Pointer behavior

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jttoo
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Re: Pointer behavior

Post by jttoo »

xOEDragonx wrote:As for the pointer randomly running around while searching, they will search in whatever direction you face.
Wow, how unobservant am I, that I didn't notice or figure this out!! LOL

Hey Hoo! If you catch this thread, the above little tidbit would be a good thing to add to the wiki page on dogs. I read through that whole page and missed this info, if it is there.
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Re: Pointer behavior

Post by curlyCoyote »

jttoo wrote:
xOEDragonx wrote:Hey Hoo! If you catch this thread, the above little tidbit would be a good thing to add to the wiki page on dogs. I read through that whole page and missed this info, if it is there.
And edit the cooldown time for Pointers, level 3 is definitely nowhere close to 60 seconds, it's like 25-30 seconds, most likely 25.
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InvisibleFlame9
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Re: Pointer behavior

Post by InvisibleFlame9 »

My pointer did something similar when told to track rabbit. With mine, being at level 1, she understood command but turned in the opposite direction I was heading and slowly walked. I followed to see where she was going. After about 30m she turned around and came back to me. Other times she did this but would pause and look straight ahead. Is that dog pointing at something? A few of these successful commands advanced my dog to level 3. I also noticed a few times the dog whimper as she was walking with me. What is that?
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jttoo
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Re: Pointer behavior

Post by jttoo »

The pointer will whimper when it detects that you may spook the prey. Either that or it hasn't been fed enough treats! :D
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Re: Pointer behavior

Post by InvisibleFlame9 »

jttoo wrote:The pointer will whimper when it detects that you may spook the prey. Either that or it hasn't been fed enough treats! :D
Yes indeed, the whimper is the dog telling me I'm about to spook animal. And that's becoming more clear to me as I get familiar with dog behavior.

When dog was at level-1, I gave command to search for rabbit and it walked in the opposite direction and then would stop after a short distance of walking. Not sure if there was an animal in those instances.

But now, at level 3, I was walking towards a known cluster area for rabbits and wow! Dog was incredibly helpful as it successfully led me to 2 rabits. By the time the rabbits came into view they were on top of me. It seemed as though the pointer went into detection mode on it's own as I don't remember in that instance commanding him to find anything, but I might have forgotten that a previous command was still in effect.

Dog in detection mode (dog whimpers here):
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Just a few seconds later, we're on top of two rabbits and dog levels up because of this success. Experiencing this help for the first time in the game from the dog was quite a thrill. In this photo I have rabbit jumping straight at me behind the huntermate and the second rabbit hard to see but is on the right side fleeing down into the pit:
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InvisibleFlame9
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Re: Pointer behavior

Post by InvisibleFlame9 »

Something really cool happened after my pointer took me straight to the rabbits in example above. I've never had this happen in my rabbit hunting before without the dog. So when dog took me to the rabbits, we were suddenly on top of them. I pulled out my shotgun and chased one of the fleeing rabbits. Just when I thought I lost that rabbit after running after him about 20 or 30m, I turned around and there was a burrow right there in front of me and three rabbits were running towards that burrow in a nice orderly line. It was a line of rabbits running for the burrow and I was able to pop off a couple of them. Usually I'm waiting and waiting to see the occasional rabbit come out of the burrow. But here I was taken to the best action I've seen at one time with getting to see a line of three rabbits running behind eachother for the same burrow. That was cool! I'm guessing the dog made that possible by getting me to the right place at the best moment?
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xOEDragonx
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Re: Pointer behavior

Post by xOEDragonx »

InvisibleFlame9 wrote:I Gave command to search for rabbit and it walked in the opposite direction and then would stop after a short distance of walking. Not sure if there was an animal in those instances.
I have experienced this. My guess? When you gave the search command, the dog immediately detected a rabbit that was already behind you but running away towards it's burrows, it was just far enough that you couldn't hear or see it. It started to track it then the rabbit exited it's tracking range since it was already fleeing. I can't prove that, but I witnessed such a thing with my low level dog before. It seemed when a fleeing rabbit reached a certain distance, the dog would give up the track.
InvisibleFlame9 wrote:It seemed as though the pointer went into detection mode on it's own as I don't remember in that instance commanding him to find anything, but I might have forgotten that a previous command was still in effect.
The pointer will not go into detection on it's own, but there is an instance where it will stay in detection mode. If you command the dog to point, it points, and you walk within approximately 5m of the dog OR give the dog a treat, the dog will stop pointing (even if the target animal is still right there) and begin meandering.

BUT, if the dog points and you give the dog a wide berth when you walk past it, the dog will continue to point the animal indefinitely. If you shoot the animal, the pointer obviously stops pointing because the animal is now dead. But if you just spook the animal and it runs off, the dog will re-enter the slow walk mode and track the aninal down again to point it automatically. I honestly do not know if the dog gets additional experience for pointing the same animal multiple times without multiple commands. But this tip is exceptionally helpful later on if you use the dog to point big game such as deer or felines. I use it often puma and lynx hunting specifically. Dog detects animal, I visually confirm the animal he's tracking is a cat I'm after, and I take care to stay away from the dog. Even if I keep accidentally spooking the cat again and again, as long as I haven't gotten close to my dog while he's in the pointing mode he will continue to pursue the exact same animal across the map and never exit that track mode (even if another feline enters his tracking bubble as long as you don't call him off the first one, he'll stay after that first one.) This is a nice trick for bow hunting felines or if he points a rare/trophy animal and you spook ot before you get a shot. Just stay away from the dog, don't give any other commands and he will stay on that animal indefinitely.

Note: As I typed the response to the second quote, I realized it sounded contradictory to my response to the first quote. I think the issue with the dog losing the track is due to the low level and therefore small radius of an area it can detect animals in. The higher the dog level, the less that's a concern. With high level dogs that can track deer/felines, they're also likely to have (or are soon to have) the highest level tracking radius. Either that, or maybe the dog needs to actually point the animal at least one time for it to do the indefinite tracking trick. I'll have to experiment with that a bit to see.
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xOEDragonx
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Re: Pointer behavior

Post by xOEDragonx »

InvisibleFlame9 wrote:That was cool! I'm guessing the dog made that possible by getting me to the right place at the best moment?
Actually, the dog helped, but it's not solely responsible for this happening. What happens is the rabbits meander the area within roughly 200m of their burrows. If you shoot while in range of rabbits/burrows (like at a stray rabbit or fox) or run around all over the place, they all run to the holes before you ever see them.

In this case, the dog helped you silently find the holes. You shot when you saw a rabbit at the holes. All the other rabbits meandering in range suddenly realized there was a threat when you shot and ran to their holes... where you already happened to be. You essentially ambushed them as they were running to safety. You could have silently found their holes without the help of the dog and done the same thing, but the dog makes this much easier since you aren't running all around (spooking rabbits...) while looking for holes.
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InvisibleFlame9
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Re: Pointer behavior

Post by InvisibleFlame9 »

Thank you for all your helpful tips Dragon! Especially that one about keeping a distance from dog and allowing him to stay in detection mode when after animal. I'll not forget that. It's not uncommon that we're after an animal and more animals come in while we're still after the one. One of my goals at the moment is bagging my first puma and working on the puma mission pack. After seeing how much of a blast it is to go rabbit hunting with the dog, I can't wait to take her on my puma hunts once she levels up enough.

After reading what you were saying about deactivating dog detection mode if you get to close, I now realize that that's probably what happened when I was following my dog as she turned in opposite direction looking for something in detection mode. When I followed her I think I got too close and then she turns around and walks to me as if giving up on whatever he was doing.
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