast, & (3) Ranger does a combination of air scenting and tracking. I can tell when he's off the track and searching about 1/2 the time. Mostly I'm COMPLETELY lost and just follow Ranger!

I started Ranger on hot-dog and liver drags (4 total) with meat at the end when he was 3-4 months old. He did 2 blood trails at the Lacy Playday last May @ 5 months old. That's been it until Saturday, when he did the 5 and then the test.

He probably could have done the Level II except they had no more tracks left (they lay one for each dog testing) and I would have had to wait for it to age. And I didn't have time to wait. Oh, well -- next year!

Oh, there was a 9-YO boy there with his Daschund and that dog ran all the tracks too!

 Quote: Michael_Wise

This is awesome, Deb!

Y'all did great! Wish we had something like that here.

Would you mind going into a little detail about the work that you guys have done to get to this point?

And don't tease me with talk of your blood dog and not give me some video. I neeeeeed it.....pretty please, with sugar on top.:smile: