Thread: new to hunting dogs

After many many years of hunting without a dog iv got myself a 2 year old gsp. iv had him for a month or so and today we went for our first hunt together. he was great, sniffed around on a long lead as we walked to our spot i thought we might see a deer and long story shot i shot a deer on a clearing 300 yards away. As we approached the shooting site i let him off to go find it, he sniffed around and started tracking away from where id shot the deer, then quickly i was met with a frozen dog who i thought was being silly and not tracking anymore after being told to go and after a few more steps i saw a spiker was standing looking at me.
After the spiker bolted the dog did nothing but want to track the live deer(which im fine with). after taking him back multiple times to where the deer was shot he only wanted to go back to where we saw the live spiker. is there any way i could train him to know the difference? im pleased with how he went today and leading me to the live deer just annoyed we didnt find the deer that was shot.

I’m no professional but I am very happy with how my dog is turning out and I’ve just been feeling my way with him. The dog needs to learn to determine the difference between finding a live and a shot deer and it will only come with experience and practice. We live in a pretty target rich environment but Bo seems to have learned to put it all together and a find followed by a shot means we are off to find the shot animal and to ignore any other scents.
I’m sure if you just keep the dog focussed, give plenty of praise when you arrive to a shot animal and get a few under your belt the dog will click.

so did you get the deer you shot?????? or was dog correct and it was the same deer???
there is one thing dogs have taught me...ALWAYS ALWAYS trust the dog,even when learning you just HAVE to acknowledge what they trying to tell you.....
even a possum you acknowledge,with a grrrr no.... but you have let dog know you value what they tell you.
you did learn lesson today...... when dog on point.....FFS be ready and look hard.... next time you will get it right.
oh and the dogs MAIN JOB......and it IS thier job is to lead you to a downed animal...every time...no matter what...deer in middle of flat paddock,you cant find it,you cant see it UNTIL the dog takes you to it...sounds silly but you must get it through to dog its the job... once that clicks,life becomes much easier.

Also I’ll add, it’s the dogs job to track so if he instantly starts tracking another deer when you are off to find a downed one then he’s not actually doing something wrong per se, acknowledge him positively especially if he locks up on it ie: “good boy!” but call him off and re-focus

I have to agree Ryan, I think the dog may be following the freshest scent.
Maybe a good idea would be to train the dog to do both things separately, so have a command for "find" to find what you've just shot, and "seek" or something else to track the live one.
SilentScope, since you have an adult dog and have only had him a month, it will take you both some time to know what each other means. Maybe you could just concentrate on finding the live deer first and tracking the dead ones will come after that. Once he learns that a shot means he swaps into "find it" mode, he and you should come right

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

so did you get the deer you shot?????? or was dog correct and it was the same deer???
there is one thing dogs have taught me...ALWAYS ALWAYS trust the dog,even when learning you just HAVE to acknowledge what they trying to tell you.....
even a possum you acknowledge,with a grrrr no.... but you have let dog know you value what they tell you.
you did learn lesson today...... when dog on point.....FFS be ready and look hard.... next time you will get it right.
oh and the dogs MAIN JOB......and it IS thier job is to lead you to a downed animal...every time...no matter what...deer in middle of flat paddock,you cant find it,you cant see it UNTIL the dog takes you to it...sounds silly but you must get it through to dog its the job... once that clicks,life becomes much easier.

we did not find the shot deer, it was to my best identification and shooting definately a different deer to the one we spooked and continued to follow. iv shot deer in that block and spooked deer on the way down to them in the past so its not unusual. i now have a new trust in my dog after that encounter, hes also new to hunting so i wasnt entirely sure what he was upto. i had an incling we might run into somthing else but was just set on him finding the deer i had downed. im not stressed about it i know we will have many more encounters like this i just want to make sure we are better prepared for the next time

Originally Posted by rugerman

I have to agree Ryan, I think the dog may be following the freshest scent.
Maybe a good idea would be to train the dog to do both things separately, so have a command for "find" to find what you've just shot, and "seek" or something else to track the live one.
SilentScope, since you have an adult dog and have only had him a month, it will take you both some time to know what each other means. Maybe you could just concentrate on finding the live deer first and tracking the dead ones will come after that. Once he learns that a shot means he swaps into "find it" mode, he and you should come right

hes very good at finding dead deer parts, iv had him "go" find hides and hocks in the weeks following today. but yes i know hes an adult but hers coming along very well as far as being a hunting dog for me.

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Also I’ll add, it’s the dogs job to track so if he instantly starts tracking another deer when you are off to find a downed one then he’s not actually doing something wrong per se, acknowledge him positively especially if he locks up on it ie: “good boy!” but call him off and re-focus

i was very happy when i realised he was actually pointing a live deer, but i was putting trust into him following the path i hadnt seen the shot deer go down, he was showered in pats and praise once the live deer ran away.

One question. Why did you have the dog on a lead?? one thing that I have learnt in my time training dogs is that you must have absolute control over your dog before you go hunting. Ie he works in front of you by about 2 metres ( not on a lead) . you follow his indications. You must have a solid 'hold' or 'down' command and he must hold that no matter what happens. Ie if the deer breaks, you fire etc.

Its a lot of work getting a dog up to a good standard. Lots of hours. I was lucky to have some advice by a really good trainer when I started. Lots of things he sorted for me with a different perspective.

Hopefully your dog is quite willing. Those german mutts can be quite the handful to get under control sometimes. I had a vizsla. Huge prey drive, slightly loopy. Almost uncontrollable if he didn't get exercise every day. loyal and a great house dog.

Shot a deer over him my first time in the bush.

Originally Posted by tac a1

One question. Why did you have the dog on a lead?? one thing that I have learnt in my time training dogs is that you must have absolute control over your dog before you go hunting. Ie he works in front of you by about 2 metres ( not on a lead) . you follow his indications. You must have a solid 'hold' or 'down' command and he must hold that no matter what happens. Ie if the deer breaks, you fire etc.

Its a lot of work getting a dog up to a good standard. Lots of hours. I was lucky to have some advice by a really good trainer when I started. Lots of things he sorted for me with a different perspective.

Hopefully your dog is quite willing. Those german mutts can be quite the handful to get under control sometimes. I had a vizsla. Huge prey drive, slightly loopy. Almost uncontrollable if he didn't get exercise every day. loyal and a great house dog.

Shot a deer over him my first time in the bush.

iv only had him for 4 weeks, so we have been working on a long leash up till now. i understand he has a high drive, we walk 10km a day. hes a duck lover but i dont punish him for it just pause until they fly away. in this insatnce he has done well was just asking if i should let him be or follow his instinct. i didnt have a rifle handy when he pointed the spiker which is my fault eniterly.

Time and patience are key, you need to give the dog time to learn what you want from him. As has been mentioned learn to trust the dog their nose doesn’t lie. Did you take the dog to where you had shot the deer to look for blood or scent? That’s a good way to get them to learn to find deer you’ve shot, even cut off a little bit of meat off the deer you’ve shot to help reinforce the positive of finding the deer it makes the game fun for them.

Originally Posted by silentscope

iv only had him for 4 weeks, so we have been working on a long leash up till now. i understand he has a high drive, we walk 10km a day. hes a duck lover but i dont punish him for it just pause until they fly away. in this insatnce he has done well was just asking if i should let him be or follow his instinct. i didnt have a rifle handy when he pointed the spiker which is my fault eniterly.

Yeah good, but you need to get rid of that leash and get him under control with just voice commands. Once you have control all the rest that follows is almost just instinct. send me a pm for a ph no if you want to discuss further.

OK...so you didnt find deer you think you shot...... thats a tough break....my self I have spent hours looking,and in the end realised I had FAILED TO TRUST THE DOG... she told me where it went,I didnt believe her...wounded deer dont go uphill you silly dog.... the two pools of blood to begin with was all we found,up onto ridge heading home,down ridge 4-500 yards further on hour later deer pops up head,miss headshot and drunken stagger,next shot in boiler room...get home and find first long range shot had taken hunk out of its rump.....lesson learnt. trust the plurry dog.....
what I said earlier about finding dead animal being dogs job...Meg is air scenter....not so flash on ground...pisses me off loosing ducks in long grass...it is what it is,she awesome on steady beaze..... I NEED TO LEARN how to adapt WHAT I DO to fit in with her strengths.
keep us posted on your progress.

Keep it on a lead until you are happy.
Nothing worse than letting it go and it buggers off on you.
Use the lead to teach it commands.
It what you do with heading dogs and huntaways.

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It takes 6 weeks to build a bond with an adult dog. Keep it on the long lead.
The dog locked up on a deer, excellent the instinct is there.
Dog didn't find downed deer... I've had it in the past, too much scent on the ground and the dog gets overwhelmed.
Its early days in your partnership it can only get better.

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