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TRACKING TRAINING STORY
Had a funny training session just prior to the hunting season summer 2000:
I laid a track and had planned it to be somewhat hard for my young Groenendael, Ulv - a track that he had to work with because it was difficult, but not long.
I used 0,2-0,3 liters of cow blood on a track that was about 600+ meters long. Small drops here and there. It laid all the 10 meters stops in an angle with no blood (to simulate the blood stop on a running animal), a wound bed and I laid it over fields, through some dense bushes, out on a grassland and finally ended it in a wooden area. At the end some roe deer ribs (the ultimate reward for Ulv :-). Then I waited for about 24 hours to let the track age a little.
But during the night it rained heavily. Heavily for many hours and the next day, I thought that "well, this track's probably ruined". Anyway, I decided to let Ulv give it a try.
He started of super focused as usual as I showed him his tracking harness. He gave me this "André, we really have a great time when tracking"- look and I said that "Ulv, I will not be dissapointed if you can't find those roe deer ribs tonight, because no wounded animal'll ever be that hard to find".
Cow blood is "boring" to the dog compared to smelly roe deer blood or the track of wounded game, but it was the heavy rain that conserned me most - the track was gone.
Rain may be good if it's just in small or medium amounts, also if there has been a dry period. Then the humidity will actually help the dog. But very heavy rain for many hours isn't good when using small amounts of cow blood. Then the track gets washed away to some degree, when it's a already "weak" track, with little blood and no strong sent of a deer, roe deer etc.
I led him up to where I had started laying the track the previous day and said "finne!" as usual. Bam! His nose dropped to the ground like a magnet where I'd dropped the extra drops of blood and kicked up the dirt, to simulate the start of a shot and accelerating animal. But them it got harder.
 There where no track from the kicked-up-dirt- spot and Ulv circled with a serious and conserned body language around the spot to try to find the track of the "running animal". I gave him all the meters of the rope as I stood there, and watched him circling systematically around the spot in wider and wider circles, back to the spot again and then circling wider and wider...All of the time he now and then gave me this split second look that I know he uses to tell me "I am not sure where the track goes at this moment André!!!".
Then he suddenly stopped. I could really see him thinking hard when he stopped for a moment and raised his head - just to stand there and evaluate the situation. Then his nose dropped to the ground again, and Ulv, determined as ever before gave it a new 100% try and I could almost see by the look of him that he really evaluated every particle of sent on the ground this time. Then we started walking - slow.
Ulv, was suddenly on the track, but this time he was even more focused than I've ever seen him before. It was a tough nose job to go all the way on this rained away blood track with long blood stops and all, but there, Ulv, slowly, but determined guided me through the bushes, over the grassland and over the usual 10 meters of blood stops and into the woods again. And finally, with the excited body language of a happy dog, he sat his teeth in, and showed me the roe deer ribs hidden under a bush.
When training I usually take the animal hide, ribs, meaty bones or whatever I use as an item at the end of the track away from him after a while, just to keep it a rule that "the animal isn't something you eat by yourself in the woods", but this night I let him carry the ribs all the way back to our cabine to eat. With his tail high up in the air he was running proudly around me all the way back giving me this "God, we are great"- look, and now and then stopped in front of me and let me hold and take a look at this hard to find "wounded animal".
But I realize that I am not the great one in this context. The real hero, when someone is unlucky and are wounding an animal, is the experienced tracking dog.
André Brun
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The Groenendael Ulv, when he was judged to a 1. prize at the exame at the age of 20 months.
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