Blood Trailing Deer

[Haymaker]

I have a friend that is wanting to train his male lab to blood trail deer. Only problem is that neither one of us has ever tried to train a lab to do such a thing. I have heard of several hunters talking about dogs that will do this, but have never heard anyone say HOW to train one. The only way that I know to do it is wait until next deer season and when someone shoots a deer that runs a little ways and falls dead, go get the dog and walk the trail with him to where the deer is laying. I didn't know if there was a way that we could train the dog to do this between now and next deer season? Any help would be appreciated.

Darrell

[00duck]

go to deer hunting .com [img]images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[Welldoggie]

Hey Haymaker,
My cousin down in Calhoun County has a lab(or lab mix) that was not trained at all. He is a big deer hunter and one day needed help finding a stuck deer during bow season. He went back to the house, loaded up the dog and set him on the trail. Dog walked him right to the deer.

Their nose is so good, they can't help but chase the curiosity. Not sure if alot training is necessary.

Dog did it for him several times until somebody drove by his house one night and shot the dog (lost a leg). More examples of people in this world that just aint right.

[Hung Up]

Haymaker, i'm glad you started this topic. Unfortunately I don't have any advice, but i've often wondered exactly how you would go about getting a dog to blood trail a deer. In the past i've taken different dogs and put them on trails but never had a dog that it seemed to "click" with. All the dogs that I took were "hunting" dogs of some sort. This is just an opinion, but personally I think that only a small percentage of dogs seem to born with the ability to do this task with any reliability.

[mississippi_duc_htr]

I have read such and article in one of the outdoor publications about just how to do it and from what I can remember is you can take a deers blood and put it in a container and dip the deers hoofs in it. Then take and make a trail with the blood dipped hoofs and dont let the lab see what you are doing. Start out simple at first and them you can make it harder over time. I think when the dog reaches the end of the trail they were giving him a reward or dog treat.If my ole memeory serves me correct the guy and the lab they were telling the story about was from Mississippi. It was several years ago that I read this. You might want to email Outdoorlife and Sports Afield or any other pulication you can think of and ask them if they ran the story. They should have somone go back through their archives and check.Worth a shot anyway>>>>>>> [img]images/smiles/icon_cool.gif[/img]

P.S. If you can get a deers liver it holds alot of blood in it. Get a Ice cream bucket and put it in it freeze it and when it thaws it'll be half full of blood.

[ March 09, 2002: Message edited by: mississippi_duc_htr ]

[chance]

The guides at Tara use labs quite a bit for blood trailing stuck deer. These guys use drags that are soaked with deer blood to train the dogs to trail wounded deer.Their dogs are very successful at retrieving what could possibly be lost game. In any case the dogs make the retrieval quicker.

[Haymaker]

Thanks for all of the advice fellas!!! I will let you know it works out and what worked the best for me and my buddy.

Darrell

[walt333ms]

WATCH OUT.....be careful as to what you wish for in training a lab to trail deer....

have a real good black lab "sam" ...trained him to trail deer...mistake....remember a lab does not bark....
twice while trailing wonded deer he jumped them and off to the races,,,he would try to catch the deer...by just luck an hour later the deer came back our way with the lab right behind....deer was not hurt bad enough to lie down and die......almost lost my dog

after a duck hunt in jan..
one night comming out of delta national in flooded timber jumped a deer on an island...
it was off to the races again....
about 1 hours later he came back with out his camo vest...had gotten tangled up and some how tore it off with out choaking him...
almost lost him again///...

...so then new training program began ,,,
Not to trail a deer....

9 years later he is still here....lying at my feet.....

take care
uncle walt and sam

[jstanard]

The first deer I shot with a bow was at Halpino (One of Tara's properties). I hit him high - above the lungs, but had a good blood trail. When we lost the trail, one of the guides radioed Jeff Terry to bring his chocolate lab Chester. He took off nose to the ground down the trail and eventually put us back on a fading blood trail. Chester had a good nose, but his problem was that some things smelled better than deer blood. He could smell a dog in heat in another state. He stopped, raised his head up and took off - not to be seen for a week. He was eventually returned by a kennel owner in Louisiana.

It wasn't the dog's fault, but we never recovered the deer.

[Haymaker]

I too once considered training my lab to blood trail deer and then got to wondering if running throught the woods maybe more inviting that fetch ducks out of freezing water... therefore I decided not to train her to blood trail deer. The friend of mine that is wanting to train his male chocolate lab to blood trail says that is all he is going to do with him. He has a female, 11 months old, that he has been working with to go duck hunt with. From what he has told me the male fell out of a truck and broke is leg a year and a half ago, he is fully recovered and can run, swim, etc. but he will start limping and get stiff if he spends a day in a muddy field or cold water [img]images/smiles/icon_sad.gif[/img]. So rather than not use him at all, he and I thought that we could try to teach him to blood trail deer. Atleast that way my buddy would get some use out of his male dog and then have a second dog to take duck hunting.

Thanks again for all of the info fellas.

Darrell

So many hobbies, so little cash.

[ March 09, 2002: Message edited by: Haymaker ]

[NOHERE]

in the field trial game we teach them not to go after any other game except what they saw fall... at times it gets to be a knock down drag out war...he will almost do it naturaly with out much training, one dose of the smell , that'll be enough.'
don't be surprised if you send him after a green head and he disapears and comes back with a 8 point!! [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[Hambone]

Keep your dog on a leash when you are blood trailing. Those deer have incredible strength, and even when wounded, can run great distances. You do not want the retriever to run the deer, but rather to locate it. It is also a good idea to wait an hour or two before you start trailing.

[Haymaker]

Hambone,

What is the purpose of waiting an hour or two before you start trailing a deer? Is this so that the deer will have a chance to find a place to lay down and die and it will not be able to get-up and run? I am glad that you mentioned the idea of keeping him on a leash, should keep us from loosing a dog.

Thanks for your help,

Darrell

[Hambone]

Haymaker, you hit the nail on the head. About ten years ago, Softcall hit a four point square in the hindquarter with an arrow. He made the shot right at dark and left the area. We came back about 2 hours later and put my Golden retriever, Patsy, on the blood trail. She followed it straight to the deer, which was a couple of hundred yards and several briar patches away, stone dead. A shot like that is fatal, but not immediate, and if we had pushed the deer right after the shot, he might have run to the next county. We learned the leash lesson the hard way, when another Golden was allowed to run a just-wounded deer and was accidentally shot. After that unimagineable heartbreak, I would NEVER blood trail a deer without the leash and without waiting awhile.

[Unkljohn]

The reason you wait a while is to give the deer a chance to go lie down and bleed out, instead of getting it's adrenaline all pumped and running for miles before it finally dies. The meat will taste much better, and it won't be nearly as hard to find your deer!!!
JT