Tracking?

[seankb]

I will be getting a malinois soon, and wanted to start him off early with tracking. Now the main purpose for this dog is home/ family protection, I know they are used by cia, swatt, and secret service for search and rescue to bomb detection. I am assuming they would be great trackers also, does anyone use or have heard of someone using this breed to track game? Also if anyone is in the detroit area could they point me to a place that I could get some frozen deer blood and frozen deer hind.

[Mojotex]

I have had trained two blood trailers, both Dachshunds. Making a practice blood trail is an excellent training tool. I do caution you to not use a deer hide drag. This will probably train your dog to cold trail or run deer. What I did was make a simple trail using deer blood, cut with tap water about 50/50 (to increase my supply). I put a piece of weenie at the end of the blood trail as the reward. As your dog gets better, try making the blood trail tougher. However, I am convinced that nothing replaces the real thing. Put you pooch on every real blood trail as practical. Even the short ones where you know where the deer is down. This will reinforce what you want your dog to do. And don't forget, nothing beats praise. Good luck and I'd be interested down the road to hear how it is going.