Thread: hunting dog question

i have been seriously looking at getting a dog as a hunting companion (mainly deer tracking/recovery) for a while now and was wondering how often would a dog need to be out hunting to get the nack of tracking deer? at the moment i am at least once a week or once a fortnight at the very least but is this often enough? i also would like to use the dog as a retreiver during duck season but that would only as a bonus.

i hope this question isnt as stupid as it feels but i dont want to get a dog and find that its useless due to not having enough time in the field.

thanks