Blood tracking: from puppy to examination

01 What is blood tracking?

Blood tracking — Schweissarbeit in German — is the discipline a dog handler reaches for after a deer or boar has been wounded but not killed cleanly. The dog follows the wounded animal's blood trail, often hours after the shot, through distractions, frequently at first light the morning after. It isn't sport. It is the hunter's ethical obligation to find a wounded animal and end its suffering.

A handler who wants to work a dog on a blood trail needs two things: a suitable dog with calm, strong-willed temperament — and a systematic training foundation built over years. There is no shortcut. There are better tools to make your progress visible.

02 Prerequisites

Blood tracking presupposes a passed temperament test and basic obedience. The dog must be guidable on a long lead, gunshot-tested, and able to remain in the handler's working area. The breed specialists are the Hanoverian Scenthound (Hannoverscher Schweisshund) and the Bavarian Mountain Scenthound (Bayerischer Gebirgsschweisshund); but every JGHV-recognised pointing or flushing dog with the right disposition for lead work can be examined.

You need a training ground with the lessee's permission, blood from cloven game (in practice, beef or pig blood from an abattoir is used in early training — exam blood must come from cloven game), and patience. A great deal of patience.

03 Equipment — what you actually need

• Tracking lead: at least 8 m, 10 m standard at exam. Ecologically tanned fat leather with hand loop and side buckle; BioThane as a wet-weather alternative.
• Tracking collar: broad, light colour (natural leather or signal orange) for visibility in undergrowth. Safety breakaway designs are gaining ground.
• Marking stick with sponge (5 × 5 cm) for the dabbing method; drip bottle from a 0.5 L PET bottle with a hole in the cap for the dripping method; blood-trail shoe in aluminium with original hoof for the treading method.
• Trail crosses and scent markers (cut hair, bone splinters, lung pieces) for marking the impact site and beds.
• Indication object (Bringsel, 10–15 cm leather or antler piece) attached to the collar if you're training a bringsel-back indicator.
• GPS recording of the reference trail — a nice-to-have a few years ago, today standard in any serious training programme.

04 The six training phases

There is no officially standardised phase structure from the JGHV. The progression below is synthesised from Borngräber's Die Schweißarbeit, Krewer/Reinert's Der Hannoversche Schweißhund and the practice of regional training schools. It is orientation, not a script — the dog sets the pace.

PHASE 01

Play trail

8–16 weeks · playful, short, joyful

Length

10–80 m

Aging

0–30 min

Blood

a few ml

Turns

0

Distractions

none

The aim is a positive scent association: nose down, reward at the end — a piece of game meat that the puppy "hunted down". Dabbing method with a sponge stick, every second step. No corrections, no complications, no long spans of tension. The puppy is allowed to fail here, pause, start again.

Turn TrailDog to Record before you lay the trail. You'll save it as a reference and skip the trail crosses for later — at these distances you often won't see your own track again.

PHASE 02

Young-dog practice trail

4–9 months · first real lead work

Length

150–400 m

Aging

1–4 h

Blood

50–100 ml

Turns

1–2 obtuse

Beds

1

Now the lead comes in. The dog leads — you follow. First turns are laid at obtuse angles so the young dog finds the bend on its own and accumulates success. The wound bed is built with a little cut hair and a bone splinter; the carcass at the end is the only reward that counts.

Drop a TrailDog pin at every turn and at the wound bed while laying. After the work-out you'll see on the map exactly where your dog made the bend — and where it overshot, briefly returned, and still nailed it.

PHASE 03

Day trail with complications

9–18 months · realistic conditions

Length

400–600 m

Aging

4–12 h

Blood

100–150 ml

Turns

2–3, one right-angle

Beds

2

First right-angle turns, first indication points (scent markers) along the trail. You may switch from the dabbing method to the blood-trail shoe — the treading method most closely resembles a real wounded animal and prepares for the VFsP. A single old game path may now lie in the training ground; a deliberately laid foul trail still not.

Lay three trails with different ages (4 h, 8 h, 12 h) and compare corridor compliance across the days. A good dog loses few points at this stage — strong fluctuations mean either the ground or the trail-laying is the problem, not the dog.

PHASE 04

Overnight trail

from 15 months · choose your indication method

Length

600–1000 m

Aging

14–24 h

Blood

200–250 ml

Turns

3, one right-angle

Beds

2

Indicators

3–6

Now the dog must work from the ground scent of aged blood molecules, no longer from fresh air-scent. You commit to an indication method (see below) and stick with it — switching confuses the dog. Fresh cloven-game foul trails may be laid; a good dog raises its head briefly but stays on the blood trail.

Overnight trails are expensive — equipment, ground, time. Note the weather, soil moisture and wind in TrailDog marker notes. Across ten trails you'll spot patterns: your dog works most reliably with dry wind under 5 km/h.

PHASE 05

20-hour examination trail

from 24 months · VSwP minimum age

Length

1000 m

Aging

20 h

Blood

250 ml (¼ L)

Turns

3

Beds

2

These are the exact numbers of the Verbandsschweissprüfung (VSwP) according to JGHV-PO 2015. Beyond the minimum age you need certificates of gunshot fitness and giving voice on track. The trail is laid in forest with varying undergrowth, max. 100 m of meadow or field after the impact site. Cloven-game foul trails must be physically present in the examination ground.

Train the last three practice trails before the exam to exactly these measurements — same blood quantity, same method, same lead, same procedure at the carcass. That isn't sports logic; it is ritual conditioning. The dog knows every step of your behaviour.

PHASE 06

40-hour trail

after passing the 20h trail · top class

Length

1000 m

Aging

40 h (2 nights)

Blood

250 ml

Turns

3

Beds

2

Identical distance data to the 20h exam, but two nights of aging. That is the real emergency of many follow-up searches — shot the evening before, found that evening, worked out the morning after next. Registration is only allowed after passing the 20h exam.

05 Indication methods — three ways to the carcass

At VSwP and VFsP, three indication methods are equally accepted. Which one suits your dog is decided by its disposition, not your preference.

Lead work (Riemenarbeit)

The classic. You follow the dog on the 10 m tracking lead all the way to the carcass. Track certainty, calmness on lead and behaviour at wound beds are assessed. Lowest training overhead, highest exam objectivity — you see and steer everything.

Stand-bark (Totverbeller)

The dog finds the carcass, stays with it and bays loudly until you arrive. Requires reliable standing-bark instinct and high independence. For dogs with natural stand-bark — cannot be forced.

Bringsel-back indicator (Bringselverweiser)

The dog picks up the bringsel hanging from its collar at the carcass, returns to the handler with it in its mouth, then leads them back to the find. Complex behaviour, but achievable with disciplined build-up even without natural stand-bark tendencies.

06 Exams compared

Which exam you aim for depends on your federal state, club, and intended use. An overview of the most important blood-tracking exams for dog and handler in the DACH region:

Exam	Length	Aging	Blood	Turns	Min. age
VSwP 20h · JGHV Federation	1000 m	20 h	250 ml	3	24 mo
VSwP 40h · JGHV Federation	1000 m	40 h	250 ml	3	after 20h
VFsP · trail-shoe	1000 m	20 h	(shoe)	3	24 mo
Bavaria QBPO 2023 Module B	1000 m	20 h	250 ml *	3 (~90°)	—
Lower Saxony BPO	400 m	overnight	¼ L	2 obtuse	—
ÖJV Bavaria Large Trail-Shoe Exam	1000 m	12 h	250 ml	3	—
Switzerland AGJ 500 m trail · SWPO 2008	≥ 500 m	≥ 12 h (overnight)	250 ml †	2 right-angle	15 mo
Switzerland AGJ 1000 m trail · SWPO 2008	≥ 1000 m	≥ 18 h	250 ml †	3 (terrain-fit)	after 500 m

* Bavaria QBPO Module B: 250 ml with dab/drip method or 100 ml with blood-trail shoe. Additionally, 6 indication points and 2 wound beds are required.
† Switzerland AGJ: 2.5 dl (250 ml) cloven-game blood with dab/drip or 1 dl (100 ml) with trail-shoe/-stick. Both exams are run as lead work only with a tracking lead of at least 6 m; passing the 500 m trail is a prerequisite for admission to the 1000 m trail. A maximum of two recalls (misdirection > 80 m) is permitted to pass.

The Swiss particularity: the Vorsuche

The current AGJ SWPO contains a feature that fundamentally distinguishes the Swiss exam from the German VSwP: the Vorsuche (preliminary search). The judges guide the handler to a marked area of roughly 30 × 30 m around the impact site. The team must then find the start of the trail and its direction of flight independently. Only then do the judges confirm both.

In the German VSwP the handler is told the direction of flight at the impact site — he sets off and the dog can start tracking immediately. The Swiss Vorsuche models the real follow-up situation more realistically: no one knows for sure where the animal fled to. If the team does not find the trail's exit within 80 m of misdirection or 15 minutes, that counts as one recall — and two recalls fail the exam. Anyone training in Germany for the Swiss exam should drill the first 30 × 30 m specifically.

07 How TrailDog supports your blood tracking

TrailDog is not a substitute for years of lead experience. It is a tool that makes the invisible visible: the difference between where you laid the trail and where your dog worked it out.

1. Record the reference trail — you lay the trail, press "Record", and TrailDog stores every turn with GPS accuracy of around 5–10 m in forest.
2. Markers for every event — impact site, wound bed, turn, indication point. One tap, without breaking the blood flow.
3. Corridor compliance — after the work-out you see what percentage of the run lay within your chosen tolerance (e.g. 40 m) of the reference trail. A number you can compare over weeks.
4. Reference/actual overlay — both trails on one map. You see immediately at which turn your dog consistently overshoots.
5. Trend analysis across days and weeks — is your dog actually improving as aging increases, or only in dry weather? TrailDog does the maths for you.
6. Fully offline — OpenStreetMap tiles are cached before work. In the forest where there's no signal, the app keeps going.

08 Six avoidable mistakes

1. Adding distractions too early. The young dog loses trust in the blood scent and starts to guess. Three phases without distractions is the minimum.
2. Lead too slack. The dog tracks freely, raises its nose, loses certainty. The lead is always lightly tensioned, never taut.
3. Trail laid into the wind. The dog works air-scent instead of ground scent. On an overnight trail, the result is worthless.
4. Reward at the end too late or too small. Motivation for the next trail falls. The carcass must be physically reachable and "consumable" at the end.
5. Blood quantity too high in early training. The dog learns to fixate on wound-bed concentrations instead of track scent.
6. Aging stepped up too fast. The jump from 4 h to 20 h overwhelms. Borngräber recommends: double per training session, but only when the previous step is worked out reliably.

09 Literature and clubs

Standard works

• Hans-Joachim Borngräber: Die Schweißarbeit. The current standard work; Borngräber ran the Jägerlehrhof Springe for 20 years. Required reading.
• Bernd Krewer / Hans Reinert: Der Hannoversche Schweißhund. Neumann-Neudamm 2006. Modern club textbook with training section.
• Walter Frevert: Die gerechte Führung des Schweisshundes. The classic — for historical and philosophical perspective.

Associations and clubs

• JGHV — Jagdgebrauchshundverband e.V. Binding federal examination orders (VSwPO 2015, VFsPO 2015).
• Verein Hirschmann e.V. Studbook and training authority for the Hanoverian Scenthound, founded 1894.
• Klub für Bayerische Gebirgsschweisshunde 1912 e.V. Sole FCI studbook authority for the BGS; its own aptitude and main examinations.
• Arbeitsgemeinschaft für das Jagdhundewesen (AGJ) / TKJ (Switzerland) — Reglement Schweissprüfungen SWPO 2008 for the 500 m and 1000 m trails.
• Your state's Landesjagdverband, or the cantonal hunting association in Switzerland, for the currently valid Brauchbarkeit or follow-up tracking exam.