BASIC DEER DOG TRAINING. Tips & Guidelines INSIDE THIS GUIDE HUNTING WITH DEER DOGS PG. 2 PG. 3 PG. 4 COMMERCIAL EXPERIENCE FOR RECREATIONAL HUNTERS

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1 Tips & Guidelines HUNTING WITH DEER DOGS INSIDE THIS GUIDE PG. 2 Introduction to indicating dogs and what advantages they can produce PG. 3 What should you expect an indicating dog to do? How are they best useful to your advantage? PG. 4 Control and commands, tips and Practices to achieve a desired result BASIC DEER DOG TRAINING COMMERCIAL EXPERIENCE FOR RECREATIONAL HUNTERS New Zealand recreational hunters are entitled to share and learn tips and training techniques for maintain Deer indicating dogs at a professional standard. Trap and Trigger Limited undertake commercial hunting operations annually and primarily use Indicating dogs as their main detection tool. This document outlines the basic necessities for recreational hunters/dog handlers to train and maintain an indicating dog while juggling there 9 5 jobs.

2 INTRODUCTION The use of big game indicating dogs is an addictive trend and becoming increasingly common in New Zealand. New Zealand s dense forest and scrub has created a wild game sanctuary for the majority of New Zealand s hunting landscape. The use of indicating dogs, increases hunter s chances of detection and success dramatically, by indicating which direction and how close unseen game are. An indication dog uses its sense of smell to track an animal or gauge its distance in drifting scent. In the ideal situation, a dog will wind and begin hunting m from an animal providing the wind is consistent, in the closing 50 meters, the dog and handler will in sync stalk that animal until the identification and dispatch. If tracking an animal down is desired, fresh scent can be tracked for hours and kilometers before catching up to the given animal. Shot or wounded animals can also be difficult to find, dogs can become very useful at finding that target when vegetation becomes a visual barrier. OUR EXPERIENCE WITH DOGS More than 8 years of Hunting over indicating dogs professionally has allowed us to understand the ability and responsibility when handling a hunting dog. Over those 8 years, owned and trained One Vizsla for indicating, two Collies for indicating bailing, One Heading dog for bailing and a team of pig dogs. When handling these dog, even though they all hunt completely different styles, the trend in training them is reflective. During these years of dog handling, we have identified three characteristics a handler must display to gain results, we call the Three P s Patience, Praise and Perseverance. Without the ability to display these three characteristics in the field, your efforts could inflict negative effects on the dog s progression. The following video links show reasonable demonstrations on well trained dogs in action:

3 WHAT WILL A DOG NATURALLY DO? WHEN INTODUCING THE DOG TO HUNTING: When introducing a dog or pup to the bush, it may take several hunts until the dog is settled into the forest environment. Initially, the dog will have a tenancy to worry more about their surroundings, once becoming comfortable they shift their attention to scent. You will notice their nose working constantly indicting that some scent is present, but this scent could be from birds, small pest or large game. These distractions are inevitable encounters, so it is important that during the early stages of hunting, that the dog is under strict visual and command control. Correction from non-targets and bad habits will be inevitable. WHEN YOUR DOG BEGINS TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS LOOKING FOR: Once a dog has encountered few animals, it will begin to shift its focus its attention to that scent. Usually focusing on ground scent of all ages. When you are making good progress and your dog starts pulling you into deer, don t be surprised to spook a large portion of them, even with a top dog. At times the wind may swirl or be in a sideways direction and the dog not aware of the deer s presence. Always remember, the dog must smell the deer to stalk it, therefore you will only find a portion of the population, then you still must spot it and make the shot. HOW CAN I USE MY DOG TO THE BEST OF ITS ABILITY? TRACKING WHEN NECESSARY: A keen dog will tent to focus on ground scent, with such sensitive noses, ground scent of the target animal is always easy to find but not the easiest way to find deer. When following ground scent, the deer could be hours and sometimes days ahead of you. From experience, we have found that following ground scent can be very time consuming. Complications like tracking backwards, tracking for hours, or tracking towards a deer that is down wind allowing it to catch your scent early. I would recommend tracking deer only when you know it s a hot mark or nearby. Time is better spent covering more country and searching for a good wind scent, with the obvious exception of tracking wounded or dead deer. Tracking is an essential practice to have and easy to train a dog to do just keep in mind that it will not be the most efficient way to close the gap on deer. A trick when tracking an animal is to always keep your dog at close range or within sight. If you cannot see your dog, then you cannot control your dog and the greater the chance of the dog spooking the deer. Tips on page 4 will outline basic control tips to maintain the distance on your dog while tracking. LEARNING TO PLACE THE DOG IN THE LINE OF WIND: Deer have elite senses! Eye sight smell and hearing. When stalking deer, it is essential to keep sight, sound and smell to a minimum to increase your chances of a successful stalk. In saying this, we have found some senses are more important than others. Using the dog to stalk deer into the wind creates the greatest chance of success and is our preferable attempts. We incline to hunt areas where the wind is drifting up or down hill consistently, then sidle through that area. By placing yourself at the end of the wind drift you are likely to cut the scent of an animal. When the dog indicates scent in the wind, then turn into the wind and start the stalk. The dog will start winding heavily when an animal is directly in wind, sometimes I will carry on a little more across the wind to see if it becomes stronger or weaker, therefore locating the strongest channel of scent. For example - if there is good feed bush in a head basin with uphill wind, I would hunt with the dog around the top edge of the feed bush expecting to find a strong winds cent drifting up from the feed bush. I would then stalk directly into that wind by allowing the dog to lead me towards the strongest scent drift.

4 IMPORTANT TRAINING ASPECTS TO GAIN RESULTS CONTROL - cannot express how important the control aspect will influence your success rate. When your dog isn t under full control, it is highly likely they will become eager to find the deer first and spook them before you get the chance to see them. Full control over a dog will transfer to the dog hunting for you rather than itself. PRAISE/CORRECTION - Ensure the dog understands what you want. Praise and correction for targets and not targeting will narrow your focus with the exception to other game like pigs and goats. CONSISTENCY - As a supplement to CONTROL, PRAISE and CORRECTION Consistency will shape the dog to hunt how you want it to hunt. If you are consistent with your control, tracking and hunting distances, the dog will naturally implement those limits over time. EXPERIENCE - To gauge or progress some dogs hunting ability, it may take many hunting experiences. If your dog is not performing up to expectations, the best way to improve is by getting in the field and gaining as much experience as possible. BALANCE NOISE WITH WIND: When stalking deer, the hardest aspect is the execution of the final stalk. It s common for most deer to be aware of your incoming presence through noise or sight before you have sighted the deer. Even after the perfect stalk, you will peer over the raise to see a deer staring right at you and you think How did it know I was coming?. So, how do we make no noise, be invisible and have no scent to shoot deer Impossible right? My opinion is to prioritize the three senses like this WIND scent - highest priority followed by SIGHT then SOUND. If a deer smells you its over, if a deer sees you, your window of opportunity is short, but if a deer hears noise, it will quite often wait for sight or smell before spooking. How to balance Noise vs Smell? I tend to stalk at moderate pace, the shorter the stalk, the less likely the wind will swirl and catch your scent. But don t go too fast because you still need to scan for the deer and spot it first. Once you close your gap with a deer and the wind is good, it s a eye spy game and the first to spot the other wins.

5 HOW WE IMPLEMENT OUR KEY FACTORS COMMANDS CONTROL Keep your commands basic. Don t confuse yourself or your dog. We use three basic commands STOP, HEAL and WAY YA GO. To use these commands under high pressure situations we use noises and hand signals, so if the dog can t here the command, then it can see it, or vise versa. Stop We use a SSSS noise, kind of like the noise of venison steak touching a hot pan. At the same time of making the SSSS noise, we raise our hand with a stop signal. This command is commonly used when stalking an animal, the dog will lead the stalk, I will use the Stop command to regulate the distance and speed the dog stalks. The second situation the stop command is commonly used is during tracking. Once again to regulate the distance and speed of the dog. Heal Heal is used to place the dog behind the hunter, in high pressure situations. We use a fantail squeak noise and swing our hand from the front to the back, clicking at the same time. Some examples of use are - when you are cresting a ridge and don t want the dog out front spooking the deer, If you want to shoot but not over/passed the dog, if you re walking through a farmers paddock or just want the dog to walk in behind. Way ya go This command we use to permit the dog to track scent, or hunt into a positive wind scent. By swinging my hand from back to the front and saying Way Ya Go or KSSKSS. Control faults The most common fault in introducing dogs to indicating is letting the dog range too far when tracking and stalking. A general rule is, if you can t see the dog, then you can t control it. When your dog ranges out of sight, let it know its done wrong when it returns. When a dog is pushing their limits for distance, try using tactics like throwing a stick towards it. This is useful to let the dog know you have control/discipline from a distance and that keeping a distance won t keep it out of trouble. A last resort is applying a check cord 10 meters long, to help implement your stop command. Train commands before hitting the field As mentioned above, keeping control of the distances from your dog are crucial to successful hunting, and if hunting a dog without adequate command/control, it will likely establish a habit of hunting out at undesirable distances. To combat this, try practicing commands at home first. Once your basic commands are established then transfer them into the field. Keep in mind, when deer scent is present, control will become harder. Ensure you persevere and be consistent. Be sure to let the dog know your not happy when they don t listen. Calling the dog in behind A great habit to install is calling the dog in behind when your ready to shoot (if the situation permits). Calling the dog in behind when ready to shoot, reinforces control always but also makes for safe shooting and help reduce the chance of the dog breaking at the shot. Maintain consistent reinforcement here, if you command the dog to get in behind, don t carry on until the dog is in behind. When to practice? The best time to practice your control commands are before feeding time. Start with training the dog with food incentives. When they are successfully responding to commands, over time remove the use of incentives. It only takes 5 minutes when you go to feed the dog to rehearse these commands a few times. Doing these 3 times a week is comprehensive enough maintain and prepare you for the field. No tolerance policy To conclude with control, I would like to express our no tolerance policy. Meaning that anything that will have a negative impact on a dog indicating ability should not be tolerated from a young age but also reinforced firmly. For example, chasing animals, indicating non-targets or barking at game. If you don t approve, then don t tolerate. TRAINING EXPERIENCE Once you have basic commands, practiced and competent. The next step is experience. Now if you have access to high deer numbers and plenty of time to hunt then hook into it, Otherwise I would recommend finding some goats and hunting them. It is much easier to stalk within close proximity of goats, and there is more room for error as opposed to hunting deer. If possible, to begin with, spot game, then position yourself up wind of them and stalk down. If you can see the target, try your best not to shoot until the dog is aware of that goat/deer s presence. Keep in mind that you will get from a dog, what you put into it. So, cover the country and work hard to gain experience from the dog if you want to reap the rewards.

6 CONCLUSION Indicating dogs can be a huge asset to a bushman but big ask to train and maintain. Please take this document as our experience and opinion, not as the only way to hunting success. There are many angles to hunting and this is how we look at it. If your dog fails to perform or you cannot invest the time they need, they are still worth having as a companion. Just remember, how lucky we are to have unlimited public land hunting in NZ with no fees or regulation and outstanding scenery. Get out there, enjoy your hunting and stay safe. All the best and good luck from the Trap and Trigger Team!