Advanced Blood Tracking Training: Wound Bed Indication, Dead Spots, and Search Pattern

by Andy Bensing

Eibe's Training Line March 2, 2011

After a successful weekend at the North Carolina VSwP I am continuing to train Eibe in anticipation of the Deer Search Competition coming up in April. The purpose of this training exercise was to work on wound bed indication, dead spots, and efficient search patterns. Additionally I wanted to reassure myself that Eibe's problem of ignoring artificial blood scent and looking for a real wounded deer "scent picture" was gone.

The training line consisted of the following:

1. 1000 meter blood line was laid out in CRP field using about seven ounces of blood.

2. Six 12-inch-diameter wound beds with a clump of bloody hair in the center.

3. Two offset "Dead Spots" were created, one 30m and one 20m in length.

4. A little extra blood was squirted at corners.

The video is long, 48 minutes, but with all the wound beds, turns and dead spots there is pretty much some type of training technique being demonstrated every few minutes. The highlights of the exercise are as follows:

1. It is obvious right from the start that Eibe is now having no problem tracking just blood.

2. Wound bed indication improved as the exercise progressed.

3. I continued to confirm a suspicion I had that Eibe will attempt to use human track scent to advance the line when no blood scent is present (I began to believe this during my parking lot training exercise). At the 30m offset dead spot she followed my bloodless path 25m past the last blood until she turned around and began to search. At all the turns, where of course I turned, that she overshot, she went straight 10m or less before beginning the check. At the 20m dead spot I made a turn when I laid it, and when Eibe got to the beginning of the dead spot she made the bloodless turn exactly as I had done. She slowed down in the void and was obviously looking for blood but clearly was following my scent. When she hit the blood again at 20m she kicked back into a faster speed. It was obvious that she was looking for blood but using my path to get there. As I mentioned in the video, I do not think this will be a problem in testing or in real life tracking. Actually, it might even be a help in taking a test.

4. Eibe's performance on the overall exercise was great but it clearly showed my future training needs to emphasize ingraining efficient search patterns.

Eibe - Sign Indication, Dead Spots, and Search Patterns from Andy Bensing on Vimeo.

A map of whole blood line - click to enlarge.

The above expanding concentric circles were a directed search initiated by me to teach the pattern.

More Spring Training 3/16/2011

As I continued my spring training with Eibe today I ran a very similar line as described above but this time it was a little longer and was in a hardwood forest as I expect the Deer Search Competition to be held in. It was a 24-hour-old line and there was about ½ inch of rain on it overnight.

The whole exercise went very well and I continue to build my confidence in her understanding that we are not tracking real deer right now. There were 3 highlights from today's work:

1. Eibe's speed is picking up without sacrificing accuracy. I think now that she is more comfortable smelling for just blood, she is making fewer unnecessary checks and the checks are quicker. She tracked the first 1000m of today's line in 33 minutes and that included 9 minutes working out the second Dead Spot.

2. Completely on her own Eibe located, stopped, and stood over all five small, six-inch-diameter wound beds I had laid out. I think this was the cleanest series of indications she has ever given to date.

3. I did run into a logistical problem in my attempt to work on teaching more efficient search patterns. When I laid the line and created the Dead Spots to use for teaching an expanding concentric search pattern I stopped the blood and walked to the spot where I would restart the blood in a way that was not direct. I hoped that Eibe would not follow my human scent trail. Well, that did not work as she very quickly and easily found my trail and followed it to the blood as you can see on these two GPS diagrams below. I have a different layout in mind for trying to prevent her from using my human scent next time. I will let you know how it works. One thing is absolutely for sure. After seeing how she worked these Dead Spots this time, there is no doubt in my mind that when the blood is gone on an artificial line, she will follow human scent if it is there in expectation that it will lead to blood again. She uses the human scent as a guide. She follows it slowly a few feet then checks to the left and right a few yards then moves forward on it a few feet again. When she hits the blood, she then takes off quite quickly.