# Blood tracking labs



## RiverRat1 (Jul 17, 2013)

I am just curious as to how many of you use your lab as blood tracking dogs to recover wounded game of any sort?

i have heard some people say that labs can be good trackers..

please post stories of any tracks you have been on and include distance covered to find the wounded game.
Also, post any training tips to get my lab started as a blood tracker..

thanks in advance.


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## DarrinGreene (Feb 8, 2007)

get Tom Rose's book "Training With the Touch". it has a good basic way to get a tracking dog started.


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## Jeff Brezee (Nov 21, 2012)

Tracking/trailing wounded game is the very basis that people use a hunting dog. Specifically labradors (I suppose any breed) are referred to as a conservation tool in NAHRA. Tracking/trailing is demonstrated in every NAHRA tests and is not that difficult to train on command. I immediately think of the feathered game we peruse but my retrievers have been ably to recover rabbits or squirrels if they have been wounded. I believe that when blood is associated with wounded game they are able to tune into it. If you are referring to "big game" such as deer, I believe it would be just as easy to train if you have deer blood to use as an introduction. In the end, I wouldn't be surprised if a retriever could track a wounded deer without actually training for it as long as it (the dog) has learned to track/trail. I have always discouraged this thought probably because if I am pheasant hunting and my dogs come across a deer while quartering, the last thing I want them to do is take after the deer if it has been trained associate the blood with the deer scent.


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## SjSmith (Oct 25, 2011)

This is one of six deer that my girl tracked last fall. Three of those were known destinations(to me), used for training purposes, and the other three were unknown.
All were virgin trails. They had not been walked down by anyone prior to trailing. Ranged from 60-500 yds.
I read a good book on the subject but don't remember the title or author. Can find out for ya though if interested.
Once I had given her a short course on tracking, I just took her on hot trails for the real thing.
Biggest problem I had is she wants to go 100 mph. Slower is definately better.

Tips for you: Read some on the subject. Collect some blood. Get on real situation type trails. Have a reward at the end. Happy bumper for us at first.

Feel free to pm me if you'd like.


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## windycanyon (Dec 21, 2007)

I don't personally but know that in certain European countries there were CH blood tracking titles since one of the pedigrees behind mine lists one.


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## crawfordw2 (Jan 8, 2013)

I have been using labs to track wounded deer for about 10 years and have had great success. I have had 5 different labs that would blood trail and they were all different but all would find a deer. When I say different I mean some will bark at a dead deer some will not. Some will bark at a live deer some will not. Some hunt far and some hunt close. Some hunt fast some hunt slow, but they all got the job done. All of my dogs would bay a wounded deer long enough to let you get there to get another shot off.

The oldest trail we ever followed was 3 days. We went 1.5 miles and found the deer's bed with a little blood in it but never found the deer. The oldest trail that we did find the deer was 36 hours.

Best advice is put your dog on as many trails as possible once hunting season starts. My dogs will find 10-20 deer a year. If they have a good nose long for them to figure it out.


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## RiverRat1 (Jul 17, 2013)

*.*



SjSmith said:


> This is one of six deer that my girl tracked last fall. Three of those were known destinations(to me), used for training purposes, and the other three were unknown.
> All were virgin trails. They had not been walked down by anyone prior to trailing. Ranged from 60-500 yds.
> I read a good book on the subject but don't remember the title or author. Can find out for ya though if interested.
> Once I had given her a short course on tracking, I just took her on hot trails for the real thing.
> ...




Thanks for all the replies---^^^^ send me a PM with more info..


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## Sharon Potter (Feb 29, 2004)

I've trained four Labs to track blood for outfitters in New Mexico and Texas. It's really pretty easy to teach, plus I had horses who were very generous blood donors.


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## RiverRat1 (Jul 17, 2013)

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Sharon Potter said:


> I've trained four Labs to track blood for outfitters in New Mexico and Texas. It's really pretty easy to teach, plus I had horses who were very generous blood donors.


do you have any tips that you could share with me to get my pup trained.?


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## Sharon Potter (Feb 29, 2004)

Start simple. I would lay a very short track at first, using good sized drops of blood spaced maybe two or three feet apart at first, and a track that was only around ten yards long. Have the dog on a lead, but no choke chain or pinch collar, and use a very wide, flat buckle collar (I like a two inch collar) because the dog may pull. Or you could use a harness, but I've been happy with the wide collar. Encourage the dog to sniff the first spot of blood, and let them work toward the next one, giving some guidance at first until the dog figures out what youre after.

I always gave a reward at the end of the track, a treat of some sort. As the length of the track progresses and the dog gains experience, decrease the amount of blood. When you lay the track, don't walk in the exact same spot as the blood drips. In fact, it's better to walk far away from the area where you plan to end the track to begin it, and then lay it backward to the starting point, keeping your feet away from the track as much as possible. Wearing rubber boots can help minimize your scent. What you're trying to avoid is having the dog track you rather than the blood trail. When the dog is far enough along that it knows what it's looking for...blood scent...and you've been working on longer tracks, I like to have a small piece of meat at the end of the track.


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## RiverRat1 (Jul 17, 2013)

Sharon Potter said:


> Start simple. I would lay a very short track at first, using good sized drops of blood spaced maybe two or three feet apart at first, and a track that was only around ten yards long. Have the dog on a lead, but no choke chain or pinch collar, and use a very wide, flat buckle collar (I like a two inch collar) because the dog may pull. Or you could use a harness, but I've been happy with the wide collar. Encourage the dog to sniff the first spot of blood, and let them work toward the next one, giving some guidance at first until the dog figures out what youre after.
> 
> I always gave a reward at the end of the track, a treat of some sort. As the length of the track progresses and the dog gains experience, decrease the amount of blood. When you lay the track, don't walk in the exact same spot as the blood drips. In fact, it's better to walk far away from the area where you plan to end the track to begin it, and then lay it backward to the starting point, keeping your feet away from the track as much as possible. Wearing rubber boots can help minimize your scent. What you're trying to avoid is having the dog track you rather than the blood trail. When the dog is far enough along that it knows what it's looking for...blood scent...and you've been working on longer tracks, I like to have a small piece of meat at the end of the track.


thanks for the info mam.


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## Waterdogs (Jan 20, 2006)

I have been wanting to do this forever with one of my dogs. They have finally made it legal in my state and it really would help recover game during our archery hunts. I have read several books and their is a local trainer that trains tracking. I saved deer liver and heart and deer blood to use.


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## HuntinDawg (Jul 2, 2006)

I toyed around with training my first lab to blood trail deer. I didn't really know what I was doing, just laid down some tracks and praised him for finding the object at the end (blood soaked fur). The first "trail" I ever put him on was because my flashlight burned out and my friend (who shot the deer) didn't bother to bring a flashlight. When I called my wife and asked her to bring every friggin' flashlight in the house she asked if I wanted the dog too she said yes. If my flashlight had not burned out it is entirely possible, maybe even likely that we would have found the deer without the dog. We did manage to find first blood and I put the dog on it and encouraged him to find it and he basically drug me all the way to the deer. It only took a couple of minutes. I don't know the distance, but probably less than 100 yards, first through a field and then downhill into the woods. The dog did not act excited when he found the deer. It was birds that turned him on.

I think I tried the same dog on two more tracks in his life which were deer shot by another friend. The dog did not find them and we only found the tiniest amount of blood to put the dog on the track and I have no confidence that those deer were hard hit.

The track that dog followed on a Canada Goose that sailed away, swam across a pond and tried to cross the field beyond was far more impressive than the job he did on that deer he found.


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## 8mmag (Jan 1, 2010)

I had a lab who trained himself to be a bear retriever. The first time we tried to put him on a blood track he flushed some partridge. Later we went back and tried again. As he hunted the woods he jumped over a log he could easily have run under. We looked on top of the log and there was blood! 150 yards ahead he started barking up a storm and he was at the bear, which had been shot the evening before. All told he tracked it probably 400 yards. 

He went on to trail another 5-6 bears to the end of the trail in his career. He was affectionately called Ruger the Bear Dog in camp.

We would leave him at the cabin when we hunted. One of the hunting spots was about 500 yards from camp. When a lone shot came from there he jumped thru a window and came a runnin'. Picked up the trail as the bear was tryin' to make his escape and caught up quick. My buddy was afraid to shoot again 'cause the dog was so close. Good thing the bear expired soon after! That turned out to be a 525 pounder.

Ruger the Bear Dog...


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