Dogs are started on short liver drags with a food treat and a piece of hide at the end. Every day for 6 days the drag gets longer and harder and the degree of difficulty goes up. At the beginning of week 2 we introduce the scent shoes and blood as well as introducing the dogs to flooded timber and briar patches and the woods in general. The length of the track and the degree of difficulty keeps increasing every day. We start with a drop of blood every 2 steps, the next day every 3-4 steps,?and so on until we are barely using any at all. Tracks are aged only an hour or two at this point. Week 3 we start aging the tracks and going through flooded timber. We cut way back on the blood now and start aging the tracks. We start cutting the blood with water down to about 25%blood-75% bottled water. This is when the dogs usually turn on and we can tell who’s gonna make it. Week 4 will be mostly all aged overnight tracks. A little blood at the hit site then every few steps to start then a single drop about every 10 steps. Sometimes a dog will need 5 weeks. We provide this at no extra charge. Dogs shouldn’t run more than 2 tracks a day. Learn what treat the dog loves. It might be just the hide and some tug o war, a can of Vienna sausage, cheese cubes, or simply his kibble for dogs that eat good. It must be fun at all times for both of you. Feel free to message me or call me if you have any questions or if your dog fails to cooperate. Remember we train on the interdigital gland and never drag hide. Our methods have been proven over and over based on 6 days a week, for 4-5 weeks. You will have a good started dog with a great foundation to build on. Deer livers, blood, sets of deer legs, and deer hide are required before you start. Give the dog a ton of praise at the end. When you pick your dog up we go on a couple of overnight tracks and you get my handlers lecture where I try to pass on some of my knowledge so others can learn from my mistakes. . Good Luck and Happy Tracking. For Scent Shoes contact Darren Minor and tell him Paul sent you. We support the UBT and all it does. You can go to the United Blood Trackers website to join. We support UBT testing for tracking dogs.
