Blood Tracking Collar

[doctorbrady]

This was my first attempt at a dog collar. I track with dogs, and wanted to make a "fancy" tracking collar for an upcoming blood tracking event. Being my first attempt, I made several amateur mistakes. My stitch line was WAY too close to the edge, and was horrible on the back side. This was my first attempt at beveling with a tool, and it wasn't until I finished that I realized I was using it backwards...lol. I also had some spacing issues with my letter stamping, and didn't realize it until I had it stitched to the front piece. Now for the good parts. This collar is two layers of hand-stitched 2" wide, 9 oz leather. It is wide and stiff, which is important in a good tracking collar so that it doesn't impinge on the dog's neck when pulling on a track. It also has a brass swivel and a little bling to keep it girlie. I was wanting to play around with this "geometric flower" pattern that I had seen on a belt. I free handed this one, and it came out reasonably well. This was a primer for a belt I wanted to craft for my wife. I worked out most of the bugs, and the belt turned out pretty good IMO .

[Rohn]

I think the collar turned out very nice. Blood tracking sounds interesting, I'd like to know more about it.

[MonicaJacobson]

By blood tracking, you mean blood hounds? That sounds very interesting. Nice collar, and it should last quite a while!

[doctorbrady]

Blood tracking is a misnomer. It is actually scent tracking of wounded game. This usually involves tracking both blood and hoof scent of a specific animal. A good tracker can distinguish one deer from another and will follow the track of the wounded deer (or other game animal) while ignoring fresher scents. Blood hounds are sometimes used, but are not the ideal breed in most situations. Rohn, I will PM u more info if u are interested. You should also visit the United Blood Trackers website or the Born-to-track blog.

[nancy4143]

What a coincidence--I make dog collars, leashes, tracking lines as my business and I also have a tracking dog named Chloe (Standard Poodle), (and two other tracking Poodles, Myles, and Calypso). We do not do blood tracking. Rather, we track human scent in the field and also do Variable Surface Tracking in various urban environments which involves tracking on concrete, asphalt, and other non-vegetated surfaces in urban settings.

When I track with my dogs, I use a harness and a long line (30-40' in the field) and 20' in the urban environment.

I was wondering whether blood tracking is done with a harness and long line. If you do use a harness, you should make a harness to match the nice collar you make for your Chloe.