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It's all very well having your dog retrieve bits of cloth and fluff but how do you keep
them on the right lines when you start introducing game.
To start with we use cold game. I start by usually cutting some wings off a dead, obviously,
pheasant, taping them to a dummy, rabbit skin on a dummy get them confident with that. Then
into cold game, use cold game. We keep a freezer full of as much game as we can get. Then you
go onto the real thing. Today we are going to go onto to getting the dog to try and take
the line of a runner that has been shot. You'll see how we do it by putting a shot today a
rabbit, pheasant, whatever you want, going round so the dog can't smell it. It's got
to go down wind of where you drop it. You'll see I walk round in a half circle with a rope
drag the rabbit across the ground, bring the dog out, send it to the fall what we have
rubbed into the fall to make good blood scent and then with the dog's experience we will
get that the dog follows that blood scent.
Why do you drag it on a rope?
Because I don't want to walk over where it is going. Because then the dog could be following
my foot scent. We do it so the dog, it is a fresh line, nothing has been over that line.
The dog has actually got to follow the scent, not mine.
Tom runs Westhala Gundogs near Perth in Scotland. Visit WesthalaGundogs.co.uk. This series on
gundog training tips is brought to you by Skinners Petfoods, maker of the Field & Trial
range of gundog feeds. Visit SkinnersPetfoods.co.uk