Boone tackles some tough tracks as training continues.

Our tracking season has essentially been over for the past couple of months.  Unfortunately, extremely cold weather and frozen ground has limited practice tracks. The weather has let up a bit over the past couple of weeks, allowing for some training time.  Boone has performed well on some pretty tough tracks. Running challenging tracks is an important part of development of a tracking team.  It is fun to have a dog run a perfect trail, but if a dog is not challenged, he is not going to grow to his potential.  Also, difficult tracks teach the handler how to read the dog when he is struggling on the trail.

The following video shows 8 month old Boone running a 1000 meter training track.  The track was laid with tracking shoes and 1 oz of deer blood.  It covers a variety of terrain and cover. The track is in a game rich area with a lot of deer activity. The track was aged 19 hours.  

The video is in 2 parts. Unfortunately, there should have been a 3rd part, but I must have accidentally turned the camera off during the last 1/3 of the track. Normally I wouldn't have published an incomplete video, but there are some tracking tips that are worth watching in the first 2 segments, so I decided to go ahead and post it.  Boone ran the last few hundred meters of the track very well, and arrived at the deer hide less than 5 minutes after the video cuts off.  

These two segments do not show a "perfect" track, but rather show a dog that is developing into a solid tracker.  You will see how I handle various difficulties encountered, including a couple of restarts.  None of this video is edited, so you get to experience the track "warts and all."  I hope you enjoy it, and pick up something useful.  Enjoy!

Good Hunting! Brady