Can your hunting dog track twice in a day ?

[Treeman]

Today I shot a Impala 88 m back of head, it dropped right there. Put dog on ground told her to work and 5 minutes later she found the animal. No trail, just blood in air.
As per usual she was allowed to gallantly attack carcass and when gutting she gets to choose a few chew on pieces.

She is now full of blood.

Second Impala @ about 240 m in behind shoulder and out way back on far side, she was standing almost at a 45%. Carried dog to about where shot and off she went, 30 minutes later I knew we were being led on a wild goose chase. We went in a big zig zag C twice not finding the animal.
I went off alone to POI and tried to figure it out, replayed shot and reaction, first reaction, what Cody had said he saw etc. 15 Minutes later I had the animal.
After getting Cody back I took dog to within 20 m of animal and it still took her 10 minutes to find it.

Suddenly it struck me, how can she track a scent, micro particles on the air when her entire face is full of the scent from first animal?

Am I correct?
20210731_111443 - Copy - Copy by David Frank Allen, on Flickr

[Treeman]

20220604_120839 by David Frank Allen, on Flickr

Do you think she will be able to track again in a hour? The scent is in her nose up her nose - on her face. How can she ?
I do not think the dog can be used twice.

[Shotofrank]

Makes sense what you are theorizing, know nothing about dogs though? Still seems obvious conclusion.

[Treeman]

I still do not have an answer on this matter, but can say the little dog has really become a tracker. She tracked a pig recently for about a km,to another hole and down the hole.
I have taken to washing here face and taking her for a long run after tracking, just incase we need her twice.

[oafpatroll]

Fascinating topic for a desk pilot like me to follow. My only experience of dogs is with bird dogs and they generally don't get drenched in blood and appear to work well all day.

[Ds J]

Another experiment coming?

Have her track one animal, wash her, have her track a second animal.

Then, the weekend thereafter, let her track, blood her, and let her track again.

[Treeman]

Another experiment coming?

Have her track one animal, wash her, have her track a second animal.

Then, the weekend thereafter, let her track, blood her, and let her track again.

***************************
As per my son. "Daaaaad, she will never learn with the way you shoot"

Ya ! - there is such a thing as "too good"

[Treeman]

Will have to take you guys with some time so she will be needed twice in same day.

[Ds J]

Will have to take you guys with some time so she will be needed twice in same day.

She will probably hide away when she gets my scent the second time    

[Treeman]

Just had an amazing experience with this dog again. The dog was inside and started agitating at the door, so I thought she needed to do her toilet. Straight across and into the store,after a rat. She is out there now trying to flush it.
How amazing, from in the house, we have just cooked, I am drinking an French cognac and the wife is soap and creams, yet the dog sensed a rat 30 foot away outside.Not the first time, but the first time I have realized, put it all together what's going on - I thought she was finding rats by chance when put out, not wanting out because there is a rat.
Now that's amazing !

[Kola]

We underestimate them.

[oafpatroll]

We underestimate them.

Indeed we do. As a youngster I had as strange a pair of dogs as you could hope for. The bitch was a 55kg+ bullmastiff and the dog a weird cross that included dachshund and possibly scotty or schnauzer who probably didn't break 10kg if that. They were inseparable and if one was absent for whatever reason like a vets visit the other moped about like a lovesick teen. One day, as was his habit, the dog succumbed to his napoleon complex and got out past the gardener when he left the pedestrian door open and went and shouted at the rottweilers across the road. He got too close and they pulled him through their gate and opened him up. Somehow or other he managed to get away and came back across the road dragging his intestines and died in a corner in our driveway. 

A few days of afternoon highveld thunderstorms later I took the bitch for a run which was a thing she loved more than food. On opening the door she turned away from the road, which a strong person would normally struggle to keep her from charging, and went 30 metres up the driveway to the spot where the dog had died and set up howling like a wolf.

This went on for quite a while but eventually I was able to calm her down and I took her out to the road. She was having none of the running thing and followed what I assume was the residual blood trail straight across the road to the rottweiler house and tried her level best to get in. She was a normally even tempered dog who could be trusted to largely ignore other dogs on a run but in this case she went bonkers and tried hard to get at them. Fortunately I was just strong enough buy that age to stop her.

What I still find amazing about the incident was that the property was completely enclosed by an 8 foot wall       so she couldn't have seen what happened, she was apparently able to follow a blood trail after days of heavy highveld rains and that she was so obviously affected by the loss of her buddy days after it had happened as to act completely out of character.       

[Treeman]

Dogs love PROPER boet - Proper.

[223]

We underestimate them.

Indeed we do. As a youngster I had as strange a pair of dogs as you could hope for. The bitch was a 55kg+ bullmastiff and the dog a weird cross that included dachshund and possibly scotty or schnauzer who probably didn't break 10kg if that. They were inseparable and if one was absent for whatever reason like a vets visit the other moped about like a lovesick teen. One day, as was his habit, the dog succumbed to his napoleon complex and got out past the gardener when he left the pedestrian door open and went and shouted at the rottweilers across the road. He got too close and they pulled him through their gate and opened him up. Somehow or other he managed to get away and came back across the road dragging his intestines and died in a corner in our driveway. 

A few days of afternoon highveld thunderstorms later I took the bitch for a run which was a thing she loved more than food. On opening the door she turned away from the road, which a strong person would normally struggle to keep her from charging, and went 30 metres up the driveway to the spot where the dog had died and set up howling like a wolf.

This went on for quite a while but eventually I was able to calm her down and I took her out to the road. She was having none of the running thing and followed what I assume was the residual blood trail straight across the road to the rottweiler house and tried her level best to get in. She was a normally even tempered dog who could be trusted to largely ignore other dogs on a run but in this case she went bonkers and tried hard to get at them. Fortunately I was just strong enough buy that age to stop her.

What I still find amazing about the incident was that the property was completely enclosed by an 8 foot wall       so she couldn't have seen what happened, she was apparently able to follow a blood trail after days of heavy highveld rains and that she was so obviously affected by the loss of her buddy days after it had happened as to act completely out of character.       

We have no idea of how dogs sense or "see" the world out there.  We assume they must work with things visible or perceptible to us, as that is our only reference.  We know their sense of smell is hundreds of times better than ours.  Their hearing probably too.  And that is what we can figure out.  There may be more, as many dogs are obviously quite intelligent.

A couple of years ago I had a German shepherd x Chow dog.  He was most intelligent and could solve problems that baffled other dogs.  One day we were working on a property about 12km from home.  He knew the place and would usually  wait there until we drove home. That day he got impatient and disappeared.  We searched everywhere, fearing that he might have chased after some wild animals, but could not find him.  3 hours later he was found at home, dirty and tired.  He had strolled home without ever coming near to the road.  This tells me he had a map of the whole area to the sides of the road in his head, assembled from all the smells(?) he picked up when traveling back and forth by road.  He must have used this to navigate home, or that is what I think...

[oafpatroll]

He had strolled home without ever coming near to the road.  This tells me he had a map of the whole area to the sides of the road in his head, assembled from all the smells(?) he picked up when traveling back and forth by road.  He must have used this to navigate home, or that is what I think...

I spent lots of time on my grandfathers farm as a kid and my companions there were the then current generation of my grandmothers pack of great danes. When I got dropped off I would spend pretty much every waking hour with them and they would never let me out of sight even when we were miles from the house. My grandfather was the local doctor and he had a dispensary/surgery on the property which my grandmother managed. She used to close up at 4pm sharp and walk the half kilometre or so back to the house. Regardless of how far away we'd wandered they always left in time to be waiting for at the back door of the surgery 5 minutes before she left and despite being exceptionally well trained and otherwise obedient they would ignore any efforts I made at delaying them. Their time keeping and navigational abilities were way beyond mine.