Need some clarity about leveling up German Pointer

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InvisibleFlame9
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Need some clarity about leveling up German Pointer

Post by InvisibleFlame9 »

According to the wiki, it says dog gains 20 xp for understanding command to fetch bird and 2 points for understanding all other commands? Is this the way we level up our dogs?

I'm preparing to use my first dog for the first time, a German Pointer, and I'm trying to understand what I need to start leveling up the dog when I take her out on her first hunt with me. I'm planning on hunting Whiteheart Island and taking my dog along with me because I've read in another thread that that's a good place for training dogs at low xp?

German Pointers don't fetch birds do they? Does that mean they can only gain 2 points for commands and not 20 points?

One more question, is the cammo on backpacks and vests for dogs important for stealth the same way it is for the hunter's cloths? How does the dog factor into my ability to not spook animals?
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Brutus969
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Re: Need some clarity about leveling up German Pointer

Post by Brutus969 »

120 pts per successful detection at 200% stamina.

Whitehart is terrible for levelling them as they can only detect turkeys there, and I heard that the turkeys spook from them. Easiest way to level them up is on pheasants or rabbits. I prefer euro rabbits, as you can just camp outside a burrow and spam detect.

As far as know backpack/vest camo is purely cosmetic but the store implies otherwise...

If you are doing treestand hunting, animals are more likely to spook once they get within 30m of you if you have a dog with you, even if the dog is 150m away pointing something (this sucks and should be changed imo).
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xOEDragonx
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Re: Need some clarity about leveling up German Pointer

Post by xOEDragonx »

You level up your dog just by giving it commands. If it fails to understand a command, it gets a miniscule amount of experience. If it successfully understands any basic command (sit, stay, lay down, etc) it gets a small amount of experiencce. If it successfully does the main action it's supposed to do (pointer points, retriever retrieves, scenthound tracks blood) it gets a larger amount of experience. Exactly how much experience they get after a successful command depends mostly on their current stamina level. Using treats early on will help the dog level up faster, but only give it treats after it successfully points while at 200% stamina to get the most experience for your money since the treats have to be bought.

Whitehart would be a terrible place to start training a new pointer. They can only detect turkeys there, and dogs on a turkey hunt just don't work in this game. You need to take it somewhere to hunt rabbits or pheasants. Pheasant hunting in the fields of Hirsch is fun but you do a lot of running around to cover ground between fields, cottontail hunting in the middle of Logger's Point is pretty fun because of the abundance of rabbits, and European rabbit hunting on Bushrangers is fun because of how open the areas with the burrows usually are.

Pointers don't fetch anything.

The backpacks and vests suggest they offer camo, but I've never noticed a difference between a dog wearing the appropriate camo or not. I personally just consider the vests cosmetic, but the packs do have the nice function of your dog being able to carry additional weight for you.

If you give the dog the stay command, it shouldn't spook anything (except turkeys which usually spook 80m+ no matter what stance you or your dog are in). I see people say otherwise on this forum fairly often, but I'm also pretty sure I watch animals trip over my dog while walking to underneath my treestand in most of my hunts. Aside from turkeys, I can't think of a single instance where an animal has spooked from nearby me for any reason other than my own actions while I had a dog with me.
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InvisibleFlame9
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Re: Need some clarity about leveling up German Pointer

Post by InvisibleFlame9 »

Brutus969 wrote:120 pts per successful detection at 200% stamina.

Whitehart is terrible for levelling them as they can only detect turkeys there, and I heard that the turkeys spook from them. Easiest way to level them up is on pheasants or rabbits. I prefer euro rabbits, as you can just camp outside a burrow and spam detect.

As far as know backpack/vest camo is purely cosmetic but the store implies otherwise...

If you are doing treestand hunting, animals are more likely to spook once they get within 30m of you if you have a dog with you, even if the dog is 150m away pointing something (this sucks and should be changed imo).
This was a helpful bit of info especially the point about treestands. Yes that sucks. Now that I know that I'll scratch off taking Artemis (my dog) with me to Whiteheart to setup golden treestand. I don't need her there right now anyway. But thank you for that bit of help! :)

I've found out already that indeed the dogs level up fast in the beginning. Currently I'm still in the middle of our first hunt at Bushrangers and dog is already level-3.

Actually, for our first hunt I took the dog to Bushrangers to help me with hunting row-bit. I sort of have a tendency of chasing squirrels in this game and found myself side tracked tracking down a fox I placed a bad body shot on. After a lots of tracking we were led to a beautiful part of the map I probably wouldn't have explored otherwise - the beach. Once there, I found the critter I was chasing casually strolling the shore like it was on a vacation. That's when I was able to place a nice kill shot and took this family photo :mrgreen:

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InvisibleFlame9
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Re: Need some clarity about leveling up German Pointer

Post by InvisibleFlame9 »

xOEDragonx wrote:You level up your dog just by giving it commands. If it fails to understand a command, it gets a miniscule amount of experience. If it successfully understands any basic command (sit, stay, lay down, etc) it gets a small amount of experiencce. If it successfully does the main action it's supposed to do (pointer points, retriever retrieves, scenthound tracks blood) it gets a larger amount of experience. Exactly how much experience they get after a successful command depends mostly on their current stamina level. Using treats early on will help the dog level up faster, but only give it treats after it successfully points while at 200% stamina to get the most experience for your money since the treats have to be bought.

Whitehart would be a terrible place to start training a new pointer. They can only detect turkeys there, and dogs on a turkey hunt just don't work in this game. You need to take it somewhere to hunt rabbits or pheasants. Pheasant hunting in the fields of Hirsch is fun but you do a lot of running around to cover ground between fields, cottontail hunting in the middle of Logger's Point is pretty fun because of the abundance of rabbits, and European rabbit hunting on Bushrangers is fun because of how open the areas with the burrows usually are.

Pointers don't fetch anything.

The backpacks and vests suggest they offer camo, but I've never noticed a difference between a dog wearing the appropriate camo or not. I personally just consider the vests cosmetic, but the packs do have the nice function of your dog being able to carry additional weight for you.

If you give the dog the stay command, it shouldn't spook anything (except turkeys which usually spook 80m+ no matter what stance you or your dog are in). I see people say otherwise on this forum fairly often, but I'm also pretty sure I watch animals trip over my dog while walking to underneath my treestand in most of my hunts. Aside from turkeys, I can't think of a single instance where an animal has spooked from nearby me for any reason other than my own actions while I had a dog with me.
That was very helpful as the wiki covers a lot but I didn’t understand “how” to level up from the wiki completely. I like your explanation the way you put it and it would be nice if a more detailed explanation was added in the section where it’s talking about “20 xp for the fetching bird....and 2xp for other commands”. I think the part of leveling up which wasn’t clear at first was understanding the differences of “main skills” of the dogs. I’ll have to look again at the wiki.

The dogs in the game are fun and cute. They certainly add a lot of dimension to the experience.
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knott
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Re: Need some clarity about leveling up German Pointer

Post by knott »

Finally got my pointer to level 50. Didn't grind euro rabbits until the last 400 points
Came natural as I was there for the summer mission. Now not sure I will bother with my scent hound would only be for the gm$. I dont really see any shortcut here except bad bodyshots on bison or something...
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ogruls
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Re: Need some clarity about leveling up German Pointer

Post by ogruls »

Easier just putting it on to a crouched pheasant over and over again, bird won't flee will stay crouched get him to point call him off and repeat.
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knott
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Re: Need some clarity about leveling up German Pointer

Post by knott »

European rabbits just go to their holes and the dog can still point. Much easier since the pheasant can decide to fly away :)
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