Practice track in flooded area
Practice track laid early PM day one. Put dog on it ~9AM the following morning. Deer hooves and < 1 OZ blood. This is a portion of the track only. Total track length was about 500 yards.
Reagun’s practice track video 3
Reagun finds the end of the practice track. This is the conclusion video of Reagun’s practice track in the snow. At this point, the track had left the woods and gone back out into a grass field. Wind was predominantly from behind us blowing forward. You will see Reagun step off the track and investigate a couple of scent puddles that had collected in the clumps of grass just downwind of the track. She then comes back to resume the track to its termination point.
Reagun’s practice track video 2
Reagun encounters the bed along the track. This is the second video of Reagun’s practice track in the snow. In this video, she encounters the bed along the track. Watch her tail for indication. Shortly after the bed, we encounter a change in the wind due to the trees. There was also nighttime deer and raccoon activity in those woods. You can see Reagun working out the details in the conflicting scent.
Reagun practice track video 1
Reagun encounters 2 turns of 90 degrees. One might conclude that if you have snow, you don’t need a dog to track a deer. A couple weeks ago I laid a practice track in the wet snow. Track was aged 26 hours. Temperatures were above 32° the entire time. You’ll see in this first video where Reagun encounters two different 90° turns. When we started the track, the wind was blowing pretty much directly into our face. You will see her on the second 90° track checking out some scent puddles slightly downwind of the 90° turn. Scent had collected on that grass clump. She checked them out before resuming the track going toward her left.
I used about 3 ounces of blood on this 1200 yard track. Only one time did I see any sign of blood. And I only noticed it because my older dog, Choco pointed it out when I ran her after I ran Reagun. It looked more like a mud stain in the snow then actually blood. The track was deliberately placed where there would be interfering activity from other deer and raccoons during the night as it was aging.
Reagun track
18 month pup track repeat after experienced dog located the deer. Hardtrigger Gundogs
Video 3 practice track
This is video 3 and final video of the 680 yard practice track of early April 2020. Video 3 has a couple 90 degree turns in the track and you can see Choco’s head rise when she realizes she is off track when she overshot the 90° turn. She then stops to assess, and loops back to get back on it. There is also a moment at (0:24) where she stops to scent-check the vegetation. You can see this multiple times in any of the 3 videos. She’s checking to see if the animal (this is a practice track so in this case, my scent from the day before) brushed up against the vegetation while passing by.
My apologies on the choppy video portions. I’m new at this. And my snorting at the end of video 3. Choco is a snorter. That’s how she expresses joy and excitement to me. After 5 years of this, I too (involuntarily) snort to her to express pleasure. I didn’t even know that I was doing it until I watched the video afterward. You can see by her tail that she fully understood my intent. That’s raw communication.
Video 2 of practice track
This is video 2 of the 680 yard practice track of early April 2020. On video 2 she turned right and wanted to investigate a path off the blood track. I suspect there was deer activity there overnight that caused her distraction. She reared in her harness (3:20) which told me there was something there that she really wanted to investigate further until she could decide if it was real. Then when she got to the brush at (3:55), she decided that was not the track and looped back to get back on it.
Practice Track Video 1
This is the begining of a practice track
