Expert Dog & Trait Pro Tips

[dapper lily]

Nobody ever says this in their Dog Guides, but the Loving and Sharp traits only help while you're leveling up your dog. After it reaches Level 30, to keep its Bond and Focus status up, you have to Praise and Rest it with the same frequency as if you didn't have them selected - so then those traits are wasted. This is true for all the dogs: Bloodhound, Retriever, and Pointer.

[stiff spire]

The needed intervall of needed praises and feeded treats needs to be increased drastically! It is a tedious micromanagement right now.

Maybe you want to support here #1317790584282284112

[dapper lily]

-For the Bloodhound, the Howl trait is useful to make your dog go from Heel to Idle. They must be in Idle mode to activate Critical Position, which is when they whimper and warn you that you're about to spook an animal. If you go Prone at their warning, the animal will relax and you can continue to get closer (very useful with the Bow).

-Howl is best combined with the 6th Sense trait, which gives them a higher chance to sense when an animal is about to spook. However, 6th Sense is useless if they are in Heel mode because they won't warn you - so be sure to use Howl to put them in Idle before you begin your stealthy approach on an animal you're hunting with the bow.

-The Close trait, which gives them a higher chance to stay close to you, is best combined with Howl and 6th Sense for bow hunting. As you sneak toward an animal, if your dog stays close to you, it has less chance of running freely and alerting the animal you're approaching. Many players don't use their dog during stealthy bow hunting, or they have the dog lie down a long distance from the animal. Close allows you to use the dog to get within bow range more effectively.

[dapper lily]

Let us know what you're learning with the new Expert Dog combinations.

I'm experimenting with different Base/Expert Dogs with Travis, Raven, and Boon

[dapper lily]

Expert Dog & Trait Pro Tips

[dapper lily]

Tracker/Pointer Expert Dog for Pheasants:
-This is working very well for birds, especially pheasants - and it's fun!
-Use Small Game Pointer to walk and stalk for pheasants.
-Follow right behind him when he starts Sneaking.
-Walk, don't run - Crouch as you get close to your Sneaking dog.
-When he signals Critical Position, drop to the ground and wait.
-The birds will relax, and the dog will begin Sneaking again.
-When he signals Pointing, command him to Flush.
-Shoot birds. Tracker Dog helps you find them all - Retriever could work too.

[dapper lily]

An issue with using Pointer/Retriever for pheasants:
-Once you shoot several birds, which can fly off 100m in any direction, the Retriever can be used to collect all of them, but it works best if you stand in place until he brings all of them. Which isn't fun.
-If you continue walking and hunting while the Retriever is collecting, he will drop some birds where you stood when you commanded him to retrieve. He will not pick them up again if commanded.
-By using the Tracker/Pointer, you can follow your Tracker to pick up each pheasant, and continue to hunt and shoot.
-Look at the hunting pressure on your map, go to the center, and tell your Tracker to find them until he says there are no more.

Based on this, I'd recommend Tracker/Pointer over Pointer/Retriever for Pheasants

[dapper lily]

Using a tripod or blind to hunt for birds, and shooting multiple from the same spot:
-The Retriever is the most useful for this type of hunting. He will continue to run out and bring them all to you, until he can't find any more.
-Since you can only have one Expert Dog combination, I'd recommend using the Retriever on it's own for stationary bird hunting, and the Tracker/Pointer for walk and stalk bird hunting.

[simple dagger]

This'll be useful ty :D

[dapper lily]

Bloodhound Traits

Best Bloodhound Traits Highlighted (I'll provide explanations - just ask!)
-Loving vs Shortcut
-6th Sense vs Nosy
-Howl vs Nosier
-Sharp vs Spotted
-Close vs Poop-Dar
-Brave vs Master Tracker

[simple dagger]

which one do you reccomend

[dapper lily]

I edited them to highlight my recommendations

[simple dagger]

what does howl do?

[dapper lily]

The Howl trait is used to make your dog go from Heel to Idle. They must be in Idle mode to activate Critical Position, which is when they whimper and warn you that you're about to spook an animal. If you go Prone at their warning, the animal will relax and you can continue to get closer (very useful with the Bow).

Also, the choices are Howl or Nosier. Nosier allows them to pick up scent from smaller blood clues. But, after tracking thousands of animals with the Bloodhound, I've never lost the trail because of blood clues being too small - so I consider Nosier to be basically useless.

[simple dagger]

could you explain in simpler terms for beginners maybe? and does brave work if im getting attacked by a kangaroo and my dog will scare it away?

[dapper lily]

Brave will make your dog bark and snarl and lunge at an aggressive animal. Most players haven't seen the full effect of Brave, because they only go their most vicious when their Bond is at 3-hearts - Best Friend. My dog has battled and scared off capes, wolves, capercaillies, and a tiger while I was either in the Harvest Screen, or in the locker inside the tent.

Again, the only alternative to Brave is Master Tracker, where your dog has a small chance to find the harvest without following the blood trail - so what? It almost never happens and isn't a big deal when it does, so I consider Master Tracker to be basically useless.

[simple dagger]

thanks alot do you also help with skill points and perk points?

[dapper lily]

You're welcome. No, I haven't looked into Skill and Perk points as much as dog traits

[dapper lily]

The most difficult choice is 6th Sense vs Nosy. It depends on how you hunt - as stated above, 6th Sense increases the distance at which they can detect that an animal is about to spook. It increases the distance from the animal that they can trigger the Critical Position warning, which is great for close-up bow hunting.
Whereas, Nosy increases the distance they can detect a blood clue, from 50m to 60m (found through testing and comparison). Nosy is really only helpful to find the first blood clue, since later blood clues are typically closer together than 50m.

[opal cave]

does the expert dog feature also gives the dog the skills of the trait it learned? for example can the retriver (given the pointer trait ) spot an animal when i have that trait on my pointer?

[dapper lily]

Great question. The base dog, the first one you select, will have all of the trait options (for example, Loving vs Shortcut) that you chose while leveling up the dog. However, the second dog will only have the basic traits that the dog started with when it had zero traits selected.
That means the choice of which dog to make the primary base dog is very important. You have to consider the type of hunting you mainly do, and go from there.
However, I've found that having the Tracker as the base dog, and Pointer as the 2nd, still allows my Tracker to do the basic Pointer actions needed for pheasant hunting.

[opal cave]

okay, would like to see that if you get the dogs second job to level 15 that you can choose one skill exclusive to to the second job (pointer in my case )

[dapper lily]

Yes, I agree and thought the same thing - we already leveled up the 2nd dog, why not allow those traits to continue.

[dapper lily]

Retriever Traits

Best Retriever Traits Highlighted
-Loving vs Strong
-6th Sense vs Quiver
-Howl vs Bold
-Sharp vs Control
-Close vs Webbed Paws
-Brave vs Retriever

Issues with Retriever Traits:
-As with the Bloodhound, Loving and Sharp, which increase Bond and Focus, are only useful until you level up your dog. After they reach Lvl. 30, you must Praise and Rest them with the same frequency as if you didn't have those traits.
-Strong and Bold make the dog less burdened by carrying harvests and they retrieve at longer distances. But, both of these are covered by selecting the Lvl. 30 trait, Retriever, which is a combined trait. It doesn't appear that Strong and Bold and Retriever are additive, so selecting them all is wasting the other traits.
-Close and Webbed Paws is the most difficult. I found that keeping the dog Close makes him more responsive to retrieve commands than if he's running around in Idle mode. But, they do swim a bit faster with Webbed Paws.
-Control makes them go into Heel mode when you fire, so that replaces the need for Close.
-Brave seems less valuable for Retrievers than Bloodhounds when hunting from a fixed tripod, which means you aren't likely to encounter as many aggressive animals walking through the woods.

[dapper lily]

Pointer Traits

Best Pointer Traits Highlighted
-Loving vs Keen Senses
-6th Sense vs Distance Tracker
-Howl vs Ninja
-Sharp vs Light Feet
-Close vs I See You
-Brave vs On The Trail

[stiff spire]

Two question: How is howl more useful than giving the dog more patience especially when he found big game far away?
Why is Light feed not as useful? The dog beginning to sneek earlier is a rather good sign, that you get near an animal.

[simple dagger]

what does howl even do

[dapper lily]

Howl vs Ninja: Ninja allows the Pointer to point to an animal longer before running out of patience. In testing, it's seems to be only a slight increase in time (sometimes not noticeable at all), and he doesn't run out of patience while Pointing if you begin following him as soon as he begins Sneaking. I recommend Howl over Ninja, because Howl is an essential command to control all your dogs. Most players think Howl is just for fun, to make all the dogs in MP howl, which it does. But, Howl lets you end all Active Commands any dog currently has at any time. (Don't know why EW doesn't state that). Also, several dog traits will not automatically activate unless the dog is in Idle mode (e.g., Critical Position). Howl is how you take your dog from Heeling to Idle, at any time. You would have to try it, I guess, to understand why it's so important to handling your dog.

Secondly, I did recommend Light Feet (see above), which allows your Pointer to begin Sneaking farther away from the target animal. It's not very much farther, but I don't recommend the alternative option, Sharp, at all, because Sharp only gives your dog more Focus while it's leveling up, but doesn't help after Lv. 30 (as discussed in the section above).

[stiff spire]

Did you change your posting? I was quite sure, that you had "sharp" in bold letters last time i read your post. That's why I asked about it

[dapper lily]

I highlighted the wrong choice when I first posted, thought I got it before anyone saw

[dapper lily]

Tracker / Pointer searched him out then tracked him down

[teal charm]

Hello, @dapper lily!

Thank you for submitting your feedback. It's a valuable tool in improving the game.

If there is anything else we can assist you with, or have you any other thoughts you'd like to share, please feel free to reach out to us through our support portal. We are just a message away!
https://support.thehunter.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

[wide heath]

What would you way is the best expert trait for each dog?

What should I select for each of my fuzzy buddies.

[dapper lily]

I highlighted traits for each dog above, right under the blue tables of trait options

[dapper lily]

Best Bloodhound Traits
-Loving vs Shortcut
-6th Sense vs Nosy
-Howl vs Nosier
-Sharp vs Spotted
-Close vs Poop-Dar
-Brave vs Master Tracker

Best Retriever Traits
-Loving vs Strong
-6th Sense vs Quiver
-Howl vs Bold
-Sharp vs Control
-Close vs Webbed Paws
-Brave vs Retriever

Best Pointer Traits
-Loving vs Keen Senses
-6th Sense vs Distance Tracker
-Howl vs Ninja
-Sharp vs Light Feet
-Close vs I See You
-Brave vs On The Trail

[alpine parcel]

@dapper lily This thread has great insight into dog training ... much appreciated

[dapper lily]

Took the Pointer to Sundarpatan and found tracks of a male Snow Leopard. Commanded my dog to Point Species, then I just followed the dog and listened to his signals of Sneaking and Critical Position. Crouch at Sneaking and go prone at Critical Position. He got me to within 25yds without spooking the leopard. Cool stuff.

[simple dagger]

awesome!

[stiff spire]

@dapper lily does a high bond make the dog (after leveling up) any more efficient in finding animals e.g. when using it as a pointer? Or does it have no impact and makes petting & feeding almost useless after leveling up?

[dapper lily]

From what I've been able to figure out, a high-bond makes him more responsive to any commands. Also, I saw your message about them not following, and yes mine is doing that too

[stiff spire]

For your guide: Loving: What I noticed this makes sure the bond level does not drop below one heart. Maybe worth mentioning in your guide.

[dapper lily]

So how are your dogs working?

[alpine parcel]

Mine seem to be doing okay except for the following issue which seems to negate the close trait .... Their path finding when following seems to be off in certain circumstances and even on certain maps .....

I haven't been able to nail down exactly what triggers it but they seem to lag behind much further than they did previously .... For example when I'm ready to give a track command I sometimes have to wait a good while and even issue the heel command first to get them to catch up before I can command them to track .....

[dapper lily]

I haven't the used the dog for months, but brought him out to help track in the Mississippi swamps - he spent the entire time hopping along the water, and when we got into the woods he just stood there. Sorry, back in the box, Travis

[steel pine]

lol my dog often gets in the way

[steep flare]

So I mainly use my Pointer to track big game and sometimes small so what’s an easy way the dog can get leveled up by me tracking big game and small game

I do also have the bloodhound so I just am trying to get my pointer leveled up fast so I can get the expert hunting dog

Nvm I found a way thank you

[dapper lily]

One of the quickest ways to level up your Pointer is to always have him tracking big game, even when you're just walking and stalking for anything, but it sounds like that's what you're doing - no matter what, it takes a bit of work and time