Blood tracking deer that was shot in the pouring rain

Scott Semrau shared this story and picture with us:

Got a call this week from a guy that shot a buck in the "pouring rain". He had 4 guys helping look for the deer with no luck. He said the blood was all washed away. WRONG! Within 30 yards Buddy showed us the blood was still visible. To the hunters dismay we jumped the buck only 100 yards from the hit site. He could not believe that this buck laid there with 4 guys getting as close as 20 yards before we came out. The hunter said he would never have found this deer because he would not have looked in that area any more. He thought it was in the next woodlot. Another notch on the collar of Festus V Moosbach-Zuzelek SW (Buddy).

Buddy has really opened some eyes, and made some jaws drop this year. Eight years old and still has the drive of a teenager. I think he would track both of us to our deaths if I let him.

Thank you Scott for sharing this story with us and good tracking!

Longhaired and smooth dachshunds can track too!

From time to time people ask us whether only wirehaired dachshunds can be used successfully for tracking. We addressed this question in the past - see http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/2008/10/can-longhaired-and-smooth-dachshunds-be.html.

Rob Miller from Michigan has been very successful tracking with a mini longhaired dachshund Scout. He writes about his blood tracking adventures in his blog http://scouttracker.blogspot.com/ Just last weekend he recovered two deer on one day! Congratulations to you Rob and Scout. Great job!

Rob has just acquired a new puppy that he is going to develop for blood tracking. It is a standard smooth dachshund bred out of European hunting bloodlines by Sian Kwa from North Carolina. More information about the litter that Rob's pup comes from can be accessed here.

Jim Mayer from Michigan has a year old pup bred by Sian, and Dozer found his first deer two weeks ago. Dozer is showing a very good potential, and Jim is proud of his dog who recently was able to advance a difficult trail with almost no blood. You can read about Jim and Dozer's tracking at http://yooperstracking.blogspot.com/

Patt Nance reports that longhaired standard male Odin out of her breeding, who is owned by Stan & Alecia Wenner of North Carolina, is also a successful blood tracker. Pictures of his finds are posted on Patt's website at http://www.fieldworthy.com/Dorndorf_News.html

It is not the type of coat that matters but what kind of blood lines a dachshund comes from. You maximize your chance of getting a good blood tracker when your puppy comes from hunting bloodlines selected for working attributes and functional conformation over many generations.

This year's first recovery for Jim Mayer's Dozer

Video of Doc, a young blood tracking dachshund from Alabama

Stanley Thrasher from Alabama asked his friend to make a video of his young blood tracking dachshund Doc. Doc's registered name is Pushkin v Moosbach-Zuzelek and he is seven and a half months old.

Blood tracking dogs in the media - two recent articles

In the last month two good articles on blood tracking dogs came out in the hunting publications.

The first one "Using Dogs to Recover Game" was written by Michael Bartz and was published in the October 16, 2009 issue of Wisconsin Outdoor News. It was interesting to read about author's first hand experiences in tracking wounded game with his Drahthaar Gus. The article emphasized legalities of blood tracking in Wisconsin where "though it is illegal to hunt deer or spring turkeys with a dog, dogs may be used to recover game as long as the dog is on a leash and no weapons are possessed." I found the article very well written and very informative. It mentioned United Blood Trackers (http://www.unitedbloodtrackers.org/) with its state-by-state listing of available trackers, and I know that Wisconsin trackers have experienced a big spike in calls from hunters. Many thanks to Michael Bartz for a much needed publicity given to blood trackers. And a big thank you to Larry Gohlke, a Wisconsin veteran blood tracker, for sending us a copy of the article.

The second article, "The Nose Knows" by John E. Phillips was published in the December issue of Petersen's Bowhunting. It was fascinating to learn how tracking dogs are used at Tara Wildlife, a huge bow-hunting only property in Mississippi and Louisiana. Phillips writes "Tara has a strict policy of using dogs to follow up on every single shots clients take. During the 2008-2009 deer season, Tara's tracking dogs helped recover 64 bucks and 36 does." Then, he goes into the details how Tara's tracking dogs (only Labs are used) are actually trained and handled on calls. Great reading! Thank you John for mentioning our book and for online extra Deer Tracking Dogs in the North.

Interview about Deer Search and blood tracking dogs

Few days ago Gary Huber and Kevin Armstrong were interviewed on Deer Search, Inc. for the weekly Internet broadcast at www.huntfishnyoutdoors.com. The interview will broadcast in two parts. Part 1 on 11/13/09 and part 2 on 11/20/09. Make sure you don't miss it!

Thanks Kevin for the info.

Introducing FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst, wirehaired dachshund from Germany

In June 2008 we imported two young puppies from Germany at the same time - Joeri vom Nonnenschlag and Tom vom Linteler-Forst. Joeri has been one of the most precocious dogs we have worked with, and we have written about him extensively. It is time to introduce Tommy.

Tom vom Linteler-Forst was bred by Dieter Engel from Coburg, Germany. We have known Dieter and his wife Dr. Marlies Müller (von Rauhenstein kennel) for many years. They both are exceptionally accomplished breeders of standard wires, and dogs of their breeding are universally recognized for their superior quality. Tommy's pedigree (see below) is a mixture of German and Scandinavian bloodlines. He is a grandson of famous Revestreken's Frikk.

Tommy is a very outgoing, friendly, affectionate and intelligent dog. His conformation is impressive, and at the spring NATC Zuchtschau he was rated vorzüglich (Excellent). His wirehaired coat is ideal with thick undercoat and harsh, wiry topcoat. He weighs around 9kg (20 lbs) and his chest circumference is 43cm.

Few weeks ago Tommy finished his AKC Field Championship with two first places and one second. He has a very strong hunting drive and opens freely on live game such as rabbits. His nose is powerful, and he trails rabbits fast. Last summer he showed us good aggressiveness towards woodchucks when he was confronted by one.

Tommy has showed good potential for blood tracking on artificial blood lines but this current tracking season is going to be his first in the field. We will know much more about his aptitude for natural blood tracking in a couple of months.

Tommy has a strong, beautiful head with a very nice beard.

Two gut-shot deer recovered by Karma in one morning

Kevin Armstrong with Karma (recovery #4 above, recovery #5 below)

Karma has had a red letter morning on 11/8/09; in the evening of 11/7 I had two calls at home from hunters who believed they had paunch shot deer. I advised both to leave the deer alone over night and that I would meet the first hunter at day light. Thank goodness both hunters followed my advise and did not disturb the deer.

We found 2009/4 (trail 18) in less than 15 minutes, about 200 yards from the hit location. As soon as the deer was tagged Karma and I were off to Canandaigua for trail 19/2009. That deer was a bit more difficult due to the very thick swamp cover but it was still an easy recovery, less than 400 yards from the hit site. That deer was not bloated at all, indicating that the deer had been alive most of the night.

Karma and I had our celebration at Dunkin Donuts by 9:00 AM!

It doesn't get much better than this for a deer tracking team. It is so nice when the hunter listens to our advise.

This is Karma's 4th tracking season. I know better than to brag on my dog during hunting season but I have so much faith in her at this point that I rarely doubt her. It is a joy to see this wonderful little dog blossom into a first rate tracking dog.

First blood tracking season for young dogs and puppies

There is no better way to train a pup or a young blood tracking dog than to take her on easy tracks of real wounded deer. We have already had a number of posts on this topic this year:
http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/2009/10/training-young-or-inexperienced.html
http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/2009/10/working-with-young-blood-tracking-dog.html

Below are the examples of young dogs and puppies working in the field:


Chris Barr from Indiana wrote a week ago:

Today I shot a small buck and as luck would have it, it only ran about 40 yards before going down. I wanted another good training track for Gerti so while my buddy went to my house to pick up Gerti and my tracking gear, I took some of the blood that I collected from the deer when I gutted it and extended the blood trail another 80 yards or so in the direction the deer came from. Gerti didn’t seem to mind that the blood track started 80 yards prior to the hit site, she was just tickled to have another deer to maul. It was 9th natural track, 3rd deer to chew.

***

Kyle Stiffler from Michigan has a young puppy Misty (Berta v. Pfauenbrucke bred by Andy Bensing) and you can see her working an easy track here. His more experienced tracking dog is two and a half years old Moose (Moose v Moosbach-Zuzelek).

Kyle says: The track in the video was only 2 hrs old & about 150 yards long. Fortunately for me the heart shot was not a challenge. But she followed it with very good accuracy & she loved the find. She knows when it is tracking time as does Moose when ever I put on my tracking pants. She even got another track for me last night, also an easy track with too much blood. She has worked 7 tracks so far.

Misty is a sweetheart with a very good tracking drive. It is great having an opportunity to only track her on found deer as Moose tackles the hard tracks. We have been having alot of fun with a new baby in the house. Although sometimes the extra energy at bed time is a little too much.

Kyle, Kelli, Misty and Misty's buck

Joeri recovers two more deer for hunters in the Capital District

Joeri continues to do well. The two pictures below show the deer that he found today for Edward Maynard of Scotia, NY. This was a large six pointer. The blood trail was 15 hours old, and the hunter managed to track the deer for 100 yards. Joeri advanced it for another 350 yards. The deer was found dead at the end of the light blood trail.

Joeri tracked this spike on November 1 in suburban woods for 0.6 mile (according to GPS). The deer was stomach-shot, and the trail was four hours old when Joeri started to track. The buck was jumped several times and he circled repeatedly in small area. John had to put the deer down.

James and Aspen, a blood tracking team from Montague, Texas

When Carl Eisenhard, DVM, from Springville, NY bred his wirehaired dachshund Blue Hill Alice to our Billy, one of the puppies Blue Hill Aspen went to a blood tracking home in Texas. James Willard from Montague, just a short distance north of Dallas, has been tracking with Aspen for the last two years.

Recently we received two pictures of the deer Aspen recovered.



In James' words: The doe was bow shot, the arrow hit the opposite shoulder so there was not an exit hole, despite the large hole in the top of her back there was almost no blood. The track was about 3.5 hours old. I had to let Aspen find a starting point herself and then she went straight to it. The doe had traveled about 100 yards.

The buck was shot by a 10 year old boy on youth weekend. His dad called and told me the story. I thought we should wait a while so we started tracking about 3:30 that evening. The buck had been rifle shot that morning about 7:30 am. The dad was 100% sure the buck had gone to the South across a large opening. Aspen found the buck in the worst brier patch I have ever been in. The buck had gone a short ways to the South and circled back to the North. The track was just a couple hundred yards long but this buck would have definitely not have been found with out Aspen

James can be reached at jwill.bowhunter@yahoo.com

Karma recovers a gut-shot deer for Kevin Armstrong

At 8 AM on 11/5/09 I had a good shot at a nice doe and took it. The hit looked good; low in the ribs. The deer left tail low at a hard run. After 1/2 hour I got out of the stand and followed a fair blood trail for 80 yards to where I found my arrow. To my surprise there was paunch material on the arrow shaft so I backed out for the day. At home there was a call from a neighbor that he had a buck hit in the shoulder. Though all evidence indicated a shoulder hit the hunter was positive he had killed the deer and would not believe the evidence. Trail #15 of the season ended with a frustrated hunter and a tracker frustrated with the hunter.

At 4 PM, in a freezing drizzle, after an 8 hour wait, I took up the trail (#16/2009) of my deer. Karma took me 300 yards where we jumped the three other deer that had been traveling with my doe. We cruised through the bedding area to a deep gully where, thinking she was tracking the healthy deer, I pulled her off and took her back to the first 80 yards of marked trail. This time she followed the same trail to the deep gully. Grudgingly I followed Karma's insistent advise and there in the bottom of the gully was our deer, still alive, but very sick. I dispatched the deer and the celebration began. I wish I had a better photo but I guess this the best an excited old, worn out, sweated up, hunter in a gully bottom, in the freezing rain can do.

Some times Karma has to track one for The Gipper.

Kevin

Two finds for Jake owned by Bill Siegrist, NY

Jake with the doe he found. Below picture includes the hunter Jake recovered the doe for.

Bill Siegrist, a longtime member of Deer Search and chairman of its Blood Tracking Committee, has been tracking for the last seven years with Jake (Drake von Moosbach-Zuzelek), a son of Alfi and Vamba. Bill just retired after a forty-year-career as City of Poughkeepsie Detective - click here to read more about it.

His e-mail brought the pictures and this info:

Attached are a couple of photos of a 105lb Doe Jake found 10/24/09. Jake also found a 135lb 6 pointer this morning. The hunter shot it at 445pm 11/2 and we started out at 6:30am this morning and Jake made short work of it.

Bill - congratulations on the fine recoveries and best wishes for a happy and very active retirement!

Great week for Joe and Doc, a blood tracking team from Indiana

Joe Walters and his two and a half years old tracking dog Doc (Magnum von Moosbach-Zuzelek) had a good week and recovered two deer. The picture below shows the buck recovered on November 3. What a great shot! Thanks Joe for sending it to us.

"Yesterday morning Doc located his third find on a buck after making a loss and me having to take him back to last blood. Track without loss would have been about 1/4 mile. I have to slow him down. He works entirely too fast."

The other buck was recovered on October 29 and this is what Joe wrote:

"I got a call at 7pm from the same two guys that I tracked for before. A Rage broadhead pass through on lungs and the deer went 200 yds. Doc tracked it out of weed field across cut beans into a woods and found it. I'll send you some pics later. I couldn't believe the deer could go that far with such a big hole through it's chest. The entrance was small but the exit hole was two inches. More blood the last five yds that on the entire track. In fact I only saw blood once before we got real close. I was looking down at rope on ground to see which way Doc went and told hunter that deer was headed back out to bean field when I spotted deer with Doc latched onto it. Good boy."

As you can see from the pictures Doc wears Garmin Astro and Ruffwear harness when is tracking.

Joe asked how to slow Doc down as his tracking speed is excessive. First, a dog has to be trained to "slow" down away from any tracking situation. Just like you would not start to teach your dog to sit when he is busy tracking you would not start training him to slow down in such a situation. The command "slow" or "easy" has to be first introduced when you heel your dog on a regular leash, and then set-by-step progressively implemented into more complicated situations.

Gunner from Quebec recovers a paunch-shot deer

Gunther's brother, Gunner, has been doing really well during his first tracking season in Quebec. The picture shows the paunch shot buck recovered by Gunner last week. The buck was shot at 7 am and was recovered at 12:45 pm; the length of the track was 275 meters. The buck had to be put down, which according to the regulations has to be done by the hunter. Gunner's owner Guy Marcoux-Filion wrote that if he were able to do it, the buck would have been put down at 10:30 am, when the deer was jumped. When that happened, Guy backed off and resumed tracking at 12:30 pm.

Gunther's long track - blood tracking in the water

We have some serious catching up to do here, but thankfully got a lot of stories and pictures to post. Let's start with the track submitted by Don Dickerson from Michigan. This is his first tracking season with Gunther, a seven month old son of Billy and Gilda.

"Jolanta,

I wanted to fill you in on a very long track that Gunther and I went on yesterday. I was so impressed with him I just have to tell you and John the story, and because he is the product of your kennel I want you and John to know what an awesome job he did.

I got a call from a good friend yesterday morning. He said he had hit a very nice buck with a bow in the morning at about 9:30 am. He said that he found part of his arrow at the hit site and good blood. He tracked the deer about 20 yards, made sure he had good blood and then backed out. His plan was to go home for 2 hours and then come back and track. I told him to please stay off the blood trail and if he did not find the buck within the first 200 yards to call me right away and I would bring Gunther out and track. Well, I got a call about 2 hours later, my friend had jumped the buck about 60 yards into the track. He backed away again and called me.

The conditions were dry, warm and breezy, so I told him we should wait a couple of more hours and then start tracking with Gunther. I met my friend at the site at about 2 pm. Gunther immediately picked up the trail and we tracked for about 200 yards before we again jumped the buck. There was good blood in places but not great blood. It was bright red, but no bubbles. The hunter was thinking he hit the deer high. Although we were pushing the deer, the decision was made to keep tracking because of the warm dry and breezy conditions and the fact there was not a lot of blood. We were also convinced the deer was not gut shoot, so the track was on. Gunther took us through several very large corn fields, a bean field, small swamps, woodlots, across a road and through and over just about every type of terrain possible. Together and with the help of other people to sight blood we were able to solve many stalled points where there was very little or no blood.

There were several times when I doubted Gunther was on the track, but I trusted him and his nose was confirmed over and over again by drops of blood on the trail. We tracked over 3 miles! It took almost four hours to cover. We finally came to some water, it was a very shallow pond/swamp, about 1 ft deep with a mucky bottom, there was no blood leading up to the water, only Gunther's nose. He looked at me and jumped into the very muddy slimy pond, he sat in the water looking at me as if to say "..are you coming or not?"

At this point I did not know if he was even on the track, jumping in the water seemed very unusual for him because to be honest he is not that crazy about getting wet. He doesn't like going out in the rain and when I had him in the pool this summer he worked very hard to dry himself off after getting out of the water. Although he doesn't seem to mind getting wet when he is tracking in wet grass. So, when he jumped in the muddy stagnant water I knew something was up, but I was finding it hard to believe he could track the buck through water.

Gunther seemed to know what he was doing....and I trusted him. Once I found a place I could cross without getting too wet he continued to lead me across the narrow pond/swamp to the other side. At this point he starting pulling hard on the lead again, there was still no visible blood and we were now in hard woods, heavy dry leaves covered the woods floor. About 80 yards or so into the woods I started to doubt he had tracked the buck through the open water, but at that very time I began to doubt him I looked down and saw good blood again! I yelled to the hunter and another friend that was with us that I had blood, they had gone in another direction not believing that Gunther had tracked the buck through the water. One of my friends was standing next to Gunther when he had jumped in the water, when this friend walked up and saw the blood he said something I will never forget "..regardless of how this turns out and even if we don't find the buck....he (Gunther) has made a believer out of me." We were all amazed that he actually tracked the buck through the open water, it made the hair stand up on my arms I was so proud of my dog. We continued on another 100 yards or so and jumped the buck a third time in very very heavy cover. After searching for another 90 minutes, finding the blood trail again and the buck going through some more water we lost the trail.

The entire track was over 3 miles, through every terrain you can imagine, including water and it took over 5 1/2 hours. Gunther never gave up. My little almost 7 month old tracker was exhausted and so were the rest of us. I am so darn proud of him as are all of my friends. We didn't find the buck, which was still going strong after 3 miles, but we had a memorable day of tracking, one that I won't ever forget."

Dachshund puppies bred for blood tracking

If you are looking for a blood tracking prospect, there are two litters of puppies sired by our Billy (FC Billy von Moosbach-Zuzelek, SchwhK, Wa.-T, BHP1, BHP2, BHP3). Our website has not been updated with most current info, but you can read about Billy on this blog here. Both females go back to our bloodlines.

One litter is located in South Carolina - Elka vom Klaren Bach whelped two boys and one girl on September 26. More information about this litter is posted here. Contact directly Dean and Millie Davenport at millie@innova.net or 864-617-3684.

The second litter is located in Massachusetts and is out of Perfect Tilly. More details about this breeding are posted at http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/2009/07/upcoming-litter-of-blood-tracking.html For more information about the pups contact Jeff Springer directly at jeffspringerdvm@hotmail.com or 978-852-2809.

The pictures show Tilly with her puppies:

Working with a young blood tracking dog

John Gereau is Managing Editor for Denton Publications, and he is based in Westport, NY. You can read about him and his wirehaired dachshund Cedar here.

Cedar was born in June 2008 so she is still a very young dog. She was bred by Dale Clifford, and is out of "Sabrina" (Jessie von Moosbach-Zuzelek) and a wirehaired male imported from Poland Henri Anons.

John wrote in his recent e-mail: "After half a dozen unsuccessful calls & much encouragement from Dale Clifford out in Hamburg, we located our first deer Oct. 16 and then another small deer that had been gut shot with a muzzleloader on Oct. 22."

John Gereau and Cedar - a tracking team from the Adirondacks

The correspondence that we get from new handlers shows how easy it is to get discouraged when you start with a young pup. Some deer are not mortally wounded and even the most talented and experienced dog is not going to recover them. Don't evaluate your dog by the number of recoveries but by the effort and quality of her work. Blood tracking dogs get better with maturity and experience, and what you see in their first or second tracking season is just a glimpse of their potential. Be patient.

We discussed this topic on our borntotrack yahoo group and this is what Kevin Armstrong from Deer Search wrote to a new handler with young pup:

My experience with hunting dogs boils down to one simple principal: If you want a good hunting dog hunt him a lot. You can bet that a 6 month old pup who has not found a deer yet is going to screw up. She will screw up quite a bit the first year or two.You'll have to get used to it and not let it bother you too much. Do as you are doing. Try to learn from the experience. My experience with these Billy/Gilda bitches is that they are hard headed and self willed. The night time woods is full of wonderful scent of all kinds of creatures that she would like to meet. Finding deer by following the body and blood scent may have not even clicked in her head yet. She wants to follow the coon scent and the skunk scent and the healthy deer scent. That is the most natural thing in the world. Be happy that she wants to follow scent. You know she is following animal scent by the way she is pulling you. You know that the fake blood trail is just an exercise with her by the way she does not pull like that on a training line. She is just like my dog. Karma could care less about an artificial line. She will follow it because she knows I want her to but her little heart is just not in it. On a real deer trail she pulls as you so aptly put it "like a plow horse". Don't worry, it will click but it will take some time.

I whole heartily agree that she needs trails with dead deer at the end. I grill the hunter mercilessly before I take a call. I only take calls where I feel there is a fair chance to find a dead deer or where the hunter is so sick from wounding a deer that I follow the deer till I (we) jump it and the hunter can see that he (she) has not damaged the deer very much. In Deer Search we send new dogs and new handlers out on any call that comes up just so they can get experience. It is a good thing. After a dozen trails or so and the new handler becomes certified he can pick and choose his trails as he sees fit. As a result Karma did not get a recovery until the third trail she took. Even though she was with an experienced tracking dog, a Master Handler, and a couple of highly experienced deer hunters we still did not get the 16 hour old trail of a gut shot buck figured out until the second restart. After that she had a couple of set-up kills and a few more trails with unrecovered deer until at 7 months old she made her first solo find. Payday!

In theory this work is a piece of cake. We take the dog to a few drops of blood and expect it to lead us over hill and dale to a dead deer. Fact is that it is never anywhere near that easy. Even a seeming slam dunk is rarely a slam dunk. It is really hard work to recover several deer in a season. Really hard!

I advise that at the first opportunity to get her some set-up kills that you take her out to them. When she finds the deer let her maul the deer till she works herself into a frenzy and you can hardly pull her off. Hold her back but let her stay with her prize while the deer is being dresses and pulled out of the woods. Tell her what a good girl she is. Make sure she knows that this is what you want her to do. She will take it from there.

Bottom line is you have an inexperienced puppy who doesn't yet know what her role in life is. She needs experience, the more the better, and the handler needs patience, the more the better. With ample experience and patience you two are going to be a great tracking team before you know it.

A blood trail that ended with a gut pile

Yesterday we drove to Delanson, NY to track a buck for a hunter who hunted on the property, which is familiar to us. This is where Sabina recovered a wounded deer three years ago. The place is loaded with coyotes, and we have noticed three or four of them in the field on our way there.

We were greeted by Chuck (hunter) and his friend Don. It was a beautiful day - sunny, warm with the temperature in the low 60s.

Chuck and Don followed a very sparse blood trail for 1/4 mile. The hunter thought that the buck was liver hit, and we decided to use both dogs Billy and Joeri.

This time I decided to use our GPS and brought along a camera as well. The cover was incredibly thick with shrubs and wild grapevine, difficult to penetrate, and we put dogs on the last blood that hunters could find the night before. It was a difficult start and dogs made two small loops without finding more blood. Joeri was searching very well, and I decided to re-start him. This time he veered a bit to the right where we found "new" blood! I asked Don who was behind me to mark it with orange biodegradable tape. Joeri started to pull strongly, and I knew that now he was locked on the deer. John and I decided that I and Joeri should proceed in the lead. We tracked at a steady pace for almost two hours. We knew that we were tracking the right deer as occasional drops of blood confirmed the trail. This was not a liver hit deer. The blood was bright red, and we also found quite a few smears on a waist-high grass. This deer never bedded and was not getting any weaker. Finally after 1.6 miles (according to the GPS) Don and I decided to terminate the track.

Joeri did an incredible job on this 15 hour old trail. He checked himself two or three times but basically he was on the blood line for its entire length. He is very easy to handle as he does not pull too strongly. He is also easy to read when he loses the trail and frantically wants to recover it. He also proved to be very responsive. There were times that we had to crawl on our knees and elbows, and at one time I dropped the leash. Joeri was moving ahead, but when I called him, he stopped and waited for me to catch up.

It was a difficult decision to terminate the track because Joeri was still tracking the deer and we were seeing occasional droplets. He really wanted to continue, and when I stopped him he whined with frustration. I tried to reassure him that he did a great job but we tracked "enough". Little we knew what was waiting ahead.

The pictures show blood droplets on the leaves when we terminated the track.

Don and I were a long way from our cars, and we had to find our way back. Chuck and John with Billy decided not to follow us half-way through as the cover was so thick and Joeri was doing a great tracking job by himself. No more than 30 yards from where I had picked Joeri up, we stumbled upon a gut pile. Could it have been from the deer that we tracked? Possibly but not likely. The pile was not hot fresh, probably several hours old, and Joeri was not that interested in it. We felt that we were pushing "our" deer ahead.

Anyway, Joeri and I had a great time tracking, and hunters were very appreciative of what we have done. Their deer either is going to live or it ended up shot by another hunter. We will never know for sure.

Jolanta with Joeri

Kevin and Karma - Deer Search at its best

Gunn, Kevin Armstrong & and his wirehaired dachshund Karma pose with Karma's first recovery of 2009 and with Gunn's first DSI recovery. Kevin and Karma took seven trails this week until we finally got a reward for our efforts. Eventually they jumped all the deer on the other six trails. Only one of them seemed to have a serious wound. They all earned this one!

Below is the second recovery of the season celebrated by Karma and her sister Effie.

Scout, a longhaired mini dachshund, recovers a giant buck in Michigan

Rob Miller from Michigan found this huge trophy buck with his mini dachshund Scout. Congratulations to all involved!

Rob writes:

Frank from Marshall shot this huge 11 pointer at a distance of 20 yards. The buck took one step forward during the shot so the buck got hit far back in the paunch. Frank was shooting carbon arrows and using muzzy 100 gr. heads.

After the shot Frank got sick so he had his brother-in-law Bill come in to track the buck. Bill did a great job tracking him a total distance of 350 yards. Once Bill lost the blood trail he called looking for some help. I drove about 1 hour and 50 minutes to the farm in Marshall. In the meantime it rained during the day on and off pretty good. We started Scout at the shot site and Scout did pretty well considering this place was infested with deer and lots of big bucks. Scout was able to find a wounded deer bed where Bill jumped a nice buck from this area but he didn't feel it was Frank's deer. After Scout made it to the last known spot of blood he started out in to a pasture with tall weeds. At this point all the blood was washed away from the rain and no canopy from above to preserve any visible blood for me to see while tracking. We jumped 3-4 doe and one nice buck out in the pasture grass so I thought Scout was going to start following them but he was locked on this GIANT buck and 150 yards farther we were jumping and hugging for joy. Mike and Bill did a GREAT job helping Scout and me. They listened and followed my instructions perfectly which helped me exercise my tracking abilities. The total distance this buck went was about 650 yards and the scent line was about 9 hours old. Thanks for all the help I received from a great bunch of hunters. Without your help things might not have gone as well as this track went.

Trust your dog?

posted by John Jeanneney

I like these stories about the good things that happen when you trust your dog. Almost always I will take my dog’s opinion about where the deer went before I blindly trust a hunter. I still don’t understand how hunters can be wrong so often. You have to be diplomatic and let the dog, not you as handler, point out his mistake.

But even dogs have their limitations; even a dog can make a mistake, and this is especially true for young dogs. Don’t blindly trust your dog for 100s of yards; keep looking for that speck of blood to confirm your trust. And read your dog.

I remember when Sabina tracked a bear from the hit site for a half mile. Then she gave me a look that said, “This isn’t the right bear.” We went back to the hit sight and this time she took a line in another direction….to the right bear.

Chris Barr from Indiana send us this report from his last deer call. He is tracking with Gerti (Gwen von Moosbach-Zuzelek), a six and a half month old daughter of Billy and Gilda.

"Saturday night we finally got the call we'd been waiting for. The hunter, a good buddy, was sure he had a double lung on a broad side deer 15 yds away. Shooting from a tree stand the hunter was sure entry was high on right side and anticipated exit low on left side. We gave the deer almost 3 hours before getting to the hit site. The deer took off to the south in standing corn after the shot. The only blood was about elbow high on corn leaves on the right side of the row. We found about 10 inches of the fletched end of the arrow shaft at the hit site.

Gerti and I took off on the track with her pulling hard. We went about 220 yards when the deer left the row and we lost the blood. The hunter was "100% sure" that he heard the deer go to the right towards the middle of the field while he was still on stand after the shot. We marked the point of loss and the 2 hunters started fanning the rows to the right. I backed Gerti up 20 yards or so on the known track and let her go again. This time at the point of loss she turned hard left and headed out of the corn. Did I mention that the hunter had said that he was "100% sure" that he'd heard the deer make a right turn?

Anyway, Gerti was pulling as hard as ever when I found a drop of blood on a corn leaf as we were leaving the field. When I found a spot of blood on the leaves about 10 yards into the woods I called the hunters over. This was the last visible blood. Gerti took us another 50 or so yards into the woods right to the deer.You can imagine my excitement. Some things I was happy about first of all was that the only visible blood in the corn was about 3 feet above Gerti's head. As we found out later, there was no exit hole!!! Surely there was some blood on the ground but you couldn't see it so I give Gerti some props for that.

Second, Gerti took the track the polar opposite direction out of the corn than the hunter swore he heard the deer run. This point I must gloat about for a second. My buddy was afraid that Gerti was destroying evidence at the point of loss by winding up the corn leaves with her leash. The second time he voiced his disapproval over this it kind of ticked me off which is why I picked her up and backed up the known line and re-started her. He's a very accomplished hunter but he lacks much confidence in Gerti, at least before tonight. I'm not sure what puzzled him more, the fact that he was wrong, or that Gerti was right?? He'll never tell.I feel that we'd have found this deer eventually without a dog but Gerti definitely found it first and much more quickly than we would have, so I'm calling it a find.

Chris Barr with Gerti and a doe she found

Don Dickerson from Michigan shared another story along the theme "trust your dog". Don is tracking with Gerti's brother, Gunther.

"I got a call from a good friend on Tuesday morning. He had hit what he described as a very nice big buck at 8 am Tuesday morning. The shot was 35 yards with a crossbow. He thought he had hit the deer to far back, no lungs but also had what he described as a lot of dark blood and was almost sure had hit the liver. He tracked the blood for 300 yards before losing it and called me.

I wanted to get tracking right away because the weather was suppose to get dry, hot and windy, not good tracking weather at all. I left the office and drove home and picked up Gunther (6 1/2 mo Billy/Gilda pup). Gunther picked up the blood trail right away and tracked the first 300 yards right to the spot where the blood trial was lost by the hunter. My buddy was amazed at how fast Gunther and I got there, he said it took him and another guy 45 minutes to track what Gunther did in about 10 minutes.

There where no bubbles in the blood, the blood was fairly dark and there was a fair amount of blood, but it tapered off quickly after the first 300 yards. I was convinced and convinced my buddy that it was not a liver shoot, the deer just went to far for it to be hit in the liver. Gunther veered to the North across a short grass open field, not on a deer trail, although there were several trails crossing at the last blood sight. All of the heavy cover was to the South of the last blood. We were all convinced that the deer had to have gone to the South towards the heavy cover and not crossed the open field where Gunther was taking us. But I allowed him to go that way about 100 yards or so past a small bush, right up to 3 coyote dens! At that point I was convinced that he was on the coyote track and not the deer, having seen no blood and not being on a deer trail, so I pulled him off the line and took him back to last blood at the 300 yard mark and started him again, only to have him take the same line right past the bush right up to the coyote dens again.

At this point, thinking we were all smarter than the dogs nose, I took Gunther down into the South swamp, after finding nothing after an or so search I took him back to the 300 yard mark and he again took the line to the small bush right by the coyote dens.....and low and behold this time we found a small drop of blood on a piece of grass next to the bush right by the coyote dens! Guess what? We were wrong and Gunther's nose was right! "Trust your dog...trust your dog...trust your dog" I have read it over and over in John's book and on these blogs....now I will...trust my dog. I let Gunther continue on the line up a hill down a deer trail and guess what? More blood about 200 yards further, Gunther was right on.

To make a long story short, Gunther tracked the buck over 1/2 mile, and the buck did eventually go to a swamp and near a creek. We lost all sight of blood and after about 5 1/2 hours of tracking at 3 pm, after looking in all the swamps and bedding areas, the weather now hot, dry and windy, we called the search but also now convinced that the buck was not mortally wounded. I at one point found a fair amount of muscle tissue, I am convinced the shot was high on the deer, likely not hitting any vitals. John says"...the next best thing to not finding a hunter's deer is being able to assure him/her that the deer is alive and will likely live". Thus, although we did not find the buck, the hunter was happy to know it was still alive, Gunther got a lot of valuable tracking time and he never gave up and I learned a valuable lesson....TRUST YOUR DOG!!!!!

No deer at the trail end but a good learning experience for Joeri

We took this deer call last Tuesday, on October 20. Dick F. shot a six point buck on Monday morning and spent all day following and marking a sparse blood trail. He called us on Monday afternoon but John was already out on his second call of the day. Unfortunately there was nobody else available. It was a long drive for us as West Sand Lake is 50 miles from where we live.

By the time we got there the blood trail was 26 hours old; the day was dry and cloudy, around 50F. The hunter managed to track the deer for around 1000 yards. He thought that the deer was chest shot.

John took Joeri on this call, and I went with them to take some pictures. Below is a pictorial report documenting the track.



Above - when walking up to the hit site Joeri is always on a regular leash. The tracking collar and leash are put on the dog when he is supposed to start tracking.

Above - the tree stand from which Dick arrowed the buck.

Below - the ground in these hardwoods was covered with dry leaves and spotting blood on the red speckled leaves was a challenge.

Below - Dick did absolutely an outstanding job when he marked the trail with orange biodegradable tape.

Above - at the hit site John puts a tracking collar on Joeri.

Joeri followed the marked trail very well, and we could see some blood throughout the trail. The blood was dry as this trail was old.

Joeri is a careful tracker whose tracking speed is just right - not too fast and not too slow. This was a very difficult track for him, and we could see it by watching his body language.

There were several spots with more blood as shown on the picture below.

It took Joeri 45 minutes to get through first 1000 yards of the trail that was marked. This was a good training experience for Joeri. When the blood stopped, Joeri took us down the hill across the road onto a new property whose owners Dick did not know.

When we picked up Joeri 200 yards after the last blood, we did not know whether Joeri was on the right trail or not as we could not verify it. There was no blood, no beds and no other sign of the wounded buck.

It took us at least 30 minutes to get back to Dick's cabin. It is always disappointing when a wounded deer is not recovered. John wrote on his tracking report: "I doubt that a mortally wounded, chest-shot deer could have gone this far".

We enjoyed the time we spent with Dick, who is a very interesting person (and a very conscientious hunter). This is always an extra bonus when you track for other hunters. You get to meet people from all walks of life, and there is an element of adventure involved.

Tracking season starts well for Cabela, a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

We got this picture and e-mail from a friend of ours Joe Burns from Ravena, who is also a member of Deer Search. He tracks with his young Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Cabela.

This is a picture of the deer I shot on Saturday afternoon at 4:45 pm. After the shot the deer took off and because it is so thick, I didn't know which way it ran. After 15 minutes I got out of the tree stand and checked for my arrow. No arrow and no visible blood. At that point with it starting to get dark I called Teri to bring out Cabela. At 6:15 pm I brought Cabela to the hit sight, the first thing she did was locate my arrow which was a clean pass through. After I put a tracking collar on her, she went to the left through the thick brush. In my mind as the hunter I thought for sure the deer went to the right. Always trust your dog immediately came to mind only because I heard you say it enough times. I had no visible blood for about 50 yards when Cabela came across a few drops. Then we had no blood until another 50 Yards where it started to become steady. Cabela with her nose to the ground pointed out the five point buck laying dead at the bottom of the hill. I was more excited that Cabela found the deer then I was shooting it.

What would have taken me hours to find only took her about 15 minutes.

Joeri discovers himself as a blood tracker

Yesterday was a great day for Joeri, who discovered himself as a blood tracker. It was a great day for us too as this young dog is everything we have ever looked for in a working dachshund. Had we had a bottle of champagne in the house we would have opened it and celebrated. Well, we were too tired to do it anyway, but we both agreed - Joeri is the best dachshund that we have ever imported.

John does not like to brag about our dogs so reluctantly he wrote this short report:

"Joeri began his day in the Albany Pine Bush, a preserve of undeveloped land that runs east to west through the heart of the suburban Capital District. The deer had been hit late the previous afternoon, and the hunter was not sure of his shot placement; he had lost the blood trail quickly. It was a challenging line that had 100 yards stretches without visible blood. Joeri, with Jolanta handling, was right on for almost a half mile as occasional drops of blood confirmed. In thick cover Joeri jumped the deer, which seemed to be fine. We walked back along a suburban street to our parked cars. The hunter was relieved to know that the deer is going to be fine.

Jolanta, Joeri and Jason (hunter)

The afternoon track was a bit more exciting. Joeri had done so well in the morning that there seemed to be no need for Billy as a back-up dog this time. I went alone with Joeri to meet the hunter on his 300 acre forest property in nearby Westerlo. This was not suburbia! Now we were working a very sparse, seven hour line blood line. The hunter had done an exceptional job that morning, eye-tracking more than a quarter of a mile, but he had lost the trail where the buck had crossed a creek onto an island.

From the hit site Joeri worked the unmarked trail smoothly, even though the blood was dried up now and very difficult for us to see on the red spotted maple leaves; the real challenge began at the point of loss on the bank opposite the island. Beyond that point we could find absolutely no blood. Joeri crossed the creek to the island, worked across it to the other side and then crossed water again. He tracked down along the far bank and finally hooked back onto the island at its lower end. The cover was thick here, but when Joeri’s nose went straight up in the air, I knew we had the deer. He was a big, nine point buck, dead but still warm. Joeri was very proud, but I was even prouder."

Joeri on the top of the 9 pointer he recovered.

Buster and Danika - like father, like daughter

On October 12-15, 2009 I attended two field trials held at Swatara Beagle Club in Elizabethtown, PA. The trials were associated with the Dachshund Club of America 2009. I'll write more about the trials over the next few days but today I'd like to focus my post on just two dachshunds: Danika and Buster.

FC Danika vom Nordlicht, TD SE is owned and handled at all events by Cheri Faust from Madison, WI. Danika is 3.5 years old, and she was bred by Larry Gohlke. Her dam is FC Fredrika von Moosbach-Zuzelek and her sire is FC Clown vom Talsdeich aka Buster.

Danika was entered in one trial only in a class of 37 Field Champion bitches. She won that class and then beat her sire, who was 1st out of 38 Field Champion dogs. This way Danika became Absolute Winner of the Metropolitan Washington Dachshund Club Trial on October 13.

Above - Cheri Faust and Danika

Danika getting a beautiful rosette for winning the FC Bitches stake. Judges - Sandy Horskin (left) and Carrie Hamilton (right).

Danika as Absolute Winner at the trial with 136 entries

Danika being held by Susanne Hamilton

Susanne Hamilton with Buster (Danika's sire) and Cheri Faust with Danika

On October 14 at the Dachshund Club of America National Field Trial Buster repeated his win from the previous day and was 1st in the FC Dogs stake (34 entries). Next day he also won the Best of Field Champions run, defeated a winner of the Open stakes, and this way he became Absolute Winner of the National Trial (135 entries). Buster won a national trial before - in 2006 in Georgia. More info on Buster is at http://www.born-to-track.com/dogs/buster.htm

Susanne and Buster

Susanne, Buster and four judges: Jean Dieden, John Merriman, Robert Schwalbe and Jerry Price.

It took many hours for Susanne to drive home, from Pennsylvania to Maine. When she got home late that night, her phone rang and as it turned out a hunter needed Buster to track a wounded deer. Susanne and Buster went on a call, and were successful at recovering a nice 9 pointer.

Danika and Buster are examples of great versatile teckels in the European tradition.

Congratulations to Cheri and Susanne!

Joeri's first deer; Billy's first deer of the season

posted by John Jeanneney


Yesterday was a good opening day for us. Jolanta went with me on the two calls so we were able to handle two tracking dogs, Joeri and Billy.

The first call was ideal for young Joeri as an introduction to the real thing. It was a stomach shot that went about 150 yards. This line was about 5 hours old. The hunter was afraid that if he pushed the deer he might lose it, so he wanted to get a tracking dog on the line.

Joeri, with Jolanta handling, had little difficulty tracking the sparse but visible blood trail across a brook and through some thick cover until he found the deer dead. Joeri thought that that the deer was much more exciting than that old deer skin at the end of the line.

Jolanta with Joeri

The second deer, a big 7 pointer, was much more challenging.
Joeri started again with patient Billy acting as back-up dog. Although the pass-through shot proved to be almost perfect for placement, there was very little external blood on the ground.
Joeri did well on this older, much more difficult line, but after about 250 yards he missed where the buck had changed direction and had gone up hill.

Billy, tracking along behind, recognized Joeri’s mistake and followed the correct scent line up the hill. Then I saw a drop of blood. Billy and I made another turn and in 25 yards there was the big deer dead.

It was old stuff for Billy, but Joeri tracking along behind thought that this was just amazing. The two dogs shared “their” deer with only a few minor growls.

The hunter went wild with joy, hugged me and kissed Jolanta on both cheeks.

Joe and Doc - a tracking team from Indiana; a vest for a blood tracking dog

The picture of Doc and Carl came from Joe Walters from Indiana, who wrote:

The tracking was excellent. After last blood nothing for about 75 yds. He went past the deer on the down wind side by about 10 yds and raised his head to wind it and circled back to it. Chewed on the tail. And after hunter gutted it out, I gave Doc a piece of liver and he chewed on it for a second and spit it out and started barking and wanting back on the deer. If you can't find Doc in the pic, look for his red harness.

Just few days later I talked to Susanne Hamilton who was on her way back from a weekend of blood tracking in Vermont. Susanne and Buster recovered two deer out of four, but what she raved most about was Buster's harness. Two of their calls were in a swamp, and in situations like this she finds this harness/vest invaluable. Actually, Susanne was the first who started to use this particular type of vest, and since then other handlers have started to use it too. The DiPietro family from Vermont swears by it. The picture below show Chris DiPietro handling Scout at the August workshop in NH, and Scout is sporting the red vest.

This particular harness/vest is carried by Ruffwear and more info and pics are posted here.

Handlers who use the vest for their dogs point out the advantages:

- ease of pulling the dog out of swamp or river thanks to the handle mounted on the top
- when a dogs pulls a lot, there is no pressure exerted on his windpipe as it is the case with a collar
- a dog's chest is somewhat protected from getting scratched and cut; as Susanne says: the soft underbelly flannel somehow keeps Buster from having his entire belly scratched up.

I am looking forward to hearing Andy Bensing's review of the custom made vest he ordered from Wild Boar USA/Ugly Dog Ranch store. One of his dogs has a pretty thin hair and gets all torn up on the chest, sides and belly when she squeezes through the briars. I think that his vest might provide a better protection from scratches than the Ruffwear harness.

10/18/2009
Joe Walters sent me this e-mail after he had seen the post about the Ruffwear vest:
I was tracking a gut shot deer for a hunter the other morning and the track ended at a ditch. It only had about three or four inches of water in it so I picked Doc up by his harness and proceeded across. Under the water was about three feet of black muck and I went in over my "frog legs", chaps over knee boots. Doc came out unscaithed, but I came out smelling pretty awful and very wet. Oh, the joys of tracking. I love it. Joe and Doc

Susanne Hamilton added:

With all the tracking I've done, I have not had a single issue with injuries to the skin at all, (amazing enough no scratches whatsoever). The thing that's most valuable is the handle... heck I pick Buster up by it all the time. The other good thing is that the actual clip where I use the leash seems just in the right place to relieve stress of the dogs back.
Buster has been less tired and less sore since using the ruffwear harness. Sometimes too much harness can cause rubbing, so until the new vest is proven and put through the ringer, like the ruffwear one has, and by several trackers, I think it's not really right to say that Andy's vest is going to be even better.

***

It looks like handlers love the Ruffwear harness/vest.

How to locate blood tracking dogs that can help hunters recover their wounded deer

A deer hunting season has already opened in some states, and every day we get phone calls from hunters who would like to locate a blood tracking dog that could help them find their wounded big game.

If you are looking for tracking services, the United Blood Trackers website can help you. Go to http://www.unitedbloodtrackers.org/find-map.php, click on your state, you will see a list of available trackers. First, however, you should first learn whether tracking wounded big game with dogs is legal where you hunt. Regulations are controlled by state, and vary a lot from one state to another. Now this activity, which many view as a very integral part of ethical hunting, has been legalized in 18 states where any use of dogs in deer hunting, including the recovery of wounded deer, was previously illegal. State regulations can be checked at the United Blood Trackers’ website at http://www.unitedbloodtrackers.org/state-reg.php

If you live in New York state, calling Deer Search is your best option. This volunteer-based organization was formed in 1977, and currently has three chapters. For tracking services call:
- the mid-Hudson Valley area call (845) 227-5099
- Western part of New York state (716) 648-4355
- Finger Lakes Region (585) 935-5220
In the Capital District the number is (518) 872-1779.

In New York state only trackers licensed by Department of Environmental Conservation can track wounded game with leashed dogs. If there is no Deer Search tracker in your area, call your local conservation officer as he might know of local tracking services. Not all licensed handlers are members of Deer Search.

If you are looking for tracking services in Texas, go to http://www.texastrackers.com/Contacts.htm

Georgia has a published list of trackers at http://www.gon.com/page.php?id=67

Some blood trackers have personal websites and blogs describing their services:

• Alabama & Georgia A.J. Niette http://www.deertracking.us/
• Georgia: Ken Parker http://www.hillockkennels.com/
• Georgia: Kyle http://www.bloodtrackers.us/
• Illinois Madison County: Neal Meyers http://illinoistracker.com/
• Illinois Quincy: Neal Meyers http://adamspikeoutdoors.com/bloodtrackers.htm
• Maine York County: Tony http://mainewhitetailrecovery.com/
• Michigan: Rob Miller http://scouttracker.blogspot.com/
• Michigan: Jim Mayer Yooperstracking.blogspot.com

I'll close this post with a good story from Steve about his young dachshund Ruby:

Earlier in the season I took Ruby out to track a deer that I had shot, and had seen go down in about 50 yards. She did great, but I have been looking forward to take her out on a trail where I didn't know where the deer was.

I am in an area where most of the hunting opportunities take place in very populated suburban areas, where the homeowners are desperate to reduce the population. This evening I shot a button buck about 15 minutes before dark. The shot looked a little high, but good. The deer ran across the road, and I lost sight of it as it crossed a large lawn. There was no problem finding the blood on the road, but about twenty yards onto the lawn, I couldn't advance the trail at all. After about an hour of searching all of the trails along the edge of the woods, and the landscaped beds around the houses, I made no progress.

The wind was absolutely howling, and I wasn't sure the dogs could pick up the scent on the open lawn, but it seemed like a good opportunity to get Ruby out on a challenging track. I took her to the last blood, and after a minute or two of working it out, she seemed sure of herself, and lead me to a small island of very thick cover, about twenty five feet across, in the middle of the lawn.

I had already searched it thoroughly while looking for blood earlier, and found nothing, but she seemed sure. She disappeared into the brush, and I got down on my knees and shined the light in to see her on the deer. It had apparently taken a final leap, and buried itself in the impenetrable thicket. There were no trails leading into it, and no visible blood on the brush where it jumped in. I was ecstatic.

The deer was not visible at all from the lawn, and had she not found it, I would have spent hours tomorrow searching the woods, sure that it had gone there. She saved all the time and anguish, and I couldn't be prouder.

Just goes to show that the trail doesn't have to be long, or the hit bad, to make recovery difficult, and a tracking dog a huge help!

Ruby with the deer she recovered.

Training young or inexperienced tracking dog on natural blood lines

Recently our borntotrack discussion forum had a very good discussion about how to train and track with a young dog in her first tracking season.

Andy Bensing said: I think the best natural line for a young dog is a line that has been eyeball tracked and marked first, then bring the dog in and you can run that natural line like a training line to the dog’s best benefit. Of course if the deer has already been found, having the whole deer at the end or if running the next day, the deer skin there is terrific. I have used natural lines where the deer was not recovered as good training lines also. To do this I mark the line before I bring out the young dog and I place a deer skin at the last know point of the line. To try and keep it real, I have also rubbed the “find” skin with some of the blood taken from leaves along the way if there was enough to make that work.

Few days later Don D. from Michigan who is starting to track with a six-month-old Gunther (a Billy/Gilda puppy) shared his recent experience. It was a perfect learning opportunity.

I have attached some pictures of Gunther's first find. I will confess it was a controlled find, but none the less it was a great learning experience for him. October 1 was opening day here in Michigan for bow season. My brother Bart and I had a goal of shooting a doe and setting up a live track for Gunther. It worked out perfect. Bart shot the the doe in the pictures at about 9 am. We let her go for several hours and then tracked her making sure to stay well off the line. We found her about 200 yards away, she traveled through varying terrain and ended up in a swamp on our leased land.The blood trail was consistent so it was a perfect set up for Gunther. I put him on the track about 5 hours after the shot. The conditions were warm, dry and breezy. We were unable to find his arrow during our dog less track, but Gunther found it for us about 40 yards into the track. He did very well, stayed on the line. Did get off it twice, but found his way by circling back and picking it up on his own. He did lose it in the high weeds in the swamp, the blood was high on the reeds and I think it was above him. Which makes me think he is tracking the blood smell much more than the deer smell at this point in his young career. Once he got back on the line he found the doe in the swamp. At first he was not sure what to do. He looked at me with a look like............"now what do I do?" ......but once he saw our excitement over his find he tore into the doe. He tried to drag it, tugged on it, licked the blood and became very excited. when we tried to move him off it he growled a bit as if to say " this is mine!!" I let him watch the entire process of gutting the deer as he wined and tried to get closer. In the end he got a nice piece of liver and a leg to chew on for awhile. Very good experience for both of us, learned a lot. Very pleased with my little partner.

Another wounded moose recovered by Theo

This morning e-mail brought this picture with this caption: "A big bull moose found by Theo near New Brunswick. We got back to Mont Carmel at 5 AM!" Readers of this blog know that John is in Quebec and he has been staying with his friend Alain Ridel. I am sure that more info about this call will come but in the meantime trackers have to get some well deserved sleep.

A new addition to our dachshund family - Mischa z Kmetónyho dvora

You never know what's expecting you around next corner. Life serves surprises all the time.

Six weeks ago I was contacted by Monika F. from New Jersey by e-mail: "I am from Slovakia and I moved to NJ 8 years ago. I used to breed short hair dachshunds. My father still does breed wirehairs. He is moving here from Slovakia to live with us and he brought his 2 girls, mom and daughter. They got into fight and don’t get along anymore. We tried everything but is not working. We would love to find somebody who would take younger one. She is a beautiful dog with a very good personality. She loves to be around people, plays with my son all the time. She is very happy and easygoing dog."

This is how our and Mischa's journey began.

I asked Monika for Mischa's pedigree and pictures, and I liked very much what I saw.

Mischa in Slovakia

There was something very attractive about Mischa in these pictures. I liked her pedigree too. Her sire is Irox z Kmetónyho dvora and her dam is Hesja ab Hinc; basically she comes from a mixture of European bloodlines.

John and I decided to evaluate Mischa and help Monika find a good working or pet home... or keep her for ourselves, based on the outcome of our evaluation. I picked her up on August 19. Surprisingly she was very relaxed on our way back home. She slept on the passenger's seat most of the time, except when I had to slow down - the she would wake up and "talk" to me. I was a complete stranger to her, yet she connected with me right away and she was very much at ease. Once at our place she has turned out to be an excellent companion, and we both love her disposition. She is very good with our dogs, and especially with our six month old Paika.

We started to work Mischa on rabbits and deer blood, and for the first week we did not see any progress. She had never been hunted before, and in New Jersey she spent a lot of time in a large yard with invisible fence. Just when I was ready to give up on trying to work her, Mischa started to run rabbits and voice on them. She was getting better with every day... and then she came in heat. The timing was very inconvenient for us so I asked Monika to get her back and keep her for two weeks.

Finally ten days ago Mischa came back to us after a two week break. Last weekend I took her to dachshund field trials in New Jersey, and on the second day she placed 2nd in the stake of 24 open bitches. She worked hard, had some very good runs, and altogether showed a really good potential.

I know that it was not easy for Monika to part with Mischa, but she made a right decision. I have seen so many situations when two dogs in the same household (usually of the same gender) don't get along, have to be kept separated all the time, yet their owners cannot bring themselves to part with one. It can be a truly heartbreaking decision, but finding a new home for one of the dogs is the best decision for all involved.

As Mischa is sound asleep at my feet under the desk, I am very thankful for the unexpected and precious gift!

Mischa in Berne, NY

Newborn wirehaired dachshund pups in South Carolina

On Saturday, September 26, Elka vom Klaren Bach whelped two boys and one girl. More information about this litter is posted here. Send inquiries directly to Dean and Millie Davenport (from South Carolina) at millie@innova.net.

Cabelas jacket kept Mike warm but it was a tracking dog who found his deer

The picture is taken from the Cabelas online catalog. It was sent to me by Larry Gohlke whose tracking dog Nix was instrumental in recovery of this buck. I asked Larry to write more about how it had happened.

"Mike Sr hunts a piece of land where he sees lots of deer during bow season including the week before our Wisconsin deer rifle season. He then puts his son Mike Jr in what should be the very best spot for the nine day rifle season. The result has been that almost no deer show up for the kid. Last year his luck changed a lot. Unfortunately, when this large buck showed up just before closing time another 10 deer did too. Mike thought he made a good shot on the buck but when it took off there were tails going every direction.

I was called in to find the buck which was one of eleven deer in the area before the shot. There is no telling how many other deer showed up after dark and before we started tracking. There was no blood and Mike only knew that none of the deer had run toward him. I have had to look for a number of deer with similar starts. My two year old dog Nix and I work together pretty well in these situations.

We started at one side checking the possible escape routes and followed many trails without finding any blood. At one point we actually chased some deer across a wooden foot bridge. What a racket! After many trails that didn't have any blood on them we took a trail which one of the hunters had just inspected. We found one drop of blood that the hunter had missed. After a distance we came to a blown down tree and the next blood. The deer had stopped before the tree leaving a blood trail and then walked to the other side of the tree and died in the tree branches and tall marsh grass.

I am convinced that a lot of deer could be found with dogs, the deer that the hunter would never be able to confirm were hit. Mike is a believer!


Larry Gohlke"

Larry Gohlke with Nix

Early fall in the Albany County Hilltowns - leaves are starting to change color

We live in Berne (NY), which is one of the four Albany County Hilltowns. The other three towns are Knox, Westerlo and Rensselaerville. Even though we are only 30 minutes from Albany, the capital of New York State, the Hilltowns area is quite rural. We love it here, and the views of changing colors in September and October are breath taking. Right now the predominant color is luscious green, but sumac is starting to show a lot of red. Our running grounds for dachshunds start to look spectacular. Our hunting season starts on October 17 so we still have a long way to go. In the meantime we will be going to dachshund field trials, and this upcoming weekend I'll be running our dogs in NJ.

Effie passes a Deer Search pre-certification test

We got this very nice e-mail from Kevin Armstrong from the Finger Lakes Chapter of Deer Search. Kevin tracks with Karma v Moosbach-Zuzelek, and his friend Ron Betts works with Effie, Karma's younger sister.

"Ron asked me to email you to let you know that Effie passes her pre-certification test yesterday on a measured 500 meter, 20+ hour old 1/2 cup blood trail with 2X90 degree turns. The weather was 72f, sunny and dry, hardly ideal conditions. Effie would have aced the trail in 10 minutes had a flock of turkey not roosted above the trail over night and flown down to scratch around below the roost a few hours earlier. The hot turkey scent put her off for a few minutes but the handler recognized the situation just as Effie was called back. Back on the trail she ran the remaining 100 yards to the reward in a minute or two. An absolutely outstanding job! Ron Betts is a mighty proud man today, as he should be! At 1.5 years old Effie is on her way to becoming another Billy/Gilda wonder dog!"

Congratulations to Ron and Effie!

Tracking wounded moose in Quebec

In a couple of days John will be going to Quebec to track wounded moose, and he will be staying with Alain Ridel at Mont Carmel. Alain and his wife Marjolaine own a wirehaired dachshund Theo imported from France, whom we used for breeding last winter.

Alain recent e-mail brought a picture of the Theo's recent recovery nad this short description:

"Hello John,

This is to give you a foretaste for next week. Moose hunting began yesterday morning; I left for a moose call at 9:15 PM and finished at 10:45 PM. The search took place in a forest filled with black spruce and a very, very large number of moose. The length of the track was 776 meters. There wasn't a drop of blood, even at the hit site. The animal was shot with a cross bow.

Théo worked very hard, but you can see the results. Greetings as I wait to share with you the joys of tracking. "

Wirehaired dachshund puppies out of European hunting bloodlines

There is no shortage of wirehaired dachshund puppies (especially male puppies) bred for blood tracking in the Northeast this fall. If you are interested in a tracking prospect, contact:

1. Andy Bensing from Reading, PA (610-413-7094 or abensing@pbkennels.com) whose Eibe von Merreche whelped two female and four male puppies on June 18.

Benny von der Pfauenbrücke bred by Andy Bensing

2. Jeff Springer, DVM from Arlington, MA (jeffspringerdvm@hotmail.com or 978-852-2809) whose Perfect Tilly whelped 3 female and three male puppies on September 5.The sire is our Billy (FC Billy von Moosbach-Zuzelek, SchwhK, Wa.-T, BHP1, BHP2, BHP3).

3. Ed and Barbie Wills from Concord, NH whose Veela (Viola von der Hardt-Höhe) whelped five boys and one girl on September 10. The sire is Chicko von der Hardt-Höhe. All puppies, just like their parents, are black and tan. Veela has passed the DTK watertest, Schußfest, and BHP3. She has found several deer in New Hampshire last year. Contact Ed or Barbie at 603-224-6296 or at kmteckels@comcast.net. The picture below shows one of the Veela's puppies.

4. Maribeth McEwan from Meredith, New Hampshire (dackelprincess@metrocast.net or 603-279-4214) whose Greta (Xochil Vom Geestmoor) delivered 1 female and 4 male pups on August 29. These pups are the result of a repeat breeding between Greta and Bernie (Bernd Vom Ahorn Wald).

A start to Leroy's first blood tracking season.

Just recently I posted some correspondence about mixed breeds so A.J.'s e-mail that we received on Monday was very timely. The picture shows his young Leroy, which is a beagle/walker mix.


Mr. John

Shot this deer opening day of bow season (Sept. 12). The deer ran off 150 yds, I waited one hour went and got Leroy. I put him where the deer was walking before I shot him....the scent was so strong that after he found blood he went straight to the deer...he got nose on him. I forgot Leroy was a little unsure about the dead deer, it was new to him. Later that day I let Leroy out of the kennel to go to bathroom and he took off back down the road 1000 yds where he found the deer.

aj

A Mountain Lion Shrinks

by John Jeanneney

Tim Nichols, over on the New York/Vermont border, has the best of tracking worlds. He is positioned to track in the early bear seasons in Vermont and northern New York, and he also gets to track deer and bear later in New York’s Southern Zone. Tim’s latest adventure in Vermont suggests that the “Green Mountain Boys” don’t always have their act together in early September. The sun still beats down hot on their heads, and they have been known to get over-excited.

The call came in to Tim from the Vermont Conservation Officers; they had a report of a wounded mountain lion, shot in the hind quarters with a 30-30. The hunters were afraid that the big cat, in his distress, might attack someone.. They were sure that he was big and at 30 or 40 yards they had clearly seen his long tail (mountain lions, unlike bobcats, have long tails).

Tim arrived with the Conservation Officers to learn that an attempt had already been made to track the cat with a Golden Retriever. There had been a little altercation with the cat in a big thicket, and it had been the Golden who fled and refused to track any more.

Tim and his Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound then tracked the cat out of the thicket to where the big predator was dispatched by the officers. Surprise! It wasn’t really that big (30-35 pounds) and the tail was actually very short; it was a bobcat! And the bobcat was out of season.

It will be interesting to see what the Vermont courts do with this case. Bobcat hunting season was not open, and in the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Code there is also an article forbidding the shooting of mountain lions, if there are any. At least the hunters did the right thing in reporting what they believed they had seen and what they believed they had done.

For Tim and Bruno it wasn’t a difficult tracking job even though the line was nearly a day old. What was impressive was the way young Bruno stood up to the live, snarling bob cat. Maybe it wasn’t a mountain lion, but it was capable of doing some nasty work on a dog.

Questions on the use of mutts and rescue dogs in blood tracking

The deer hunting/tracking season must be just around a corner as the volume of e-mails with questions on blood tracking has increased substantially. Two recent questions are dealing with mutts and rescue dogs. A.J. Niette from Georgia has a lot of experience with this kind of dogs - read about him here. His website is at http://www.deertracking.us/aboutme.html

These are two questions we received recently.

Question 1:
I'm an avid bowhunter who adopted Muzzy from a rescue shelter. He's just over 7 months old. He's just a good ol' American mutt, the pound said lab, shepherd, boxer. He's been very active in the back yard chasing, and catching moles. I watch him run the drain tile where they appear to be living, nose to the ground. He also is helping in the squirrel control department. He is neutered. I am very interested in training him to track wounded deer (my buddy and his son lost a total of 4 last year) and would love to purchase your book, however, if it's going to be an exercise in futility, I'd rather expend my energy and create frustration somewhere else. Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.

John's answer:

Hi Jim,
You can’t go by breed labels or mixed breed labels. All dogs are not equal when it comes to tracking, of course, but sometimes you find dogs with decent abilities that come out of unusual backgrounds. Since you already have your rescue dog, you certainly should give him a try. Deer season is not far off. See how he takes to a deer liver drag, or an easy blood line to a thawed out deer skin. Let him track and easy deer that has already been found.

---------

Question 2

I purchased your book last week, received it yesterday and finished reading it today. Very detailed!!! Thanks.

I am a life long hunter and love working with “working” dogs. In the past I worked a K-9 for my department (Arson) and had a great time doing so. What I picked up in the book was some dogs naturally have it and some don’t (Genetics) for this type of work. I live in Central Texas and in your book you like bigger dogs in this part of the county due to the snake population.

How do you feel about rescued (Young) dogs from the pound? We have a lot of them and they put a lot of them down weekly. I know a lot of police dogs (Drugs/Arson) that came from the pound. In your 3rd edition of the book it may be a good subject…

John's answer:

I tried not to have a breed bias evident in my book. Certainly breed selection should be influenced by the local conditions in which you will be tracking. For example I would not use a dachshund in South Texas, but on the Edward Plateau maybe.

Rescue dogs are a gamble and you have to have an experienced eye to pick out a good prospect. Many of these dogs have behavioral problems; that’s why they are in the pound. You can use some of these dogs for substance search and identification, but they may not have the line sense and the willingness to work as a team with a handler that is necessary for tracking under difficult conditions. Thanks for the suggestion to discuss this important issue in the 3rd edition. I have no direct experience with this, but I did take a seminar dealing with these dogs.

Blood tracking with Fritz, a mini longhaired dachshund

My first contact with Cedar was when he asked me about a blood tracking harness for his blood tracking dog - a mini longhaired dachshund. Curious I asked for more information about the dog. This was Cedar's reply:

"Well, his name is Fritz, and he is 3 years old. When I got him first I had no intention to use him for hunting until I came home with a deer. He was only a few months old and I could not keep him away from it so I went online and found your website. I bought your book and the following deer season I had a blood tracking machine. He found 6 deer and a couple hogs that first year. This is his second year and we've already found 2 lost bucks this archery season. We've already built quite the reputation and have friends of friends calling for his help. Thanks for the harness tip and all the great info in the book. P.S. are your dachshunds as stubborn as mine? Lol"

Cedar, good luck to you and Fritz! You have a very talented dog.

Dachshunds and field obedience

Yesterday we received a nice e-mail from Anne Bauersachs, who is a daughter of Rosemarie Bauersachs, a breeder of our Joeri vom Nonnenschlag. She said: "Our local DCN group sometimes organizes a hike with our teckels. At the August hike about 30 people and more than 20 dogs were hiking in the morning. The picture shows from the left: Jannis, Florie, Darja, Jette, Justus, Isidor, Corrie, Kleo; all “vom Nonnenschlag”; Jannis, Jette and Justus are Joeri's siblings."

In Germany a great deal of emphasis is placed on field obedience, and the picture shows dogs which have been trained to "stay". So often we see that American handlers of blood tracking dachshunds do not train their dogs to handle when they are off-leash. Since in many states blood tracking dogs can be worked only when they are leashed, their field training off-leash does not get enough attention. What a shame! Dachshunds can be used for so many hunting tasks, but they need to be properly trained to "come" when called. Read more about the dachshund as a forester's dog in this article John wrote in 2004:

A Forester's Dog

By John Jeanneney, 2004

Early in the last century the ideal image of the dachshund depicted “a forester’s dog”. To be sure foresters were not the actual breeder/developers of the early standard dachshund. And by the early 1900s most dachshunds in Germany were actually household companions of town and city dwellers. Yet the identity of the dachshund, its mystique, was tied to a vision of a loyal, responsive dog, who accompanied the local forester on his daily rounds of inspection of the forests and game under his jurisdiction. There were a few, supremely fortunate dachshunds who actually lived this life.

It was the role of the forester’s dachshund to extend his master’s awareness of what was going on in the forest. The nose and inquisitiveness of the dachshund, the vision and the intelligence of the man came together in a superior symbiosis, a mixed pack of two working together.

The dachshund ranged out, but not too far, 200 meters at most, and he checked back frequently with the forester. Voice and body language expressed what the dachshund had discovered: Perhaps the wild boars were back again, rooting out the young transplants in the pine plantation, or the old fox den was reoccupied, its entrance graced with the bones of a roe deer fawn. This was the idealized role of the dachshund: a devoted and responsive working partner.

A hundred years later we don’t see much of this in America. We have “obedience trials” where well-trained dachshunds follow the commands of their owners. And we have field trials where many dachshunds exhibit little obedience at all. There is little that brings obedience work and field work together into a “complete dachshund.” For example, one of the most talented field trial dachshunds of the 90s was an imported wire who also earned AKC Obedience tiles. He failed to win several field trials because he did not recall after his run and was unavailable with other brace mates. Somehow, there was a difference between “obedience within eye contact” and obedience and responsiveness in the wild, brushy yonder of the field trial grounds

This was not an isolated experience. All too often at field trials the dachshunds with the most “hunt” are the ones most difficult to control. They would not be very useful in actual hunting. The handler would spend more time hunting for his dog than hunting for game. Here, I write from personal experience.

On the whole the minis seem better than the standards when it comes to field obedience. Their smaller size reduces their range a bit and this helps. But more is involved.

One of the best examples of field cooperation is to be found in the multi species pack made up of Teddy Moritz, a Harris hawk and two or three longhaired miniature dachshunds. The key to their success is that they all work together almost daily. Each species knows its role, and they work together as efficiently as a small pack of wolves. When the hawking season is over, the Harris takes a vacation. The object of the hunt shifts from cottontails to groundhogs, and a greyhound crossbred known as a lurcher replaces the hawk. The cooperative pack work continues.

Some of the same psychological and social dynamics come into play when a handler works with his dog to find wounded game. The dog learns very quickly that he has a nose and line sense very superior to that of his handler. Handler and dog come together as a working team when the handler learns to trust and respect his dog, and to praise him for his accomplishments. This can evolve into an intuitive bond not unlike a good marriage.

One of the keenest pleasures of living with a dog comes with the enrichment of our own consciousness through the senses and perceptions of another, very different intelligent species. As well as we can we must bridge the gap between our dogs and ourselves without giving up our respective identities.

If we hunt game regularly with our dogs, working cooperation comes easily. We recreate the primitive circumstances that originally brought dogs and humans together. Of course, most dachshunds owners cannot to this. They will seldom or never have the opportunity to solve hunting problems together with a canine companion. Still it is possible to use the pack instinct, hard-wired into our dogs, as they cooperate with us in other activities. In the wolf pack the alpha male does not boss and micro-manage other pack members all the time as to what they should do. Often Alpha allows other members, with particular gifts and specialties, to take over. As human alphas we should not approach every joint venture with our dogs as a matter of “command” and “obey”. Sometimes alpha authority is required, but the best times transcend this. We can experience this in agility, and human tracking as well, as well as in hunting. There can be a carry-over to field obedience from activities that have nothing directly to do with hunting. Formal obedience training is one of these, but it is not enough.

We must recognize certain obstacles that stand in the way of developing a cooperative pack relationship with our dogs. One of these is immaturity. The “silly puppy” stage of early development is something that we must outwait. Little can be done but to offer affection and firm, gentle guidance. Then just as we emerge from the young puppy phase, we run into the stubborn rebelliousness of adolescence. Those who have parented teenagers are best prepared for this. Don’t expect your dog to emerge as a reliable partner in much of anything until he is a year old at least. A dog’s youth is the time to lay the foundations of trust for the future.

Another obstacle to establishing close relationships with dogs is having too many of them. Those of us who breed dogs seriously lament that there is never enough time to establish a working relationship with each one. The German forester, with his solitary canine partner, did not have this problem. Developing his dachshund was a natural extension of his daily work.

In the 21st century few of us can live and work with one or two dogs as a part of our profession. We have to make difficult compromises; sometimes we have to realize that a policy of equal time for every dog means that we will never have a “forester’s dog” relationship with any of them. For example if you have ten dogs, you may find it hard to focus “unfairly” on the most promising of the two to five year olds. Dogs do not enjoy seeing certain pack mates get more attention. Still this is not cruel as it would be for a human child. Dog society, like that of wolves, is hierarchical; dogs accept inequality as part of the natural order.

As mentioned earlier a practical starting step to a special cooperative relationship in the field is gentle obedience work, not just indoors or in the yard, but also during walks in the woods and countryside. Dachshunds can learn what “Come” means through the use of a 30 to 40 ft long of plastic clothesline. The challenge begins of course after the clothesline phase is over. When the dog is out at a distance of twenty clothesline lengths and out of eye contact, his sense of loyalty and cooperation may not kick in as we would hope. Space-minded as they are, dogs do often go through a stage of feeling that there is a “sphere of cooperation”, outside of which they are free to do anything they want.

NATC Field Obedience Test Sept 2006 - John with Billy healing off leash

By closing the distance with the dog, and by firm command, the dog can be brought back into cooperative control. This is not always easy, especially when you don’t even know where to find your dog. But it can be done; long distance recall training has been accomplished for many centuries. It requires patience and some running; a horse helps.

Two modern technological developments make it easier to establish control and co-operation, and they can be used without brutalizing your dog or destroying your relationship with him.

The first is the beeper collar, which was developed for pointing dogs. For older human ears it is easier to hear than a bell, but another great value is that it is less intrusive for the dog. When the dog is on the move the beep is issued only once every ten seconds instead of every second when the dog is stationary. I find that it is very useful to tell me where the dog is so that I can reestablish communication. At fifty feet, even out of sight in thick brush, a dog is more likely to listen to me than at long-range shouting distance.

The second item is the e-collar or electronic collar formerly referred to as the “shocking collar”. You don’t have to shock your dog, although the potential to do this certainly does exist. The e-collar, by that other name, has inspired visions of a torture tool or a slightly less than lethal electric chair. This is akin to being against motor vehicles because they have the potential to cause great pain and suffering. Modern e-collars have adjustable levels of “electrical stimulation”. In training you work at very low levels, somewhat milder but more sustained than the sensation of a static electrical charge when you have been walking a wool rug on a winter morning. In training I never use a “stimulation level” which I have not tried on myself first.

In the field when I call and am ignored, I transmit a signal to the e-collar, I may hear a surprised yelp, but no more than that. In any case I want to see the tail wagging again within thirty seconds. The tingle on the dog’s neck seems to impress him more than shouts of “come”. I don’t think that the dog is impressed by any pain; but he is aware that Alpha has “Big Magic”, establishing Alpha’s presence even though he is a 100 yards away.

The beeper and the e-collar are no substitute for the psychological base created through hours of cooperative work and gentle, close-in training. Correctly used these tools are extenders and facilitators because the obedience class approach, in itself, is not enough to turn a spirited hunting dog into a cooperative partner.

Even in Germany the old fashioned German forester is long gone, but developing a “working pack” relationship with your dachshund can be done in other ways. Use the methods of firm and structured discipline combined with lots of praise. Present, as much as possible, formal discipline in a broader emotional framework in which you and your dog do things and explore together. The sphere of cooperation will expand because the dog loves to please his pack mate. There is more to the human/dog relationship than command and obey.

NATC Field Obedience Test Sept 2006 - a long down; at the top Sherry Ruggieri's Auggie, at the bottom our Billy

Blood tracking tests: pros and cons

By John Jeanneney, Full Cry September 2009

In much of the tracking dog world, blood tracking tests are very important in people’s minds. They sometimes become more important than natural tracking of the real thing. In Germany, for example, I have talked to handlers of some of the best performing dachshunds at the National Blood Tracking Championships for dachshunds. They had not taken many game searches the previous season, generally only two or three. Part of this was no doubt due to the fact that there are not enough wounded animals in Germany to go around! Also there are political factors involved; you have to own certain breeds of dogs, tested of course, before you can be certified to get in on the best tracking situations. Dachshunds, believe it or not, are generally excluded from this privileged circle.

In Germany the National Blood Tracking Competition is a prestigious event. The picture shows a closing ceremony of Bundessiegersuche Chorin 2006.

Hunting in Germany is a privilege for which you must pay dearly unless you have connections. Many owners of “versatile” dogs like the Deutsch Drahthaar (original German version of the German wirehaired pointer) spend a good deal of time on training for a series of tests that establish the merits of their dog. If they have such a dog, hunting opportunities will come more easily and probably at a lower cost.

Fortunately, circumstances are not the same yet in the USA, but the “culture of tests” can be found here nonetheless. I have done a number of workshops with the Deutsch Drahthaar organization in the United States, and met dedicated people with a lot of dog savvy. However, when it came to the blood tracking test most of them are interested in passing it, primarily because this is a requirement for attaining the highest German rating for a versatile hunting dog. Certainly they are willing to take on a wounded deer situation, if it comes up, but they are primarily bird hunters.

There are some notable exceptions in the well organized Deutsch Drahthaar Group in the United States. These people are strongly dedicated to the idea of developing their dogs as natural blood trackers. Marty and Mikki Vlach of Nebraska are two of these, and Forrest Moore of Georgia is another. I have seen some superb Drahthaar trackers of the real thing, but a majority of the Drahthaars in the US are too high-headed and birdy to work well on old, cold lines. They need special training to lower their head and their velocity in order to pass the blood tracking test.

By this time you have realized that I have some reservations about artificial blood tracking tests, but certainly, all things considered, they are a very positive influence in the blood tracking world. Let’s consider some of the positive aspects: For one thing a test deadline creates a motivation to train your dog, and learn to read him, even though you have dozens of other things to do. It is tremendously important to learn your dog’s body language as he goes off on a hot line or regains the correct scent line after a tough check.

Tests bring together handlers who ordinarily would not meet. They can compare notes and observe the working styles of one another’s dogs. They end up understanding their own dogs better.

Blood tracking tests are sometimes the best means we have to separate competent handlers and trained dogs from these who simply want to shake down a hunter for a few bucks. A few years ago I made a sampling, by phone, of the trackers listed on the Georgia Outdoor News web site, which lists trackers in that state who are ready to help hunters find wounded deer. The majority of the handlers I spoke with were knowledgeable and experienced, but I encountered a few who had no clue about the service they planned to offer for a price.

Blood tracking tests are needed, but they do have certain limitations; they are not a guarantee, in themselves, that a dog is capable of finding wounded big game under difficult conditions. Nor do they accurately establish which dogs are going to be the best at natural tracking when times are tough. When tracking the real thing, problems arise that would not be encountered in an artificial test or in the training done for that test. Long stretches with no blood and dead spots where there is no scent make up part of these problems.

The best means I have to illustrate certain problems with artificial tests is to draw upon a few of my experiences with my own dogs. Sometimes taking a test was exhilarating and sometimes it was humiliating. My happiest test adventure was with Gerte vom Dornenfeld, a wirehaired dachshund that I imported from Germany as a puppy.

I entered Gerte in a German JGV blood tracking test which was administered in New York State by German judges. Most of the dogs entered were big Deutsch Drahthaars from all over the country. My little 18 pound dog looked ridiculous and out of place, but she managed to rack up a Prize I, 100 points and be recognized by the German judges as the best blood tracking dog at that event.


John and Gerte are shown here after earning a Prize I in a German JGV blood tracking test. In the German tradition they are wearing Oak Leaves as the badge of success.

I never had another dog that did as well as Gerte in a blood tracking test. Did that mean that she was my best tracking dog ever? No! After a slow beginning she gave me several years of very good but not exceptional work. What she lacked was mental toughness. She quit on me one afternoon in a snow storm, and I retired her. She was far from being my best dog on real wounded deer.

Gerte’s daughter, Sabina von Moosbach-Zuzelek was very different, thanks to her sire who was a Czech import that we located in British Columbia. Sabina had a slow, meticulous style, but on old, difficult natural tracks without blood she would correct herself when she recognized that she was on the wrong deer. She would come back as much as 200 yards on her own until she was sure that she was on the right line again. When it came to staying on the track Sabina was as tough as they come. In a snowstorm she plowed though snow, following old scent on the ground beneath for a half mile before she found the deer dead under a drift.

As a puppy Sabina was a very good test dog. At six months of age she scored 92 and a year later she scored 90. Both of these were Prize I performances under the Deer Search test rules that are similar to the German ones. As Sabina got older and more experienced on natural tracks, her performance on artificial tests declined. She knew that these tests were fake, and she had little interest in them. At age five she got a Prize III, 50 points in Germany, barely passing, and she later failed a German test in the USA. On that last test the judge had me pick her up for lack of desire and progress. It would have been a mistake to evaluate Sabina as a natural tracking dog, solely on the basis of her test scores.

The most frequent pattern that I have observed in tracking dogs, as a handler and as a judge is as follows: A dog will do quite well in demos or in tests as a puppy before adolescence sets in. Once the dog has had a strong experience in natural tracking, there will be a decline in test performance since the dogs has learned that artificial blood lines are not as much fun as the real thing. Usually at maturity, around four, the dog will realize that tracking in any form is the greatest thing in the world. At this point he will track a natural scent line, a faked blood line or a line of marmalade. It doesn’t make much difference.

Fortunately or unfortunately, hard-headed Sabina did not follow this classic pattern. And it was the same thing at dachshund field trials running rabbits. At three she had the best winning record of any dachshund in the country. Two years later she decided that running rabbits at a field trial was nonsense. She would still run rabbits at home, but not at a trial where she knew some judge would say “pick ‘em up” as soon as she nicely got started.

What these tracking dog stories suggest is that you have to look at the big picture in making decisions. For example what can you learn about the parents of a tracking pup that you might buy. Check the test records, but ask also, “What is the story on natural tracks?” And watch out for the guy who says his dog always finds 90% of the deer. Probably many of these deer could have been found within 40 yards by his four year-old grandson.

Some tests are better than others. I would like to have more experience with the tracking shoe test. I have used tracking shoes in training, and I was impressed. In the German tracking shoe test the line is laid over 1000 meters, the same as in the regular blood tracking test. But much less blood is used, and the dog is basically tracking the interdigital scent carried between the cloves of the hoofs attached to the tracking shoes. This is more realistic, and in consequence many experienced dogs are more motivated to work well.

In Europe there are also natural tests conducted on actual wounded animals. These are the best in my opinion, but they are hard to set up logistically. It is not easy to get three qualified judges together to evaluate a dog in a situation, which by its nature cannot be planned ahead of time. Natural tests work best after big organized drives of a sort that we don’t have in North America.

Certainly the best way to judge the worth of a dog is to observe him yourself as he operates on the real thing. Don’t be in a hurry to buy a puppy, or an “experienced” dog (if you can find one). Ask lots of questions.



May 2006 - Andy Bensing is shown with Arno von Gronenwald (right) who scored 92 points and Prize I on the NATC overnight blood tracking test and Arno's grandsire FC Asko von der Drachenburg (left) who got a perfect score on a blood tracking part of the versatility (Vp) test. Andy handled both dogs.

New litter of dachshund puppies bred for blood tracking

Yesterday, on September 5, 2009, Tilly (Perfect Tiller) owned by Jeff Springer, DVM whelped naturally 6 puppies - 3 boys and 3 girls. The sire is our Billy (FC Billy von Moosbach-Zuzelek, SchwhK, Wa.-T, BHP1, BHP2, BHP3). More details about this breeding are posted at http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/2009/07/upcoming-litter-of-blood-tracking.html
For more information abou the pups contact Jeff Springer directly at jeffspringerdvm@hotmail.com or 978-852-2809.

NATC Fall Zuchtschau - October 3-4, 2009

On October 3, 2009 North American Teckel Club will hold Zuchtschau and related events. For more information contact Carrie Hamilton.

The Zuchtschau is a conformation show where each dog is evaluated according to the FCI dachshund breed standard #148. Each dog will receive a written evaluation from a German judge. This show will be judged by Herr Wilfried Petersen – DTK Federal Chairman for Conformation Judges.

The show is located at D-Bar-W Equestrian Center, 536 Orchard Rd. Reinholds, PA. Show will be held indoors. Spectators are welcome. Bring chairs. For entered dogs, full attendance is required on the day of judging. The dog’s papers, evaluations and certificates will not be released early.

The premium list and any event updates will be posted on the NATC website http://www.teckelclub.org/.

When entered in the Zuchtschau, dachshunds, which are at least 9 months old, will get a written evaluation and an official rating. Puppies between 6-9 months are not given an official rating, only “little promise”, “promising”, and “very promising”.

If the rating is ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’, the dog is eligible for DTK breeding between 15 months and 8 years (bitch) or a recommended 10 years (dog), according to the DTK rules and regulations. If the rating is less (‘good’, ‘sufficient’, ‘not sufficient’), the dog cannot be used for breeding within the DTK.

Entry fees
Advance entries: First adult dog $20.00, puppies $16.00, each additional dog/same owner $16.00
Gate entries (day of event): $26.00
All NATC club members receive a $3.00 discount off of their first Zuchtschau entry at this show.
Please make checks payable to North American Teckel Club.

Closing date: All entry forms with the appropriate fees including reservations for Saturday Dinner must be mailed and postmarked by SEPTEMBER 20, 2009 to: Carrie Hamilton, 9621 Bachelor Road, Kutztown, PA 19530.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Sat., Oct. 3 9 AM –10 AM Registration for the Zuchtschau
10 AM - Noon Zuchtschau
Noon - 1 PM Lunch
1 - 5 PM Zuchtschau
6 - 10 PM Club dinner at Weaver’s Market followed by Membership Meeting

Sun., Oct. 4 10 AM - Noon Companion Dog Test
Noon - 1 PM Lunch
1 - 3 PM Gunsteadiness and Water testing
3 - 5 PM Question & Answer session with Herr Petersen
6:00 – 8:00 PM Dinner at a local restaurant

HUNTING TEST INFORMATION:
All tests will be offered first to NATC members and pending members and then to other dachshund owners.

On Sunday, DTK/NATC Schussfestigkeit (gun steadiness), Wasser (water/bird retrieval) and Begleithunde (companion dog) tests will be offered. There are no entry restrictions for these tests. Advance entry is $5.00 for gun steadiness, $10.00 for the water test and $25.00/$10.00 for the companion dog test The first companion dog price is for the BHP-G (all three tests); the second price is for each separate BHP test (see description of test exercises later in the premium list). Gate Entries are $10.00, $20.00 and $50.00/$20.00, respectively. Advance entry forms with the appropriate fees (check payable to the NATC) must be postmarked by SEPTEMBER 20, 2009 and mailed to: Carrie Hamilton, 9621 Bachelor Road, Kutztown, PA 19530.

You need to pre-register for Saturday Dinner by sending your check (along with entry info) to Carrie Hamilton.

Recommendations for showing:

Breed standard: To select the dogs you want to enter, please read carefully the FCI breed standard (#148) at the website (www.teckelclub.org).
Dress code: There is no written rule on dress code, but it is very casual. Shorts and jeans are accepted (not the stained and ripped ones). Hunting outfits are seen often in Europe, but if you wish to dress up, you should feel free to do so.

Attendance: All exhibitors have to stay until the judging is over. This is not only polite for the judge and the last exhibitors, but this amount of time is needed to prepare the paperwork of your dog.

Weight of the dog: Most dogs at American shows are considered overweight for European standards. The general rule for weight in Europe should be emphasized: the ribs should not be visible, but clearly palpable. So a thin layer of tissue should cover the chest. Less weight usually induces a little more tuck up of the underline.

Stacking (table): The dog is stacked on the table, never on the floor or ground. Do not extend the hindquarters as far as it is done here in the US. The hock is positioned slightly behind the rear.

The judge will ask the age of your dog. Indicate the age in months before 2 years (e.g. 21 months) and after 2 years of age in years and half years (e.g. 3½ years). The dog’s tail will be checked thoroughly: vertebra by vertebra. Make sure your dog does not mind this examination procedure.

The teeth are very important according to the FCI breed standard (see the chart of tooth faults on the next page). The judge will check and count all of your dog’s teeth, including the back teeth (molars and premolars). Almost all judges prefer to check the teeth themselves, however, only if your dog does not feel comfortable with this at all, you could request to show your own dog’s teeth. Make sure all teeth are clearly visible for the judge. In most instances, your fingers block the view. It is advised that you allow the judge check the teeth, when you are not sure about how to show them yourself.

Stance (floor): A natural stance is required on the floor. When the judge asks you to have your dog stand in front of him, you are not allowed to touch your dog. It takes a little practice to make sure your dogs stands nicely on its own during a few minutes, while the judge is dictating his evaluation. Take your time when doing this. The judge will wait until you feel your dog is ready to be evaluated. If you do not like your dog’s stance, you may want to reset your dog by quickly looping around and come to a standstill in front of the judge again. Remember you cannot touch your dog while doing this.

Most FCI judges will test the temperament of the dog by making strange noises and/or movements, when the dog stands on the floor (not table). A dachshund is not supposed to be fearful or aggressive.

Gaiting: Some judges ask handlers to walk their dog on loose lead. You are not obligated to do this, unless upon the judge’s request. A dog being able to trot on a loose lead, even when this is not requested, will impress most judges.

The gait is the most important aspect of FCI showing. Most dogs have a tempo in which it moves most beautifully. During gaiting, handlers are supposed to use the full size of the ring. Do not loop around in a small circle unless the judge asks you to do so. Continue walking until the judge or ring steward tells you otherwise.

Grooming: At European shows, the grooming is done prior to the show. Only minor combing or brushing is done just before showing. Make sure you plan the grooming well in advance.

The European longhairs are not groomed as much as here. Most of the furnishings are left intact. The feet should be trimmed neatly (between the toes). The same counts for the wirehairs. Most European breeders strip their dogs 8-6 weeks prior to a show. German judges love the beard and eyebrows so do not over-trim. Never shave off whiskers and eyebrows on any dog. The nails should be kept relatively short. The dog should be able to stand properly with the nails lightly touching the ground.

Do not apply any artificial fragrances and oils to your dachshunds. Keep in mind that dachshunds are supposed to be hunting dogs. Do not bathe your dog shortly prior to the show. It will negatively affect your dog's coat, especially in the case of longhaired and wirehaired dachshunds.

See pictures from the spring Zuchtschau here. Pictures from previous NATC events are at:
http://jola.smugmug.com/NATC

Usefullness of small and narrow dachshunds in varmint control

Even though this blog's emphasis is on blood tracking occasionally we cover other types of hunting and activities that involve dachshunds. This e-mail came from Teddy Moritz, a longtime good friend of ours. She has been breeding and using her miniature dachshunds mainly for woodchuck and rabbit hunting. This is her account of recent events.

Here's a photo of Tar with a 14.2 lb. groundhog she located and bayed under a shed. She bolted the rabbit to the lurcher, also out from under a shed. Tar weighs about 7 lbs and is very narrow and up on the leg. I do varmint control on a fairgrounds and find that the groundhogs live under sheds exclusively, there are no dens except tunnels under cement barriers. Most of the groundhogs harbor under garden sheds of various sizes, as do rabbits, skunks, and possum. It's interesting that so many animals live amongst the buildings and lawns and gardens of this fairgrounds. Perhaps the variety of plants and the absence of bigger predators, fox and coyote, make the grounds seem like a safe haven. There are events at the grounds almost every weekend so the varmints eat at night or at dawn and dusk, especially during the week when the place is slightly quieter.

In order to work the dogs on these varmints, who regularly eat or destroy the flower gardens maintained by the grounds crew, I need a very narrow, small dog. A big-shouldered dog simply can't get under the sheds far enough to do any real work. Bigger dogs can get just so far under the shed but the groundhog or other varmint can run back and forth under and over the supporting two by fours. And a dog who cannot maneuver will soon get chewed up if the varmint comes their way. Sometimes the sheds are on cement slabs, which makes it even more difficult for any but the smallest, narrowest dogs to move about. And sometimes the sheds are on stone dust and the groundhogs make barriers of dirt so the smaller dogs have to follow the animal as best they can, digging through to their quarry.

Yet the narrowest, smallest dog doesn't have the biting power to harm an aggressive opponent. So the job of locating and baying is given to the little dog and I back her or him up with a .22 rifle as well as a lurcher. If the quarry bolts the lurcher is there to catch it as there are seldom any other refuges for the varmint to flee to. If our quarry won't bolt I lay on my side and slide the .22 under the shed and quickly dispatch the animal, having first called the dachshund out of course, or sometimes simply shooting beside the dog. My dogs learn 'get back' means I'm going to shoot and when they hear the gun go off they pile onto the quarry. Unfortunately sometimes the shot isn't lethal and the little dog finds out the quarry isn't as dead as they thought. Another shot soon follows and the dachshund pulls the quarry out.

I occasionally have terrier people come with me and their dogs invariably are too big to be of use under the sheds. Even my biggest dog, a mini long of ten pounds, is too big to be of much use in moving a varmint under a shed, so a terrier is at a disadvantage as well. The terriers have bigger heads than my dogs and can bite harder, but they seldom can get up to the quarry to put pressure on it. Therefore, small and narrow gets the job done. Each varmint control job calls for certain canine and human abilities and on these fairgrounds and under these sheds, a small, narrow dachshund works best. Fortunately when I added European blood to my lines I got some nice tall, narrow dogs and they have been an asset in most hunting situations. The hunting desire is well set in the American lines I've been using but I needed more leg and less shoulders. I continue to try to breed this type of hunting dachshund as they can move quickly and efficiently above ground as well as below.


FC Tar and Feathers von Moritz ml WC, 16 months old

PS. Walked 14 year old Gavia on a string out the camp road yesterday at 2 in the afternoon. She doesn't hear well or perhaps at all so I keep her on a line when I walk her here. She hit a line off the camp road and started sniffing at the base of a tree. I figured she smelled a squirrel so I let her loose. She knew she was loose and took off down an animal trail at a good pace. I followed for a bit and sent the lurcher with her. She picked up speed and disappeared in a bed of ferns. I ran to catch up and saw her running further on. I realized she was not on a squirrel so I hoofed it faster. I caught her sniffing a fresh bear scat and only caught her because she couldn't hear me coming. She saw me and tried to dodge but I got her. She likes that bear scent. And a further PS, she is Tar's grandmother on one side and great-grandmother on the other.

PS2. Carl came back into camp around 9:30 this morning and said he just saw a sow and three cubs cross where Gavia had run the track yesterday. A friend has been camping here for two days with his Kemmer Curs. He dropped his three dogs, and my lurcher, on the track and they treed a sow wearing an ear tag. We held the dogs back and let her jump and then they ran her up another tree. Cool way to start the day. Thank goodness no dachshunds were with the lurcher because at one point the sow fought the dogs on the ground. So Gavia was correct about the bear line yesterday.

Field trial beagles

There are several different types of beagle field trials, and several very different types of beagles bred to run in a style appropriate for that type of trial. Of course these beagles also hunt.

At one extreme are the brace trial beagles, bred and trained to track cottontails slowly and precisely in a brace of two. A hound that “reaches” more than a foot or two on a check gets picked up at a brace trial.

At the other extreme are the large pack hounds that drive northern hares at great speed. The “large pack” can number up to 40 hounds. To win a large pack trial speed and endurance are more important than staying close to the line and picking checks with precision.

Some might say that the “small pack option” trials are designed for the beagle that is a happy medium. The trial judges are looking for both speed (with control) and clean check work. The size of the “small pack” is usually about seven and the hounds are supposed to work well together.

If you plan to use a beagle for tracking wounded deer, a hound out of an outstanding small pack background is your best bet.

The following video clip shows a winners pack of 13’’ bitches, which ran today at our New Scotland Beagle Club Small Pack Option field trial. At the end of the video you will see the working style and check work that would also be very appropriate for tracking a wounded deer.

Working with young blood tracking puppies

We received this question recently:
How many lines had the dogs in the videos at the bottom of you blog completed before the videos were taken? Those seemed to be some fairly advanced lines and I'm wondering what kind of progression would be considered good for a dog. Thanks.

John's answer:
The dogs shown in the video were 13 weeks old at the time. They were conditioned from 4 weeks of age to associate deer blood and tarsal gland scent with good things. At six weeks they began to work 25 foot deer liver drags, about two per week. Gradually the drags were lengthened up to two hundred yards with the sharp turns that you saw in the video. We usually work them on a twice-a-week basis, and always in a different place.

I think that this work, which is not unusual, is based on good genetics and early tracking work while the puppy’s brain is still developing. There is a big difference between the work at seven weeks and the work at 13 weeks. Some puppies take a few weeks longer to get their act together. And a few just don’t have it. Last spring and early summer we had 19 puppies. 18 of them were doing very good work when we sold them to tracking/hunting homes. One was a nice bright puppy, but she never developed the desire and line sense that we insist upon. She went to a pet home.

Two conclusions can be drawn from this: 1. Make sure that your puppy is stimulated to track at a very early age. 2. Don’t let a breeder sell you a seven week old puppy. This makes much less work for the breeder, but you can’t judge what you are buying.

Jolanta's comments:
Right now Andy Bensing is working with pups, which were born on June 18. I saw them a week ago when they were 9 weeks old. Andy was working them at the time on a 40 yard long drag made with deer liver. The line had one left turn. This is an example of puppies' work:

This is a precocious litter, and it is nice to see most pups working so well at such an early age. More video clips of Andy's pups (their names start with "B") are posted at http://jola.smugmug.com/Video-clips/Puppy-training. For more info contact Andy at 610-413-7094 or abensing@pbkennels.com

Outfitters who use our tracking dogs - Richardson Farms Outfitters

Few days ago we received a nice e-mail from Jeff Richardson, and I realized that it is about time to give a plug to outfitters who use our blood tracking dachshunds.

Richardson Farms Outfitters located in Mount Sterling, IL, is composed of 9000 acres which have produced giant bucks at a rate unmatched by any other outfitter. Read more about this outfitting operation at http://www.illinoiswhitetailtraditions.com/aboutus.htm. We are very proud that they use a dog out of our breeding.

To quote from their website:
"You finally got the shot at a buck of a lifetime. Hopefully, everything went as planned and you made the perfect shot. Your buck ran fifty yards or so and piled up. Occasionally, it doesnt work out this way. The shot was not perfect, The blood trail was thin or played out. What happened?

It is times like these when you can breathe a little easier knowing that you have some of the best tracking dogs in the world waiting to help. These dogs have been selected from long lines, bred for only one purpose, tracking whitetailed deer. They include long and short haired jagdtterriers and a wire haired dachshund. Watching these animals do what they have been bred to do is an amazing site to behold.

We believe that every effort should be made to recover any wounded animal and we will exhaust all available resources to recover your trophy. The Recovery Team is a big part of the Illinois Whitetail Tradition at Richardson Farms. Their services are included in your hunt. If you need them you won't have to wait, they are ready, willing, and able to save the day."

One of Jeff's tracking dog is Nadja who is registered as Nettie v Moosbach-Zuzelek. She was born on June 22, 2007 so she is just two years old. Her parents are Buster and Emma. Surprisingly, even though both parents are around 19 lbs, Nadja matured at 12 lbs only!

To see Nadja's picture with the spectacular buck she found click here.

Jeff writes:

I just wanted to drop you a line on Nadja. She is doing very well and I couldn't be happier with her progress. We are getting ready for our third tracking season and she shows constant improvement and is always teaching me something. She has really calmed down (and slowed down -- concentrating more) when working blood lines over the last year. One thing that she is doing more of is throwing her nose in the air. She actually will stop at different locations when working blood lines and toss her nose up and look around... I can actually "see" her thinking and planning her next move.... I have to laugh when I see this because it is, to me, incredible that she has developed this trait-- I mean this is something that I cannot teach.

Nadja does have her days that she is not "on" or doesn't appear that she is really into the tracking mind set BUT these days are few and far between. Nadja is 26 months old now and weighs around 12 lbs. She is very calm and has only ever shown any type of aggressing when another dog tries to controll her. She stand up for herself VERY well -- even at 12 lbs.

Nadja as a puppy

Labs as deer trackers

by John Jeanneney, Full Cry August 2008

The origins of the Labrador retriever breed actually go back to Newfoundland in the 1800s; it was the intelligence, trainability and willingness to please of these early imports that made them gun dogs of choice in Great Britain. Back in North America they had been developed from a gene pool of dogs that were truly versatile in multiple tasks on land and in the ocean.

Today the Lab is more than just a bird dog. Of all the breeds registered in the USA the Lab ranks first, and this is in good part due to his good temperament and suitability as a family dog. This popularity has exposed the breed to the expected risks. Unfortunately, a good proportion of registered Labs have been modified, we could say “dumbed down”, for the purposes of show and pet breeders who could care less about hunting. In these suburbanized dogs the original toughness and can-do drive have been lost. On the other hand, the responsiveness and intelligence of the original Lab has led to some good things too without threatening the basic qualities of the breed. Labs have become the favored breed as guide dogs for the blind, search and rescue dogs and drug dogs.

In view of its origins and adaptability, it’s not surprising that the modern Lab can be highly useful as a tracker and finder of wounded big game. Hank Hearn of Vicksburg, MS demonstrated the new Lab possibilities while he was working as a hunting guide on the 27,000 acre Tara Plantation near by. In the 1980s Tara was becoming famous for its quality bowhunting for whitetail deer. In 1988 Hank took his Lab puppy J-J and began to develop him as tracker for Tara’s hunters. J-J was a highly intelligent dog out of Mississippi duck hunting stock. He was constantly with Hank, and after a few uncertain puppy attempts they both found their calling as wounded deer trackers.

J-J was a hunting dog that could do almost anything. Duck retrieving and coon hunting were minor parts of his repertoire, but by the time of his death in 1998 it was his fame as a wounded deer tracker that had spread across the South. Bo, currently the top tracking dog at Tara, is a great grandson of J-J. There are many other blood tracking Labs at work in the South that come out of J-J’s duck retriever bloodlines. Today Mississippi and Louisiana are probably the best places to look for American Lab litters from strong blood tracking backgrounds.

Al Wade in Bogalusa, LA has a chocolate Lab named Scout that is carrying on the Hearn/J-J tradition with modern equipment. This Lab shows the characteristic balance of responsiveness and initiative that is so important in practical tracking. He knows what Al wants, but he will override Al’s instructions if that’s what it takes to find the deer.

Scout has been wearing one of the new Garmin GPS units for dogs, and this turns out to be very handy when the wounded deer goes a long way, off lead in the dense cover of the Delta. Generally Al starts Scout on the right line by working him on the long lead. Then when the cover gets impossibly thick, or when he jumps the live wounded deer, he turns Scout loose. The GPS allows Al and Scout to always stay in touch no matter how poor the visibility becomes.

Scout, a chocolate Lab, with one of his finds.

One of Al’s posts on the United Blood Trackers web site gives us a sense of how he and Scout work together to find a deer. This particular call was over in Alabama, and in some other ways it was not typical. Expect the unexpected!

“The hunter told me that he had shot a doe and that it was dead, but he couldn't find it because the rape (a plant like a turnip green) was too high. I told him no problem; we would take Scout and let him wind it. I figured since the deer was dead I didn't need that tracking vest with the gun, the gps, the spear, etc. I did grab my head light, put Scout in his vest and put his beeper collar on. When we got to the spot where the hunter thought it was standing, I let Scout go. That rape was knee deep and I could see how the hunter couldn't see the deer. Scout was working around pretty close and suddenly he started working straight down the field. The hunter said "it wasn't that far down." Does this sound familiar? He seemed to have a good mark for where he shot it so I called Scout back. It didn't take long before Scout was headed back the same way.

This time I let him go and within a couple of minutes he stopped in the center of the field about 100yds down. When Scout finds a deer he stops so I headed that way. The closer I got the more excited he became, and he was jumping around. Suddenly two sets of eyes. I yelled back to the hunter that it was still alive. About the time this came out of my mouth the doe got up and headed towards the woods with Scout in close pursuit. The deer was almost to the wood line when Scout caught up to it and tackled it. They cut a flip and the deer got up first, took off again and hit the woods. I was closing in and got in the woods just in time to see another take down. This time the deer stayed down and Scout started baying it. I called Scout back, approached the deer and got close enough to see that it had been hit high on the neck and wasn't bleeding much. That's right about the time she took off again. Again Scout goes for her and caught her quick.”

My special interest in Labs and my long-time obsession with all tracking dog breeds led me back to Europe this fall after snow ended tracking work here in up-state New York. One of my objectives was to see the work of an outstanding Lab in the Vosges Mountains of France right on the German border. I took ten wounded boar calls there with Patrice Stoquert and Raoul, his seven-year-old yellow Lab of Scottish bloodlines. Patrice is a French forester, who tracks back and forth across the border, speaks German and is equally at home in the forests of both countries. The Germans call him Hundeflusterer, dog whisperer, because of his ability to communicate with dogs.

Patrice Stoquert’s Raoul, a yellow Lab

What I saw of Patrice and Raoul re-enforced what I had already learned from 32 years of practical tracking in New York State. Nose is important, but the quality of intelligence is even more so. A dog that uses his nose intelligently on an old, cold line of ground scent can be more effective than a dog with bloodhound quality nose lacking intuition and persistence to search or “dig” for the right scent beyond the point of loss.

Getting a good start on the right line is an important part of tracking. When the wounded animal is a wild boar, this can be especially difficult. Boars, when shot on drives, are usually running in a group so there is individual scent from many different pigs lingering in the same place. Also wild boars, even when shot with big center fire rifles, generally don’t bleed very much. Patrice had a unique way of starting his Lab in these cases with the scent of many animals and little or no blood.

He would release Raoul at the general hit site and then let him cast slowly in a 100 meter circle as he stood and watched. When Raoul found the right scent line he would sit down and bark. If Patrice did not approach him quickly enough, Raoul would go to Patrice and nuzzle the tracking collar and leash in Patrice’s hand. Clearly this dog understood that the cold tracking itself was to be done on the long leash. It was Raoul’s job to follow the line; Patrice’s function was to observe and interpret what little blood was there to be seen.

I’m not suggesting that this is typical Lab tracking work. Stoquert is a gifted handler, unconventional in some of his handling techniques, and it must be remembered that Raoul is a mature, experienced dog, thoroughly in tune with his human partner. Close cooperation, built on intelligence, and a close bond, are necessary in all effective tracking dogs, but the psychological make-up of the hunting Lab facilitates this.

In Europe it is customary and legal to release dogs if the wounded animal is still alive and departs from his bed in front of the dog. On larger boars, over 100 pounds, and on big red deer, the dogs act as bay dogs rather than catch dogs. Even in bay situations Raoul has taken a pounding from wild boars that are very aggressive.

Raoul mixes it up with a wounded wild sow.

I had a chance to watch Raoul track and catch a sow of about 100 pounds. She had been wounded in both front legs during a big drive in Germany. There was amazing little blood for about 300 meters to the wound bed. A whitetail, wounded in the same way, would have left much more sign. Raoul worked on lead until he jumped the sow; then once released, he caught her in a 100 meter chase. She had no tusks, but you could see that Raul was experienced and not taking unnecessary risks as he held her for the knife. He knew his game well.

I think that Hank Hearn in Mississippi and Patrice Stoquert in France would understand one another pretty well. Their own languages may be English and French, but they both speak the same dialect of “Lab”. Both men agree that responsiveness and brains are the most important things to look for in a tracking dog. Hank believes in a tough, patient duck dog sort of Lab, not the hyper field-trial type that has to be trained with heavy applications of e-collar. Patrice would agree although he uses the British Lab rather than the American type.

Tracking wounded big game is not a command and obey exercise like the classic American retriever trial. It’s a matter of working in partnership with your dog.