Blood trailing deer with Labs

[Ranch]

Hello to all. I am new to this message board and I was wondering if any of you duck hunters use your Labs for bloodtrailing deer?

I have not been able to find any sites that talk about blood trailing with labs. There are a bunch that talk about using dachsunds, believe it or not.

Anyway, I like to talk dogs, wether they are picking up ducks or finding deer.

Ranch

[teul2]

At one point a about 8 or 9 years ago I had my lab half way trained to blood trail. I was not very good at the training then, but I did get her to do it fairly well. We only trailed 3 or 4 deer, but she did get us farther down the trail than we had been able to find.

It wasn't hard. I just kept a bottle of deer blood (I used an anti-coagulant in it but you don't really have to) and a leg in the fridge. Start out with a 10 to 15 foot blood trail in the grass, headed into the wind. Have the leg at the end. When he follows it to the end, let him play with the leg. Make it fun for him. As he gets good at it, make the trails longer and harder. But always make it fun for him.

[B3]

I originally got my young lab for a blood trailing dog after I lost a monster bowhunting. We got along pretty well by letting her "find" deer that did not run far and had a wide blood trail. She got more and more excited by the blood and eventually figured out what we were after. I stopped using her for that 2 days after she trailed a deer and she tried to eat a duck on the next hunt. I don't know if the blood will make adog prone to damaging ducks but I didn't want to take chances. If other folks have had no problems using their dog for both jobs then I may try it again.
Bill

[Ranch]

I have been using mine for ducks and deer for almost 5 years. I trained him to retrieve and when deer season came I started putting him on blood trails. I never really trained him for the deer. I just put him on the trails and he figured out what we were looking for quickly. I figured that he would catch on pretty quick because his sire was a great dual purpose dog.

I think what makes the Labs so good for the job is they learn to use their nose so early in their retrieving training. We have had many great adventures with ducks and deer.

[Ranch]

I have been trying to figure out how to post a pic on here. Any tips?

[Chuckle12]

There are a bunch of different posts on posting pics. Ask on the MSDucks.com forum and somebody will help out.