Tracing Dogs: The training techniques of the tracing dog: from basic commands, up to the defense of the wild. Every single phase of the teaching includes precise techniques to optimize the natural skills of your hunting auxiliary. Constancy, patience and preparation of the owner are essential to achieve good results.
Training and training are, without a doubt, the starting point for bringing out the dog's skills and qualities of the dog. The initial phase of training a puppy of a few months involves the teaching of basic commands, such as "sit", "ground," foot or back ".
At the same time as these commands, the dog must be taught to walk correctly on a leash, to behave adequately at the sight of the game, to wait for the handler after the command to sit or land, to know and deal with the rifle shot, to defend wild animals or things of the conductor.
At the end of this phase, we then go on to insist on the departure and return on command. Not observing this "lineup" of commands, according to many trainers, would result in the growth of a very undisciplined and unusable dog in recovery operations.
Training and teaching are aimed at achieving a very important aspect in the man-dog relationship, namely obedience. When our auxiliary has learned the basic commands, you can move on to a second phase of training: knowing the artificial track.
For this step of the training, wild blood can be used, even any type of blood can work equally well. Initially this trace can be created by soaking a sponge in the blood, squeezing it or feeling it on the ground for a few tens of meters. An alternative way to the sponge involves the use of a bottle with a spout to spread abundant drops of blood on the ground, along a path marked with colored electrical tape and attached to the twigs of the plants.
After marking the ground, the dog must be led on the track after 2-3 hours, carrying it with a 3-6 meter long leash and allowing it to reason without inciting or correcting it, even if it makes mistakes. This will allow the CNE to understand more easily what his job will be. As the days go by, the training will consist in lengthening the track up to 1-1,5 km., Decreasing the amount of blood spread on the ground (about 200-250 cc) and increasing the temporal space between laying of the track and the arrival of the dog (over 12 hours). These exercises with the artificial track must be repeated with long intervals of 10-20 days, to direct the dog's maximum attention to the natural track.
At the end of the path with the artificial track, some trainers agree to always find something, such as a portion of dry or frozen skin, a paw, or a real animal, alive or dead. Another important aspect to take care of is to teach the dog the "change" that is the crossing with another fresh trace of another animal, which must not be followed by the dog.
When the dog demonstrates a certain familiarity with the artificial trace, the natural one can be used, which is quite another thing. The search does not have to be quick, but more than two hours must pass from the time the game is released until the dog arrives. With injured animals moving away from the place of their release, it is recommended to launch the dog on the fresh track free from the leash. In this phase you will observe a dog very concentrated on track work, with a greater chance of reaching the animal and blocking it with the bark or with the attack. If the training takes place in the scrub woods, it is still necessary to keep the dog on a leash, since even with superficial wounds the wild hardly stops in front of a dog that pursues it, while it is easier to identify it when the dog is tied.
The last aspect of the training is the defense of the game and hunting equipment, which in some circumstances can be left unattended by the hunter. Generally the dog instinctively defends towards strangers, but it is useful to check this. During a hunting trip, it may happen that, once the game has been killed, it is necessary to move away from it for various reasons: for example, you can move away because you need to ask someone for help to retrieve a large wild boar in a deep ditch. In this situation it becomes essential that the dog "guards" the wild, without raging or feeding on the latter.
To obtain the defense of the wild, you can use dead animals positioned in a certain place, giving the command "sit" or "down" and move away from the dog. The same can be done for the defense of hunting equipment. Training a track dog is a very beautiful experience, with which the man-dog relationship is built even outside the hunting field. What must be kept in mind is that patience on the part of the owner always rewards. One should never take an annoyed attitude towards the dog when he makes a mistake, or scold him too severely. A firm "NO" or a caress are worth more than any other sentence.