GirlsHunt2

As the title says, how would you train a dog to follow a blood trail? Also would a Rottweiler be an acceptable breed to use? I breed AKC/UKC registered rottweilers from great working Schutzhund (which involves scent trailing for those who don't know what it is) lines. My stud and bitch both have great drives to work and please... Any ideas suggestions? I'd love to have a trailing dog, im sure I could help people out around here too. There aren't any local... Thanks!


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bronko22000

I have a friend of mine who has a dog he used for blood trailing. And I call him up whenever I arrow shoot a deer just so the dog can get some actual field practice in. I asked him about training a dog and he told me that would get blood from a butcher shop (or any grocery store that does their own butchering).
At first with a pup he would start with short 'trails' maybe only 2 or 3 yds. putting a drop of the blood ever couple inches or using a drag cloth with some blood on it and have a treat at the end. Then you gradually extend the 'trail' and the distance between drops. You don't want to continue to use the drag rag as that is only for the first few times. (animals that are hard to locate don't leave a continuous blood trail) A smart dog with any hunting instinct should catch on pretty quick - especially when there is a reward at the end of the trail.
But you have to remember, you should keep the dog on a leash when trailing. You don't want it to run too far ahead or worse have a hunter seeing it chasing a deer through the woods and maybe get shot.

GirlsHunt2

Wow thanks for the advice! Yeah I would definitely keep them leashed...if someone were to shoot my dogs I'd snap! They'd regret it for the rest of their life, being paying for it too my dogs ain't cheap lol would it work on older dogs (1-3 yrs) or do they have to be started real young?


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Mickey Finn

I pretty much used Bronko's friends technique. I think it's a good idea to combine the advanced training with force fetch. This way, the dog already knows he must find the game. This would especially be helpful with an older dog, or one that does not already have a strong tracking instinct. After force fetch. I'd not waste much time with drag rags after you see the light bulb "come on". Use freshly killed game. Rabbits, are usually easy to get. When the dog is finding and retrieving the rabbits. Introduce the long leash, and let the dog learn to work with this.

When the dog is following game drags to their end on the long lead. Introduce the blood using the very same situation you used for the game drags. Leaving a deer hide, and some raw hamburger at the end of the blood drags is how we reward the dog.

Like all training with dogs. Do everything in steps. That way, if something goes awry. You just go back to the last step the dog completed, and start again.

One other word of advice. When you start doing tracks for other hunters. Don't let them follow along with you. Make them wait for you to come back and get them.

You mentioned Shutzhund training. it's my understanding that our techinique was taken from their training.