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This is only the second time they have been introduced to seriously tracking scent other than squirrel.
We have tried scent recognition in the house but they got bored with it very quick and lost interest.
This time I created 2 trails originating from the same spot using different scents, so I would know they were following the scent of the spice and not mine, let it set for 30 minutes and put one on each so they couldn’t follow the scent of each other. The one Ace tracked had just a tiny bit of cinnamon in it. And I mean tiny, yet he took off running down the drive so fast I wasn’t able to record it.
Each time I had the scent I wanted them to follow on my hand, and if looked like they were starting to go after game I would have them smell my hand in hopes of reminding them.
He had already hit the tree once, before I took him back to the beginning, but went on past it and got side tracked looking for squirrels, so I took him back to beginning and started over. He took off, The first time, Like Lexi did in the video of her. Since he had already been to the tree once I think he was confused what I was wanting from him. When he was to the left of the tree he was on the down drift side, the air drift was swirling.
Although I wasn’t able to get it Lexi had went to the tree, acknowledged it was their with a look at it, me, and proceeded to look for game, so I kept going with her, using find command, show her my hand until she stood up on the tree, and had a good game of tug when she did to reward her.
In the morning I hope to put them on the opposite scent they had this evening, and see how it goes. I think as they learn the game they will get better. Still very new for them, and learning what I am wanting out of them. Still amazes me as weak as I made the solutions they followed the trail and nose never hit the ground.
To help them I’m thinking of using a 15′ lead and harness when tracking, and cut collar for hunting to give them an idea of what’s expected from them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZqKllp7rtE
