Off season tracking training...the devil is in the details. Part 4: Develop a plan

Though the main idea behind this blog was to highlight interesting tracks, much more time is spent training in the off season that actually tracking during the hunting season.  Also, much of the fun of having blood tracking dogs, is developing their abilities to the fullest.

 My hope in writing this series of posts is to not only develop interest among folks looking for a blood tracker, but also interest prospective trackers and provide them some useful information.  Much has been written about getting started in blood tracking.  There are a series of books, DVDs, and online videos that give a lot of the basics of getting a dog started in blood tracking.  What seems to be lacking is a more detailed plan to move a dog from a functional tracker to a top notch, reliable tracking machine.  

When I first started, I felt like I had a pretty good handle on how to develop my dog.  I had read books and articles on the subject.  I had watched online videos and read the posts of many "experts."   It wasn't until I joined the United Blood Trackers, and attended my first Trackfest that I realized how little I actually knew.  A weekend spent around dozens of experienced trackers and their dogs, and spent watching different trackers work training lines, taught me more than months of training on my own.  I left that event with a new appreciation of how important a plan was in developing my dog.  

Up to that point my training had consisted of laying one line after another, as often as I could.  As my dog got better, I aged the tracks for longer and used less blood.  Unfortunately, that was the extent of my plan.  My guess is, the same is true of most trackers.  

These days, every track is put down with a goal in mind.  Each track should develop a skill in the dog.  Putting down tracks to simply watch the dog complete them with no goal in mind is akin to handing a new basketball team a ball and tell them to play until they figure things out.  Without a coaching plan, they may learn to hit some baskets, but will never become a championship team.  Just like the coach, the tracker must develop a game plan to develop the skills of his tracking team.  

When a dog is first learning to recover wounded deer or other game a simple line with plenty of scent is all that is needed.  This stage of training focuses on getting the dog interested in tracking.  Rewards and praise serve to encourage the dog and motivate him on track.  Next,  tracks are laid with small gaps between them, but again tracks are kept simple with plenty of scent.  This teaches a dog "line sense" as they work through a trail.  A routine is also worked into the track, very early in the dog's development.  

Soon, the dog should learn the purpose of the game.  It should know what to do when it smells the first blood scent. Once this is accomplished, tracks should be aged for increasingly longer periods of time, and smaller amounts of blood used.  Eventually, hoof scent will be introduced in combination with the blood.  This transitions the dog to scent track rather than simply track blood. Most dogs make this transition easily.  Again, tracks are aged and the amount of blood reduced as the dog progresses.  As the handler, you should also be learning your dog's ability and limitations in varying conditions.  All of these techniques are well documented in the media outlets mentioned previously, and this is where many handlers stop their development.  However, there is much more that both dog and handler need to learn!

Almost all real tracks have points of difficulty.  The deer may have crossed a stream or hard pavement.  It may have back tracked, leaving a literal dead end of scent unless the back trail is discovered.  There will likely be areas of "dead space" where there is no available scent to the dog, and the dog and handler need to learn how to effectively search for the lost trail.  There will likely be times where you have to halt the track temporarily, and restart the dog minutes or hours later.  Undoubtedly, there will be distractions like fresh deer scent or other animal scent that will draw your dog's focus away from the track.  There will be areas where hunters have strung blood scent all over the place in their search for the deer.   The track may start at a food plot or bait pile where dozens of deer have walked through the area where the deer was hit. All of these circumstances and dozens of other scenarios will be encountered by the tracking team during any given season.  Preparing for them during the off season will increase a tracker's success during the hunting season.  

In the next series, I will describe a few of the "training pans" that I work through each season with my dogs and the reasons behind them.

Good hunting!  Brady