Wildlife tracking dog?

[Moobli]

I know there are a few Tomkies fans on this site (myself included!) and wondered whether anyone else had ever trained a dog to track wildlife? I have a new German shepherd pup who is 3 months old and I have just started to lay short human tracks for him. I would love to train him to track mammals in order for me to observe and get decent pics, but wouldn't know where to start. Has anyone else ever tried this?

[coasty]

Dont have any experience of training a dog to track game so you can photograph it. However most dogs that are a scent hound or similer will follow scent trails , I would suggest that your biggest problem will be to get the dog to track with out alarming the quarry.

I am trying to train my choc lab to sniff out truffles,, Its a slow job,,,,

[Kayleigh]

My Springer spaniel does it naturally..
its too late to photo anything though as like Coasty says all I see is the quarry running/flying off

[Tracey.A]

My mum has a springer, all nose and no brain and she is forever flushing out pheasants, which frightens the life out of us. I have heard of dogs (springers I think) being trained to find bee nests and apparently being rather good at it. They are used to determine how well bee populations are doing and provide invaluable information re their status in certain areas.

Tracey

[paulthomas]

Just be aware that being tracked and flushed by a dog will be very stressful for the target wildlife. I bet you wouldn't enjoy being chased by a bear.

[muldonach]

Originally Posted by Moobli

I know there are a few Tomkies fans on this site (myself included!) and wondered whether anyone else had ever trained a dog to track wildlife? I have a new German shepherd pup who is 3 months old and I have just started to lay short human tracks for him. I would love to train him to track mammals in order for me to observe and get decent pics, but wouldn't know where to start. Has anyone else ever tried this?

I really have to question whether the use of a dog to track wildlife for photography purposes is defensible since it is liable to be very disturbing to wildlife and unsuccessful in photography terms.

If you wish to use your dog effectively in support of your activities then I would suggest that you train him to walk at heel and only at heel and to sit and stay on command whilst you leave him for a short distance to stalk your subject.

By walking the dog into the wind and observing him closely you may get an indication of mammal presence when he catches a wind scent.

I would also question the wisdom of attempting anything other than the most basic obedience training at 3 months - your dog is very immature and should pehaps be allowed to grow up a bit before any such training is undertaken.

Regards
mac

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by muldonach

I really have to question whether the use of a dog to track wildlife for photography purposes is defensible since it is liable to be very disturbing to wildlife and unsuccessful in photography terms.

Originally Posted by paul thomas

Just be aware that being tracked and flushed by a dog will be very stressful for the target wildlife. I bet you wouldn't enjoy being chased by a bear.

I think you might both be misinterpreting what moobli was asking - if you read the tomkies books ( golden eagle years, last wild place, wild cat haven etc) tomkies trained his alsatian , called moobli in fact, to track wildlife without flushing it - this was pivotal in his study of wildcats , and also in finding golden eagle eyries by scenting out the carion being fed to the young.

in awnser to the original question i cant see any reason why it shouldnt be practical in theory - tho 3 months is too young moobli was about 6 months when tomkies first started training him for wildlife - but remember that tomkies was operating in the wildnerness of the scottish highlands, it may be less pratcial in the congested south where there are many other scent trails , other dogs, cats etc to confuse your hounds nose.

[coasty]

There is no reason why you cannot train a dog to track wildlife. However you are basically training a dog to point,,, The problem is your dog a german shep is not a natural pointer this will make the whole processs a lot harder.Just as my lab is a natural retriever and spends her life naturally sniffing things out and carrying them.Yours is actually a hearding dog and not at all what you want want to locate and then stand stock still. it is far easier to train a dog to follow its instincts than to train a dog that is not a natural HPR to track and point.

I think given many hours training you will have some measure of success but you will be working against the dogs natural instincts.

[Speywatcher]

We had a lovely little dog who had a natural instinct for 'pointing' out capercaillie in our local woods. We got her as a six-week old pup from the SSPCA in Glasgow of unkown parentage, but possibly terrierX. Our woods are full of wildlife including deer and red squirrels. Deer could walk across the path few yards ahead of her and she would take just ignore them, the squirrels she would give a passing glance, rabbits were fair game as far as she was concerned, but if caper were in the vicinity, she would stand stock still and sniff the air. We learnt to follow her lead, and with patience, would often see them. Why she did this we have no idea - maybe the caper scent was particularly strong and she was wary of it?

We lost her recently very unexpectedly, and I still find it difficult to walk in the woods without her, but we have many happy memories of our time together. It will be interesting to see if we see as many capercaillie now she is no longer with us.

[Moobli]

Originally Posted by paulthomas

Just be aware that being tracked and flushed by a dog will be very stressful for the target wildlife. I bet you wouldn't enjoy being chased by a bear.

Hmmm - I never once said that I want my dog to track and FLUSH anything! If you have ever read a Tomkies book you will see that he trained his German shepherd dog to track and then left the dog on a down stay while he crawled towards the particular quarry and took photos. This was the kind of thing I was thinking of. I have owned dogs for many years and have trained them to a high standard, so have no qualms about trying this type of training, knowing it will not disturb or distress any wildlife.