Just have to brag a little on my dog.
06-14-2006, 05:28 PM
#1
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Georgia
Posts: 138
Just have to brag a little on my dog.
I went this past weekend to Trackfest in Pike co. Illinois. This was the first UBT (http://www.unitedbloodtrackers.org/) supported blood tracking seminar, training, and testingsession. It was graciously hosted by Neal Meyers at his place Adams Pike Outdoors http://www.adamspikeoutdoors.com/. Neal got his dog certified over the weekend to track on public lands in Illinois. As far as we know he has the first dog in the state that can legally track on public lands now.
Ok now to my dog. After a few easy tracks just to warm up and for demonstration purposes for people who had never seen the workng style of a Bavarian Mountain Hound we got to do an old line. The line was about 24 hrs old and 2000 ft long with less than a cup of blood used. It had 4 hrs of rain on it in the morning and had plenty of overnight deer activity on it to put down hot lines thatmight confuss the dog.The track was first worked by another hunter with a crowd folowing along mucking up the track. This was through a pasture and the cows had walked the blood line chomping on the flags that were laid out for the first guy.The flags that remained were pulled for me before we tracked. The winds were up around 10-12 but the humidity and temps were good for tracking. Baby worked very slow and methodicaly were I could have seen any sign that was available. She was really good on the turns and if she did miss one she worked it out on her own. You could see her checking under bushes and clumps of trees for any scent that might have driffted and got caught under them. We worked throught the tughest parts and got to a wind swept hill side. We got a call back for being more than 70 feet from the line, but she was working it out. If this had been the real thing I would have let her just keep working and she would have figured out that the scent she was smelling was drift from the hill above us, the wind was blowingfrom that direction pushing the scent down the hill. With the judge putting us back on line you could see her enthusiasm pick up. She worked on a ways until we were over the hill and began wind scenting the deer hindquarter about 30 yards before we got to it. I am very pleased how slow she has begun working and she did all of this half way through her pregnancy.
Ok now to my dog. After a few easy tracks just to warm up and for demonstration purposes for people who had never seen the workng style of a Bavarian Mountain Hound we got to do an old line. The line was about 24 hrs old and 2000 ft long with less than a cup of blood used. It had 4 hrs of rain on it in the morning and had plenty of overnight deer activity on it to put down hot lines thatmight confuss the dog.The track was first worked by another hunter with a crowd folowing along mucking up the track. This was through a pasture and the cows had walked the blood line chomping on the flags that were laid out for the first guy.The flags that remained were pulled for me before we tracked. The winds were up around 10-12 but the humidity and temps were good for tracking. Baby worked very slow and methodicaly were I could have seen any sign that was available. She was really good on the turns and if she did miss one she worked it out on her own. You could see her checking under bushes and clumps of trees for any scent that might have driffted and got caught under them. We worked throught the tughest parts and got to a wind swept hill side. We got a call back for being more than 70 feet from the line, but she was working it out. If this had been the real thing I would have let her just keep working and she would have figured out that the scent she was smelling was drift from the hill above us, the wind was blowingfrom that direction pushing the scent down the hill. With the judge putting us back on line you could see her enthusiasm pick up. She worked on a ways until we were over the hill and began wind scenting the deer hindquarter about 30 yards before we got to it. I am very pleased how slow she has begun working and she did all of this half way through her pregnancy.
06-17-2006, 10:45 AM
#3
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Georgia
Posts: 138
RE: Just have to brag a little on my dog.
I am very proud now, I was very scared then that she would not do well. This was the first time I had demonstrated her abilities in frontof someone other than hunters we have tracked deer for. This was a large very knowledgable group. I needed to make a good impression on them since we were basicly being an ambasadors for the breed.
