Need a little help.

I have a 4 month old pup that is a GWP X Walker Hound cross. The pup goes everywhere with his nose to the ground and for the past two months he has been out in the woods with me at least once a week for several hours at a time getting used to the sights, sounds and smells of the woods. In the near future he will begin his training as a blood tracker for wounded game but I am in a slight predicament. I have no blood from deer season and I'm afraid I waited to long to ask my hunting friends to save their blood, hides, or carcasses. So, short of scooping up dead animals off the side of the road, does anybody know where I can find some frozen deer blood or hide scraps? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Have all ur friends processed their deer? Maybe u can get some from them when they thaw the meat out to make sausage?

I'm not 100% on this but I've heard you can use almost any blood. A friend I know supposedly trained with cow blood from a butcher shop.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

I think that you're overthinking this. To track a dog must be taught certain fundamentals. The type of scent is not really that important in the beginning. I have had good success using commercial scents for this purpose. What is important right now is to teach the dog the command that you want to use to start or resume a search. It doesnt matter per se what you use whether it be "search", "find it", "track", whatever it is this is a fundamental skill. Usually one of the best ways to do this is with a food item. Then you can start teaching the dog about corners, marking items, etc. The point is that the fundamentals should come before teaching the dog to follow a specific scent. You have a lot of work ahead of you before you need blood or hide.

Yes go to butcher, I know others that have used cow blood fine.

Any pics of this pup?

Thanks for all the replies guys, I appreciate it.

I do have pics of the pup, I will try to post them when I get back to work tomorrow.

I have thought about pouring soup lines to his dinner bowl to get him started, or even doing liver drags, then progressing to blood, but I figured I might as well start with the real thing if possible.

My friends have already processed all their deer, but the taxidermy shop down the street said I could come in and have all the unused hides I wanted so I will use those when I get to that point.

MAXIMUMINTENSITYRETRIEVER...how do you go about teaching your pups a function word such as "search"? I am curious how to establish the routine of him hearing the word and knowing to use his nose to find something. I am new to this and researching as much as I can, but some things escape my logic. You mentioned using a treat to do so, could you explain your process? Any and all information is greatly appreciated.

What I like to do is to start as a young pup with food. I start by waiting until feed time and hiding pups food in the yard somewhere. I will walk the dog on lead in the general vicinity downwind and watch the dog. When pup starts to get a little "gamey" I will drop the lead and keep repeating the command enthusiastically until they find the food and then love them up while they are eating. I then progress into starting tracks with food by putting a few pieces of kibble at the beginning of the track and then placing a piece of kibble every few feet with the mother load at the end. You get the idea. Pretty soon your dog will associate the command with using his nose and the start of the track. Of course it helps if he is really hungry when you do this! Once they get a straight track down you can start to add turns. Only one at first. Put pup on a long lead and when you get to the turn stop and let your dog hit the end of the lead. You will be the pivot until he finds his track again. Watch him closely as you will be learning his body language as he loses his track. This will be important when you are doing it for real. Encourage him to "find your track" and praise him when he does. Pretty soon you can use blood, game, and even age your track. This doesn't happen overnight but you will be amazed how quickly he gets good at this new game. The TDX folks and shutzhund people have this down to an art so get your hands on some books and videos.

Good luck

Duke: