Bavarian Mountain Hound, Heidi at 13 wks, 160m blood track.

Today's the day we tried a longer track on blood only (non diluted). The weather had been drizzling with rain for at least four hours, and had just stopped when I laid the track, although the soil seemed fairly dry the vegetation was wet. The line was more or less down the middle of the grass strip in the middle, and when I laid it I walked in wellingtons, well to the right hand side of it. Around 20m from the end I put in a turn (right handed) for the first time.
At the start she got off after a bit off backward and forwarding, and seemed to do OK. However there were a few occasions when for some reason she put her head up and just went off to the ditch line, well to the left of the line. I tried to keep quiet and let her figure things out each time, and she did get back to it on her own.
When she reached the turn, she stopped on the track and I thought she was on to it straight away, but then seemed to carry on, trying to figure out where it had gone. Again she got there, but went fairly wide of the track to start with. I guess this was because the wind was now coming from her right? She then got her head down and finished the job.
I am going to have to give this one some thought as to the way ahead. Am I doing too much too soon? Is she not quite ready for blood only and should I try tracking shoes with cleaves as well? Was the weather conditions not right for such a young dog?
Age of track: 1hr
Length of Track: 160m.
Type of track: Neat blood.
Amount of blood: 250ml (non diluted).
Wind direction: From behind.
Wind strength: 9-12 mph
Temp: 12ºC
Weather: Wet vegetation after drizzle, fairly dry soil, cloudy
Time: 10.00
Age of Dog: 13 weeks

Thank you

This time of the year in England, only Roe bucks and Muntjac are in season. Unfortunately the both species, especially Muntjac do not contain a lot of blood. The problem I have is that I started to save blood etc., when I had my name down for a pup last year, but when I discovered that not enough bitches were born in the litter, and that I was not able to have one at that time, I foolishly stopped collecting. Therefore my stocks were running extremely low.
I decided to spread the word amongst other stalkers and friends. The result being that my friend Kerry was able to see me out of trouble, and someone whom I had not met before, by the name of Josh Bates, whom owns a magnificent Hanoverian dog, came up trumps will a great deal of blood, skin, head, and cleaves. Josh I cannot thank you enough, I really appreciate it.
With the help of others I can now continue training Heidi with these supplies, which should last until the Fallow season starts again.

Bavarian Mountain Hound Heidi 50m track, blood only.

This was a fairly straight 1hr old, 50m line on neat blood, to try and see if Heidi, now 13 weeks old, was ready for blood only tracks. I think from the results that she's just about there, you can see in video that things went pretty well until the last few meters. I believe this was probably because the vegetation in the middle of the path became almost non existent, and I don't think this was holding the scent enough for her. I have also started to tied out the skin etc., to stop the magpies and other wildlife moving it.
The next step will be to extend the distance, as someone pointed out to me if she can track okay at 50, she track okay at 100, 200, 300, as long as she does not get bored and things are kept interesting. Also to be aware of the time involved, in other words, start doing less tracks per week. I think I will also start to introduce tracking shoes and cleaves after a couple of blood trails.
Age of track: 1hr
Length of Track: 50m.
Type of track: Neat blood.
Wind direction: From behind.
Wind strength: 17-21 mph Fresh breeze.
Temp: 12ºC
Weather: Damp morning ground, becoming sunny.
Time: 09.00
Age of Dog: 13 weeks.

Bavarian Mountain Hound Heidi 65m.Track

Again apologises for the poor video quality but I only have a camera phone.
This track was laid after a long period of light rain on the grass verge at the side of our driveway. It consisted of a liver drag over 65m, with the addition of using up some around 200ml of over diluted blood, and 2 or 3 small (thumbnail size) pieces of liver. Skin at end.
Heidi seemed to do quite well on this one, she started fairly well and I did not interrupt her concentration by praising her, perhaps I should a bit more?
As you can see when she reached a telegraph pole she did seem a little bit spooked by something, which I could not figure. This caused her to just come off the track slightly to get past that area, and then continue back on the track shortly afterwards.

Age of track: 1hr 10mins.
Length of Track: 65m.
Type of track: Liver drag & Very diluted blood.
Wind direction: From the left
Wind strength: 3-4 mph Breezy
Temp: 15ºC
Weather: Drying up after light rain.
Time: 13.00
Age of Dog: 12 weeks.

Bavarian Mountain Hound Heidi, liver drag only.

This was Heidi's first track after her blood only one, and was done to see if we could do without liver drag yet-apparently not! This was as said a liver drag only, and seemed that she worked it out OK after a bit of a dodgy start. Something I notice is that after she finds and eats the liver 'incentive' pieces, she seems to have to suss out the track again, but at least it gives her encouragement to move on and try to find her next reward, be it another piece or the end result.
Age of track: 40mins.
Length of Track: 50m.
Type of track: Liver drag.
Wind direction: From behind
Wind strength: Low
Temp: 12ºC
Weather: Cooler after a hot day
Time: 20:15
Age of Dog: 12 weeks.

Bavarian Mountain Hound Heidi 50m, heavily diluted blood, no liver drag.

This was a 50m tracking test to find out a few things. Having had success with liver drag and blood trail, I thought I'd tried diluting the blood with about 70% water (as I'm running low on blood), normally its diluted 50/50. The other thing I did as an experiment, was to drip blood about every other step, and lastly to omit the liver drag. Again the wind was generally from behind us.
Poor Heidi, she kept looking to me for help, as if to say I can't pick up enough scent, what do I do. Sometimes you can see she does get a whiff and its nose down, other times she struggles.
This suggests to me that maybe I should continue with the liver drag for a bit longer yet, and perhaps not dilute the blood so much, but try to drip it more evenly at this stage.
The good thing is that we ended on a positive and she found her cleave at the end of it. I thought I would try a cleave this time as I wanted give her a change from a piece skin to add interest, although she does seem to love a piece of skin at the end, followed by a tugging game.

Bavarian mountain Hound Heidi 1st 80m pt2

This is where I regain control of technology (the video camera) from pt1, and Heidi regains the track! Once again she continues along pretty well at her own pace, until just before the end, when she appears to loose it. This is one of the problems I mentioned in part one, and I suppose adds a touch of realism.
What actually happened was that the original trail did end here, but in this area we have an abundance of wildlife and vermin, some of that vermin being magpies! On this occasion a magpie had seen the piece of skin laying on the floor, assumed it to be a nice tasty piece of carrion, and flew down for a feed. Finding no meat to eat it either fliped it to oneside or tried to fly with it, either way the skin was move a few meters from the end of the track. Heidi however persevered and eventually found what she was looking for.

Bavarian Mountain Hound Heidi 1st 80m pt1

Heidi's first 80m track was not an easy one for her, however at the end of the day she came through. The first problem we encountered just before I attached her tracking collar was that the landowner came along on his quad bike for a chat, and have a look at her. Then he requested that his wife was introduced to her at the farmhouse which was only a couple of hundred meters away, so we obliged by walking back to his house.
After about ten minutes we returned to close to the start of the track, which was now over an hour old. I put the Heidi's tracking collar on and we made a start. She was slightly distracted at first by the sound of the quad bike shunting around and driving off, but soon got down to it.
The whole track consisted of around 200ml diluted blood, with a small liver drag and again three small pieces of liver for motivation. there was a piece of skin at the end (more about that in pt2), and the wind was from behind us.
Sadly due to mechanical failure,( me being incompetent with the video on my mobile), it stopped recording, right at the spot where she lost the track, but I managed to pick it up again in pt2.

Bavarian Mountain Hound Heidi, the trophy run

After the last track, I thought it good to encourage Heidi as much as possible. This was done at this stage by letting her play and carry her 'trophy' all the way back home, and into the garden. For anyone concerned, don't worry it is not a public road, but our driveway that she is running along!
After a short while of letting her rag and play with the skin, I removed it from her and rewarded with a treat.

Bavarian Mountain Hound Heidi 1st time in full kit 50m 30mins

Things are progressing at a nice pace. Heidi for the first time today wore her tracking collar and leash. The collar is German made by Akah, it is soft fleece lined leather, and the leash is also German, made by Niggleoh, which is 20mm wide Neoprene and 12 meters long. Both available from : www.paintandpins.com

The track laid was 50m long, created by using around 170ml of blood and liver drag with deer skin at the end of it. The track had three thumbnail sized pieces of liver along its length to give her some incentive and motivation, which you can see her find, stop and eat. The wind was coming from behind us, which I'm trying to stick to at the moment to encourage her to keep her nose to the ground, and not pick up air scent.

Apart from the start where I give her the instruction 'Track on', I try to remain quiet, so as not to break her concentration. Obviously praising her at the end.

Heidi - The Next Step.

Heidi is now approaching 12 weeks of age, and we are continuing to take things steady. She is now getting used to being on a lead and walking to heel with no problem. Its not something I've tried to teach yet, but as I've been told by other BMH owners, they tend to do it automatically.
Trying to take her tracking steady, and only doing one or two a day (some say you can do around 5-9 short tracks), I've ventured out of the garden to the field next door, more for a change of environment than any other reason. the grass is longer, which seems to make things easier for her, but I believe the shorter the vegetation, the harder the nose has to work, and therefore the better the training!
The video shows her on a track of about 4-5 meters. It consisted of a liver drag, with blood trail all along the track. At the end was a piece of Roe skin, which was her first introduction to skin. Now as you can see, things started well then she lost the plot slightly in the middle of it, got back on track, then missed the skin right at the end. The main thing for me was that I considered that she followed the main track pretty well, and the next time will hopefully be better, now she realises what the skin is.
What I didn't show in the video very well, was that she soon afterwards, proudly picked up the skin, took it all the way back down the drive and into the garden, where she started to shake it and pull it to pieces.

Heidi's Basic Training Begins.

Well Heidi soon settled in at home, and after a couple of days to find her feet, we were out in the garden, and I was dragging small pieces of deer liver around the garden on the end of a piece of string.
Each day we did something a little different, and by the end of her first week, she was introduced to a short blood trail, eventually around 3m in length, with a couple of small bits of liver along the track and of course at the end of it, which upon reaching she received lots of praise.
Now I can't say that she stuck solidly to the line, but for such a young dog I was pleased with her results.

Heidi Comes Home.

Well we picked Heidi up from Mark and Alisons the other week at 9 weeks old, (thanks for the hospitality Alison), which gave us a seven hour drive back home. I have to say Heidi travelled back with no problems and is still treating being in a vehicle as second nature. She is small in frame and when we first met she was not the boldest in the litter, but very inquisitive, which is just what I was after. She is now becoming more and more confident every day and her boldness is increasing, but sticks to me like glue everywhere-perfect. Nothing seems to phase her, machinery sounds, bangs, people etc., all taken in her stride. Even in this grim weather, we're having great fun dragging liver around the garden and just intending to take things steady with her, not too much too soon. In future she will be working on Fallow, Roe and with caution, Muntjac.

Myself with Heidi's mum, Kremi.

I should just give a mention to Pete Garraway from Deertrackers, who kindly let the wife and I visit him last year to have a really close look at the breed, and answer a lot of questions. It was he who kindly put us in touch with Mark & Alison (www.paintandpins.com). After a few talks we were put on the list for a pup, sadly missed out on the last litter, but were lucky this time. I cannot thank Mark & Alison enough for all their help and support, and although they bred the pup I am trying to avoid the word 'breeders' as they are much more than this. Their knowledge and passion for the breed, keeping the lines as pure as possible, and ethics behind everything they do is to be acknowledged. Talking to Mark, his knowledge on scent and tracking is priceless and I would like to thank him for his guidance.

Heidi with her favourite toy!

Our Bavarian Mountain Hound - Heidi

Being a contentious deerstalker, I consider it my duty to have a trained dog, that can track a wounded deer due to a misplaced shot taken by myself or another person, and humanely dispatch it. Also that it would would be possible to follow up a poor beast hit by a vehicle, and do the same.
My old dog is now into retirement years, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to choose a breed that fits my specific requirements. That is solely for the purpose of tracking deer, not a general purpose dual role gundog. For this reason, after extensive research, I decided on a Bavarian Mountain Hound.
The Bavarian Mountain Hound (Bayerischer Gebirgsschweisshund) have the finest nose for following ground scent and trail; they are firm on scent, have a strongly developed will, to follow a trail and readily give tongue on scent. They were bred by Baron Karg-Bebenburg, Reichenhall around the 1870's from crossing the Hanoverian Scenthound, which were considered too heavy for rough an mountainous ground, with the Red Mountain Scenthounds. These Bavarian Mountain Hounds eventually became so popular that today they are considered the classical scenthound for the professional hunter on the continent.
So here we have our new pup 'Heidi' at 8 weeks old. She was bred in the UK, from the 'Zerno' kennels of Mark and Alison Montgomery in Cumbria, who I can only say are two of the most professional people I have ever met, especially when it come to the well being of this breed in the UK.

Heidi, (Zerno Cherub) is Kennel Club registered and is one of 10 pups, 6 bitches and 4 dogs. If anyone is interested her pedigree can be seen here: http://www.bazabgs.com/baza.php?op=show_tree&dog=13978
Over the next few days, weeks, months I will try to show Heidi's progress. I must stress however that I have never trained a dog purely for deertracking, and have taken on board everything that I have gleaned from those that have, and from books.