Off chance- anyone taught blood trailing to a dog?

nevermind

Never mind. Looked into it and you can't use dogs in Oklahoma, which is strange but is what it is. Not sure if I can delete thread...?

If anyone's curious here's a map of where it is and isn't allowed.

http://www.unitedbloodtrackers.org/state-regulations/

Definitely not worth the potential fine for us. Where I'd seen it done was in Arkansas, where it's legal.

I started to teach Indy and Ozzy and then quit

I wish I'd stuck with it, because it's deer season now, and I could be making money by putting up a flyer at the deer coolers around here. I may start again with Indy, but I'm not sure how quickly I could get her ready.

It's basically pairing blood with food or a toy. I started saving the blood from my deer cuts last year, I still have a bunch of it frozen, and using a tiny bit in an eyedropper to make a trail in the yard, you start with it fresh, and then slowly start letting it age, because most hunters will look for the deer themselves at least until it's dark, so you have to factor time in heavily into the dogs ability to track. I was only doing straight lines when I stopped.



I really should start working it again. Indy was doing well with it. It doesn't require any particular tracking style, so they can air scent, deep nose, ect, and they're not looking for deer, they're looking for blood, so in the northern zone of my state it's still legal to use dogs to track them, though illegal to use dogs to bring them down, unlike in the southern zone where you can hunt dogs on deer.

Sadly it's illegal to use dogs at all in Oklahoma. So it's a no go for us. It sounds not that hard though, a lot like regular AKC tracking.

Oh well. Bummer.

That sucks, because it's a great help for hunters that miss a clean shot for whatever reason, and it happens to the best shots as well. If it was more widely known, and trackers were called out sooner, then I think there would be a lot less loss of game, and pain for the deer that was wounded. People do lobby for it to be allowed, even where dogs aren't allowed to run deer, because the dog is tracking the blood, so they're never learning to track any deer, just wounded deer.

That was exactly my thoughts too. It would be far more humane than letting wounded game bleed out. And much less wasteful than lost game. What is the reasoning behind it being banned? Makes zero sense to me at all! Usually I can at least see some reasoning... But not here.