After starting out his deer dog training with a hiss and roar as pup, it slowly fell by the wayside life gets busy. Ralphies my first dog, so im definately no expert trainer, but was fortunate enough to choose a pup with a good temperment and a fair bit of natural skill (the very first time i did any scent training with him he was onto a skin 400m away as soon as we were out the door).
His natural range is more like a flushing dog, rather than deer indicator, but at nearly 2 years old i thought i just need to start taking him out hunting with me and learn by doing.
Our first trip out was about a month ago, DOC land bush stalking. I had the lead on him, and followed a ground scent and got within about 10m of a deer before it spooked and bolt from behind some bushes. Not a bad effort i thought. On the way back to the ute, i had let him off the lead as we climbed down a steep bit of terrain. About 15 mins later we stumbled out onto a clearing with 2 deer on it. As the 2 deer bolted in opposite directions, Ralphie took off after 1, then shot back across the clearing after the other one. The 2nd deer then started barking at him, and so naturally he responded by barking back. Hardly a succesful outcome, but it was so funny i couldnt be annoyed by it.
A couple weeks later my brother an I were lucky enough to gain access to a private bush block and surronding farm land, perfect oppurtunity i thought. We left the house around dusk, and were nearing the top of the first hill when Ralphie started winding hard. A quick peek over top of the hill revealed a deer feeding just over the other side. I ducked down, chambered a round, and poked my head up again to see it looking right at me. i Took a bit of a rushed shot, and the deer bolted into the bush. We walked over to where it was standing, found where the bullet hit the ground and after about 5-10 mins of walking around, couldnt find any blood, and was about to chalk up a clean miss. I thought lets just throw the dog over the fence and see what happens. Within 30 seconds he had found the blood trail, and let us right in to a dead deer piled up about 40m away in the bush. We would never have found it if he wasnt there. #prouddogdad.
As the night went on he indicated 2 more deer for us, and made for awesome evening.
As i said earlier, im no dog trainer, so just very lucky that he has all the natural skills to make up for my lack of. Looking forward to refining him a bit more over the summer
Attachment 265124
Attachment 265125
Attachment 265126
