I just started a four month-old beagle to blood trail, and I was wondering if any of you guys use them in that purpose.
People here seem to think that searching wounded game with a beagle is akin to heresy
(dachshunds, labs and Hanover hound have a much better reputation)
So I would be happy if you had any tips, stories or pics to share. :pray:
Here's my pup working on training blood line: http://vimeo.com/28005707
Those of us with beagles in the States spend soooo much time and effort trying to keep our dogs from chasing deer. My beagle is a rabbit doq, and the last thing I want her doing is getting on deer.
I would think they would do a fine job though. Your troubles might be the opposite of mine ....she may be getting on rabbits when you are looking for deer.
I'm with Roger. I don't want my beagles looking for anything other than snowshoe hares.
Mike
Roger, Mike, thanks for your replies.
Hunting rabbits or hare with a pack of beagles must be quite a thrill actually.
Sadly, rabbits are pretty rare locally
(except a few spots here and there) Thanks to myxomatosis...
I had a beagle that was mostly a pet however he was excellent at rabbits. That being said we also used him for finding wounded deer. He came up with several deer that might have other wise been lost. It was harder to keep him interested in deer than rabbits. He was excellent as long as he was motivated. Give him a try...
My dog Emmy, went 19 for 21 trailing deer for me and many others. That dog would find any deer hit mortally no questions asked. if it is dead she WOULD find it. the only 2 she didnt find were shooters error. But, Emmy had a naty habit of going out to pee at midnight, we found her in many pieces with coyote poop laying beside it. looked like about 3 coyotes (Snow was on the ground) I think i will try a lab this time though, im still thinking on it.
Roger they do not track deer, they track blood. If they tracked deer they would go nuts with all the runs and tracks in the woods. I know someone who has a beagle as a blood trailer and it was trained to do just that, no rabbit no nothing but blood trail. Excellent noses and excellent dogs. Shawn
Funny this should come up now. I just got what looks to be a beagle/lab mix. He had a hard time following a trail on the lawn for some reson, but as soon at it hit the leaves, he was on rails. Great little guy. Good luck
Nathan
Shawn....I hear what you are saying, I just know the trouble I had getting my beagle to ignore deer scent....any scent. Dropping, tracks, whatever. And where there is deer blood, there is deer tracks. No way can we tell if a beagle is tracking blood or tracks.
Daisy's first year, whenever we crossed a runway or obvious tracks, and she gave it any interest at all, she got shocked. She's pretty good now, but every once in awhile.....
Tracking in Florida can be very tough. We have a beagle on the Lease "Peanut". Tracks deer and Hogs with no problem.
You know, they actually do track deer - specifically the wounded deer. A lot of times there is no blood for a long way, but apparently the sent glands between the toes (I'm drawing a total blank for the proper name here)is different for each deer and they can really follow one deer across the track of another. I think if that beagle is trained to follow a blood trail he (she?) will do just fine. I bought a gadget that straps a lower deer leg on the heel of each of my boots. I drop a bit of blood every once in a while, but my dog follows the track from the deer hoofs just fine even without the blood once he gets started on a little blood trail. Here in Michigan (and most states that allow dogs on deer trails) the dog must be on a leash anyway, so the dog is not going to take off into the wild blue yonder after a rabbit.
Ron, nice Teckel!
Yep, the dog will track metatarsal gland scent, blood, dandruff, whatever the individual scent of that specific wounded deer is. Blood is just a bonus. The Germans have a term for the ground disturbance left by travelling game - means something like "wounded earth" - that entails the fungus, bacteria, wet dirt etc. that an animal stirs up on passing - this is even part of the tracking puzzle for a dog. Ron - the Fahrtenschuhs are fun to fool with, made a pair myself out of old tree climbing hooks that I can clamp deer legs to.
I've heard of plenty of beagles used for wounded deer tracking. I'd think it may be more important to be very careful to build specificity into this type of dog (hardcore scenthound) than with other more "versatile" breeds. I think working with a beagle too would need LOTS of patience early on as blood tracking doesn't necessarily provide the same intensity/excitement level as coursing rabbits does. I've worked with beagles alot for rabbit hunting, and trained several, and they can have fantastic noses - just be sure to get that snout pointed in the right direction and you'll be fine!
Ryan
I'm with your neighbors Frenchy, heresy, pure heresy.
I used to have a male beagle that I would hunt with here around the house, every time he got a wiff of deer, his nose would go straight up in the air, his bark would change, and he was off like a shot, after the first half a dozen times he took off on deer, I pretty much knew which way they would head, I'd run back to the house and hop in my truck and drive to the next road, pretty soon the deer would cross, and a couple minutes later here would come my dog, soon as he saw me he'd tuck his tail between his legs and look all innocent like, and none of those deer were wounded I tell ya. Never could break him from runnin deer.
larry
How do you go about training them to bloodtrail.
Frenchie - what is that thing your dog is barking at in the one pic - marmotte? Looks like some kind of mushrat or something.
By the way where are you located? My wife is from Strasbourg and we spend a bit of time there each year.
Ryan
Thanks for your comment guys!
Ryan,
It's a young nutria.
I bow hunt them all year round
I just wanted to see the pup's reaction in front of the rodent.
I don't use the dog to hunt them; adults can be very agressive when cornered, and their bites are pretty nasty.
I live in a small town near Troyes, which is three hours away from Strasbourg.
Let me know when you are around.
But, Emmy had a naty habit of going out to pee at midnight, we found her in many pieces with coyote poop laying beside it. looked like about 3 coyotes (Snow was on the ground) I think i will try a lab this time though, im still thinking on it.
Sorry for your dog Husky.
Fortunately, we don't have that issue here and woods are pretty safe.
Cars are the greatest danger to dogs.
It must be hard to lose such a good dog :dunno:
Funny this should come up now. I just got what looks to be a beagle/lab mix. He had a hard time following a trail on the lawn for some reson, but as soon at it hit the leaves, he was on rails. Great little guy. Good luck
Nathan
Could be a good mix for blood tracking
Do you have any pictures of him ?
Chaser is six months old now and got his first results.
He gave me a wonderful present a few days ago, finding a button buck for me.
The arrow entered right behind the shoulder, went through the liver and intestines.
The young buck made 100 meters through a wall of brambles before going down.
Finding a deer with your own dog... what a treat!
He also found another roe at the beginning of the week and did a great work on a wounded boar
(gut shot) tracking him for about 1 kilometer.
Unfortunately I had to stop the dog, because you have to belong to the UNUCR (the official blood
trackers organization) to trespass to a private property.
Back to training now
The finding (http://s534.photobucket.com/albums/ee349/maxence101/?action=view¤t=Thereheis.jpg)
An other pic (http://s534.photobucket.com/albums/ee349/maxence101/?action=view¤t=Thereheis.jpg#!oZZ1QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2Fs534.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fee349%2Fmaxence101%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3D2.jpg)
:clapper:
It is very rewarding to have a well trained dog.It looks like yours is doing a great job.
Bill
Here's a video of the dog working on a practise line (about 700 meters long)
http://s534.photobucket.com/albums/ee349/maxence101/?action=view¤t=chaserautaf.mp4
Better than me at recovering an arrow...
http://s534.photobucket.com/albums/ee349/maxence101/?action=view¤t=chaserautravailrecoupe.mp4
Bladepeek, Interdigital hoof scent is the scent you could not remember. I bought John Jeanneney's book on tracking dogs, It has been a wealth of information and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in training a blood trailing dog. He covers a lot of breeds besides teckels too. Frenchy, sounds like you are having a blast, I am supposed to receive a wire haired dachsund or teckel pup later this year, cant wait to get started. Good Hunting!
Been training Bird dogs for some time. I would think a Beagle would make an excellent deer tracking dog. If you aren't planning to rabbit hunt go for it!
Word of caution though. Dogs are smart, if you are walking out your blood track the dogs may be following your track with the success. Find some way to take your scent out of the equation. I learned this from years of field trailing some smart critters. I could tell you how I planted birds without human scent but I'd have to kill ya! Haha. It can be done.
My beagle has found several deer for us. One in particular we would have never found without him. He was never trained, just did it as though it was the easiest thing. He would however give up if he lost interest and that was not something you could fix. He's gone now but those tracking episodes are lifelong memories.
QuoteOriginally posted by KentuckyTJ:
Word of caution though. Dogs are smart, if you are walking out your blood track the dogs may be following your track with the success. Find some way to take your scent out of the equation. I learned this from years of field trailing some smart critters. I could tell you how I planted birds without human scent but I'd have to kill ya! Haha. It can be done.
Point taken :thumbsup:
It's probably truer when the line has been laid for a few hours.
But when you work on a trail that is 20 or 24 hours old (especially after a night of pouring rain) it must be difficult for a dog to detect the human scent.
Better to follow the blood then, don't you think ?
QuoteOriginally posted by KentuckyTJ:
I could tell you how I planted birds without human scent but I'd have to kill ya! Haha. It can be done.
C'mon :goldtooth:
QuoteOriginally posted by Paul Shirek:
My beagle has found several deer for us. One in particular we would have never found without him. He was never trained, just did it as though it was the easiest thing. He would however give up if he lost interest and that was not something you could fix. He's gone now but those tracking episodes are lifelong memories.
Any chance of a photo ? :pray:
There are a few folks that run deer with beagles, instead of hounds. They run slower due to the shorter legs, and are easier to keep up with. Of course, deer hunting with dogs isn't common outside of the southern states I'd imagine.
QuoteOriginally posted by Frenchy:
QuoteOriginally posted by KentuckyTJ:
Word of caution though. Dogs are smart, if you are walking out your blood track the dogs may be following your track with the success. Find some way to take your scent out of the equation. I learned this from years of field trailing some smart critters. I could tell you how I planted birds without human scent but I'd have to kill ya! Haha. It can be done.
Point taken :thumbsup:
It's probably more true when the line has been laid for a few hours.
But when you work on a trail that is 20 or 24 hours old (especially after a night of pouring rain)it must be more difficult for a dog to dectect the human scent particules.
Better to follow the blood then,don't you think ? [/b]
You just don't want them to associate your human scent (from laying out your training tracks) with the reward at the end of the trail. If they get to doing that they may not follow a real deer scent trail in the woods as it won't have that human scent along with it.
This is just something that I have figured out was happening while training other breeds I'm sure beagles are smarter than that though.
My beagle passed the blood tracking test, and he is now certified.
The line was 1000 meters long and 20 hours old.
The dog did a great job, although I was not very good at reading his body language.I should have trusted him more during the test since he was on the right track almost all the time!
I really need to work on this :knothead:
I was quite moved when the dog reached the end of the blood trail.
On the picture I carry a roll of toilet paper to mark the blood.
Pointless! I haven't seen a single drop during the whole tracking. :eek:
In order to be a licensed blood tracker I need to attend a training course which will be held next Saturday.
At the end of the line (http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee349/maxence101/Photo4forumbrouiller.jpg)
Chaser and I following the blood (http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee349/maxence101/photos2forum-1.jpg)
So, when your dog is on the trail, he(she)is "unleashed" by the look of things. If you used a long lead, would that help keep them "on track"?
Do you use a lead for training?
Tom, dogs must be leashed during the test; it is obligatory.
It seems that the lead does not appear in the pictures, for some reason. :dunno:
Can see you good folks love your dogs! Makes my day! Never had beagles but just about everything else in hunt dogs! No question the connection & excitement when your dog scores! Best friends make good times.