Blood dog is truly a bad term as the dog picks up on dander, inter digital glands, blood and other bodily fluids. Stick with blood on the training. Even when you can not visible see blood there is blood that the dog can pick up on to track.

With a young dog you can do liver drags. These liver drags are the only time I would be dragging something as never will there be a solid track in the woods. The liver drags I would do for two or three weeks until you have worked up to 150 yard long track with one 90 turn in it aged two hrs. After this I would switch over to blood trails.

I like to have something at the end of the track as a reward. For the pups a small piece of the liver works. For older dogs I let them find a deer leg. About every 4-5 time I use the leg as a reward I give it to them to have and chew up.

Blood trails will start off fairly consistent in every few feet. Gradually get to where you and dropping just tiny drops every yard or two. A 6 month old pup should be doing 1/2 mile long tracks aged 12 hrs with no problem if you stick to the training and make it fun.

Remember to mark the tracks so that you will know exactly where to bring the dog back to when they make a mistake.

Since you are starting during hunting season also get your dog on as many deer as possible that you know where they are. You want there to always be something at the end and to always finish a track as a pup. This teaches them that when you say track there is something out there to find and it is there job to do it. As they get older they will learn that not every track end in a find.


practice further than you think you will track, lay lines in places that you never think you will be tracking, age them older than you think you will ever want to track and remember to make it fun. This way when the time comes and you go three miles on a 2 day old track the dog will have practiced this and you will have confidence in your dog.

Good Luck with the training.

Allways trust the Nose becasue the Nose knows. Hillock Kennels