Thread: Is the Deer Dog Blueprint any good?

When I first started out hunting I got the book Red Deer in New Zealand by Roger Lentle and Frank Saxton. That thing was a wealth of information, there is a section in there on training deer dogs which I remember thinking would be helpful if I ever got a dog for hunting, I must dig it out now that o do take our youngest dog out a bit.

Originally Posted by stug

Real proud of her after that one.

Lily is the cutest, gotta say haha, Im sure she is mean as, but a really good looking dog. What breed, header? Why do they look so different to cattle dog? One thing that puts me off it is the cost of a dog, we just dont have the funds even though we got a dog proof back yard and one of us walks 10km in the evenings. What is the cost of a dog?

In saying all that we were considering a Short Haired Belgian Malinois, Euro Military and Police nose dog, used for agility competitions which we were hoping just to train for Frisby. But they do not fall into the dogs allowed in this programme.

Which leads me to another question, do you allow your dog to be family dog when not on hunt and can they differentiate how to act differently if so?

Originally Posted by stug

My dog Lily, that I trained using the blueprint did her longest tracking job last night. Up til now all her tracking jobs have been short and I’ve seen the deer fall so know where it is.
Last night I hit a hind behind the shoulder and she ran off into the scrub. When we got to where she had been Lily instantly started tracking. No blood to start off with and no prints on the ground. I trusted the dog and let her move out. After a while there was a good amount of blood on some bushes, this continued with blood every 20-30m but hard to work out direction of travel. At one point the deer turned and went straight uphill for a while. Following Lily was really hard in the low scrub and my pack getting caught up. Eventually Lily tracked to the dead hind.
Real proud of her after that one.
Attachment 204725

What "stock" is that? LOL.

@Back2Hunt Lily is a bitsa, border collie, heading dog and Smithfield apparently. She cost $100, so cheap dogs are out there.