
He's proven to be a "blood" tracking dog and not a scent tracker. A scent tracker could follow tracks - except across water, of course - as long as the animal puts foot to earth; but, if an animal is not dead (ahead) and it has stopped bleeding, my dog promptly sits on his butt right after the first fleeing track that follows the last blood spatter and only subsequently moves when he's pushed by the HM border. I now consider this a "game feature" in that it tells me the quarry has only suffered a flesh wound, although Doc disagrees with me on this assessment consistently. I know this after tracking some of these "wounded" animals for thousands of meters and never again finding one blood track ... so, in this, my dog is smarter than I am.
On WrR I've actually watched my dog chase a wounded animal - and I mean right on its heels - until it finally drops.

SUMMARY: Although he does occasionally find an animal I might have missed, I spend most of my hunts PO'd at him and most of his leveling up is now done when - or if - he responds to the "P", "K", and "J" key commands but I've resigned myself to putting up with the aggravation and irritation because he can carry stuff!

_________
EDIT: Forgot to mention ... as his levels increase, so does the distance he travels AFTER acknowledging ["!"] the [Stay] command when I administer while we're walking, sometimes by as much a 15 meters.
