It always seems to help explain any concept if you can include a visual aid. I used Paint to make a crude sketch to reinforce what we were just talking about. This is the most difficult part of a track for any dog, especially the young ones. Even an old experienced dog is likely to have to check many of those false lines before figuring out where the real one exits the search area. It confuses a young dog and the more complicated it is�.the more likely they are to give in to mental fatigue. An old dog knows that if they keep looking eventually they�ll work through it and their mature brains can work for an hour or more though this mess if need be. Its hard to predict how long a young dog might go�.it varies with the given day and track.

Without this one obstacle, tracking with a dog would be pretty simple and straight forward. The more complicated the search area is muddled up though then the harder it is on any dog and tracker. An old experienced dog may be able to work through it eventually but it may mean spending an hour just trying to pick it out. Maybe they eventually do, maybe they don�t. It takes a really good dog will the experience of dealing with this situation over and over to pull it off. It�s going to be hard for that dog up the road that only goes on a few tracks a year to figure it out. It�s also going to be hard on any young dog until they get enough experience.

Just take this info and put in the back of your head. The rut is just around the corner and they�ll be a lot of marginal shots made on a lot of coveted bucks. We, the dog trackers, can find these deer for you in many instances. Below is one of the biggest obstacles that you put in our path though. If it wasn�t for this obstacle, many tracks would just be a straight run to the deer. If you make a bad shot on a buck and you really want to find the thing�.then call us first, not last.

The X is the hit site and LB stands for �last blood�. The dashed lines are the false line made from searchers tracking back and forth across the real scent line.