Billy M. asked:
Does it hurt your dog to go out and track deer and not find them? I know that not all deer can be found but does it hurt the dogs confidence when they do not find the deer at the end of the track? What do you do when you have done everything to find the wounded animal and you know it is a lost cause to look any longer? And one last question how frequent can you use your dog to track? I have been getting 2 to 3 calls a day. I don't want to over work my dog. How many calls do you take? Thank for your time any information you give will be appreciated.
John Jeanneney's answer:
Dogs don’t seem to get discouraged after a string of tracking experiences that don’t produce a deer. They are not like humans in this way. Your hound tracks for the love of tracking, just as he would run rabbits all day, even if you never shot one ahead of him.
When you decide that there is no hope of catching up to the deer you are tracking, praise the dog for a good job and then lead him off the line. He will understand.
I find that experienced dogs learn to recognize that a deer is “ungettable” for themselves, and they will turn to give you a look that says as much. They learn to understand the tracking game as well as we do.
The number of calls a dog can handle a day depends on the circumstances. What tires the dog out is not the distance traveled; what tires him out is the intense mental concentration required to follow a difficult scent line. If the dog can stroll along with his nose two inches off the ground, he can probably track all day. If it is a tough track where the dog is checking a lot and is working slowly with his nose down under the leaves of the forest floor, then he may “burn out” in two or three hours. Mental stamina varies from dog to dog, but in tracking wounded deer it is a more important factor than physical stamina, provided that the dog is in good shape and not obese.
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