Strongly recommend snake training for the dog.
No Not a malamute, he is a Belgium malinois. No wolves or grizzly “allegedly “. He’s Highly trained on and off leash, very obedient. But would not hang in a camp off leash unattended. My tether plan was more in line with a high line vs a stake &chain. Biggest reason I want him with me is one being solo, two he is trained in recovery.
Forgot about that Mal....our working Mals are GONZO! No Thanks. You'll come back to camp with 3 dead Grizz and a dog with 20' of steel cable in it's guts. Good Luck with that!
www.ultimatehuntingaustralia.com
Good insight. Thanks for taking the time to put that together.I know the OP said he would not use the dog to assist in finding game....here is the other side of the coin where that is why the dog is there. Might be useful for context before you put yourself in a position where you have to defend your actions to a regulatory representative.
In Australia and New Zealand where legal (ie no National Parks and approved breeds only) having a dog along to find deer is common place. Less common is a dedicated blood trailing dog. I find my GWP finds down deer fairly rapidly just air scenting.
Having a dog beside you can be an absolute game changer for finding deer, a trained dog will walk you onto a deer like its on a string. That said there is a huge gap between most deer dogs and a properly trained dog. It is easy to get a dog up to the point it will indicate deer that are upwind, much more work is needed to get it to where you follow the dog to the deer's location. My bitch would air scent indicate deer 500 yards away before she was 12 months old, she knew what I was interested in and was switched on to that scent. She learnt quickly to ignore wombats, roo's, foxes etc. She still shows some interest but nothing near like when her nostrils catch waft of deer scent....her head goes up and she start flicking me that 'look', if she thinks they are close she barely moves, locks into a direction and will only move if encouraged. When I see her slow down and nostrils twitch I'm 90% on my bino's trying to spot the deer.
No affiliation at all to these guys but anyone looking at using dogs to indicate deer will find them interesting. And anyone using dogs as companions should understand just how easy the dog will become a game finder for you. Not advocating you do that but understand how easy it will be for others to perceive your intent differently.
Big Game Indicating Dogs
Big Game Indicating Dogs is based in New Zealand and run by Paul Michaels. We specialise in helping people to train their own big game indicating dogs, or deer dogs, using The Deer Dog Training Blueprint.biggameindicatingdogs.comGet a pointing dog for sambar deer hunting
When you buy one of my pointing dogs for hunting sambar deer, you not only get the best genetics, I’ll start your dogs training using my proven DEERPOINT training program.
I solo hunt a lot so having a pooch along that is well trained is great companionship. She is low maintenance and rarely more than 30 yards from me night or day.
She usually just bunks down inside the shelter near my feet or at the entry way.
