How do you use and train trapline dogs?

I have a very smart six month old female Airedale. She minds well, loads up on UTV and in truck and likes to ride. She knows no, stop, sit, stay and c’mon. I’ve been taking her to different intersections where I’ve caught animals and she obviously smells marking spots. Planning on her being a drag dog and trapline buddy. Do you guys that have them use them for finding specific scent posts? Getting ready to teach her what a trap and bait is and to learn NO, TRAP. Might have taken a backset the other day when she was trying to pack off freshly waxed traps . I’ve never trained a “trapline dog”. I figure putting animals in front of her this fall will bring her along quickly.

They're nice to help find sign and if you use drags before it snows.

Make some sets with lure that you use on the trapline and preferably some old traps with weaker springs. Most dogs* get trapwise after being caught a couple times. I hound hunt and have had lots of dogs caught in traps (never my own, unless set to try and trap break dogs) and never had one hurt, maybe gimp around for a few minutes, but nothing like I do when I get a thumb in a trap

*Had an old female once get caught in three bobcat cubbies in one day, the trapper was using fist sized chunks of beaver for bait and she apparently figured a little foot pain was just the price she had to pay for the treat. Had to break her off cat cubbies with a shock collar, and never did trust her around an area that had traps.

I think just having them around the set helps out.

Good dogs figure out the trap thing pretty quick, but you are going to catch the dog from time to time. The most important thing to making a good dog is to show the dog a lot of game. Dogs learn by repetition and if the dog only sees a coyote once a month in a trap, it doesn't have enough repetition to connect the dots, so to speak. But show that same dog a dozen animals a day for a month and you'll be amazed what kind of dog you'll have. Sounds like you've got the obedience thing down. Most critical is to have a dog that will come when called.

Thanks for this thread, I may be in a position to have a trap line dog soon so this is helpful info for me too.

Couple questions, is your trap line dog a family pet as well, and do you ever have trouble with one cutting a fresh coyote track and taking off after it thinking it’s in a trap when it’s not?

Mine is a Mountain cur and likes to pal around with kids. He has quite a bit of trailing blood in him but I've never seen where he decided to really lock down and trail a coyote. He gets pretty "birdy" when he's in a lot of fresh coyote sign but I've not had him try to trail one. Perhaps a dog with more hound blood than mine would attempt that. I really think (but can't prove) that an animal in a trap leaves a different type of odor than one not in a trap. As I watch police dogs work, their handlers always say when they are tracking a fleeing suspect that the dogs detect a different odor from someone panicked/fleeing. Perhaps its the same with an animal in a trap.

She got to acting a little like a kid and wouldn’t come as quick as I wanted. I got a training collar and she learned real quick to come and especially if I hit vibrate. She’s the smartest dog I’ve ever had. I use drags a lot and will even more if she comes along. I can show her a few animals a day usually. She’s not very bold yet. Her size is good but her brain is still a pup.

That makes a lot of sense, I imagine the dog can smell the difference in the pheromones released when a critter is under stress

To get a pup started, I have cut coyote tails off, let it sniff it, and then hide it in various places for it to find. May very well help pup in learning to find coyotes on drags.

I just took him along after he was trained, he has tracked animals on drags and treed several animals. My experience with Airedales is their nose is (hot), the dog will tell me what they prefer. Shot a lot of turkeys with one I had . One thing they all had in common is they all are death on feral cats. I really enjoy a dog on the trapline and they all are house dogs

Getting your Airedale to help/trail won't be a issue if she's gamey. Just as was said above take the time to set a trap for her and make sure she watches you do it. Then let her get caught. She will freak out for a min but let her sit in it and think about it for a minute, then let her out. Works for me with my terriers. They get to be as trap wise as a old coyote in sheep country.

I used to bring a golden with me. She learned 'trap' pretty quick. Got too close to trapped coyotes though

I love my trap line buddy. He goes almost everywhere I do except work but if my new job option works out he'll go with me there as well. Like stated above he caught on to the smell of lure and stuff meaning trap pretty quick. Had the most trouble breaking him off cat sets with beaver, he absolutely loves beaver meat. After I broke him off of lured sets it wasn't hard to train him on blind trail sets. He runs about 20 yards ahead of the 4 wheeler while I'm running Traps and if I see him headed towards a blind set all I have to do is yell "trap!" and he will levitate off the ground and land 3 feet to one side of the trail and keep going.

J C Conner talks about trap line dogs in some of his videos.

The biggest thing to having a good dog is using it. If you go without the dog once you are not helping the dog. You have to give up success to let the dog learn. Once it knows what is going on you will be much more successful than with out it. If you run a dog every day all day, trapping for three to four months when it is turning a year old it will start to have a clue. The more they are used the better they get. Hunting and trapping is the same thing to a dog. Breaking them from getting in traps is easy, let them get in them. I do not think you can start a dog to early. You can let him get whipped to early though.