Thread: Latest dog outing, your feedback appreciated

Hi, I trained my vizsla up with the Blueprint program, she's two now and I've had her out hunting about 20 times. She does pretty well, stays close and remains calm and quiet for the most part (the exception being when I'm waiting at the edge of a clearing and there are deer around, then she shakes and gets nervous). Of those twenty or so trips, I've shot about 6 deer over her, and the success rate seems to be improving (and is now better than when I hunt alone, as you'll see below).

In the bush, she is always wanting to follow ground scent, naturally, but most of the time it's in a direction that doesn't work for me, either not into the wind or off into some dense supplejack or other scrub. And although she's quiet for a dog, she's still patters around sniffing and therefore louder than I would be on my own. For that reason, I've been hunting without her more, but the other day when we were out she spooked a hind which I assume was sleeping, and it crashed off a little ways, then seemed to stop. I crept up another 30 meters and there was the deer looking back at us, so I dropped it. Thinking back, I now recall that 2 of the other deer that we took in the bush were in a similar way, she would spook them and they would stop a little further on, as if they were startled by the small 4-legged and wanted to have a look, meanwhile either not hearing me at all or too distracted by the dog to notice me.

It seems to be a good system, and I can't argue with the results. Is is possible that light dog noise = good noise, and has anyone else had this experience with their dog? Thanks

I use my bird dogs on deer a bit (not their primary purpose) as a result they tend to hunt 20-50m in front of me.
All of the deer i have shot over them have been standing watching the dog. Main reason for the dog for me is to help find the ones that might not be quite dead on the spot and company when out.
Deer are not quiet when moving about so I don't think a little noise matters as much as we think unless its a two legged think making said noise
If its working for you ............................

I havent used blue print
I havent got Meg 100% yet.....we get by
the biggest thing I can say to you is this....TRUST THE DOG.....I will follow Meg to hell and back if she says thats where we need to go.....to hell with wind direction too...yeah I know that goes against every rule in the book...but you have another book....TRUST THE DOG..... if dog want to go there...you jolly well go there.
when we dont,we make monkeys of ourselves...ESPECIALLY after the shot...... the dog knows its job...find the deer the boss just shot....TRUST THE DOG....
the other week I hunted up through a clearing and was about to flip over spur into 2nd clearing and Meg said no..carry on up...so I did and shot hind 20 yards further on...and we sat by dead deer with another barking its fool head of at us for a good 10 minutes before it moved off....it hadnt winded us and wasnt sure whatwent on...may have been stag and hind I shot may have been on 2nd cycle...either way its only 2nd deer in 30 years of hunting that place that has barked at me...
for me,most of the animals Ive shot over Meg,Im following her and look ahead to see deer,either thay are alert or have moved...same as me alone.
dont over think it and rememeber TRUST THE DOG.
as to light noise.....there is a theory that mousing along spooks deer,our two legged walk is so foreign in sound...deer move in fits n spurts making quite some noise....I stay as quiet as can but yes with dog you always seem to make more noise...unless pigs are about when Meg goes into super slow sneak mode...its like someone has flicked a switch....man she just about crawls...dont know why but its part of the puzzle...when the mojo between man and his dog is good, life is GREAT.

Great info, thanks! I think my hesitancy in trusting her in the past is that I'm not sure how old the scent is, and I wonder if she's sniffing something that's say 12 hrs old or older. I will repeat to myself: Trust The Dog!

I had Bo in the bush the other day, no rifle or anything just hopped the fence while I was on farm and went for a poke round to see if we could get onto a deer. He was following some ground scent when a hare crossed our path about 30m ahead, I knew he had seen it so I put the stop on him (kissy sound) and he sat and waited. Once the hare had moved well on it was time to start moving again. I stood up and began to move forward and then he froze and started air scenting. I said out loud "come on mate don't bloody do that it's just a hare" then there was a whole heap of crashing and carry on in front of us and a stroppy little buck appeared, looked at us, gave us a bit of a snort and then dove off again. I think we must have been quite near to him bedded down when we had stopped and when I spoke out loud he had to jump up and take a quick look at the intruders before crashing away

seems you need to learn to TRUST THE DOG too mate....lol. hares can be pain in the arse at times....good control. give Bo a pat from me please.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

seems you need to learn to TRUST THE DOG too mate....lol. hares can be pain in the arse at times....good control. give Bo a pat from me please.

Had him on another one just before pic in the here and now. Again just a quick romp round without the rifle to see what we could rustle up. He's doing bloody good

you BOTH doing bloody great...your time and effort put in is showing in the control Bo is showing....great job.