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julieme
Pileated woodpecker
Pileated woodpecker

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Joined: 12 Jun 2005
Gender: Female
Posts: 184
Location: Wisconsin

20 Nov 2006, 12:16 am

I can answer the tracking wars question. There are two reasons for training to track. Useful (whatever works) which generally uses air to get a direction and then goes to ground and ground only.

For competition (schitzhund, akc etc) the ground dog will get more style points from the judges because he or she is tracking in an unatural way that requires more training.

For rescue, etc where the goal is to find the victim fast - going to ground only slows the dog and forces zig zags, etc.

Very short dogs are also not physically suited to air scent. one of my friends has a mini doxhund that trails well but face it she cannot stick her nose over the grass to air sniff.

One hint about scent training--- at least where I live it is illegal to teach a dog to scent deer so maybe antlers might not be best.



Dewclaw
Raven
Raven

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Joined: 6 Oct 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 107
Location: Central Montana

20 Nov 2006, 12:42 am

We can use dogs to track fallen deer. Although I get the feeling there would be a number of people who would freak out about it. As far as I know we can't use dogs to hunt big game unless it's for Mountain Lion. I met a game warden that brings his dog (a lab) with him when he hunts deer, but not to track.

I didn't realize schitzhund was into the giving points for style. That's a bummer. I really prefer how well a dog performs rather than how good it looks doing it.


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