A long and exciting track for Kevin Armstrong and Karma

Karma's #7 recovery this season was a long exciting track. The hunter swore that he had a chest hit. He followed bright blood 100 yards to a bed and jumped the deer. After jumping the deer he followed blood for another 100 yards then lost the trail.

When Chris Martinek and I arrived we found paunch hair and bright blood at the hit site. We got off to a poor start due to many other deer in the area, walking on the same trails as our wounded buck. Eventually we followed our deer the 200 yards the hunter had marked. Then we added another 50 yards of trail out to a paved road. We lost the trail at the road. After 1/2 hour of searching we began to suspect a back track. Sure enough, when we went back we found blood spatters going back on the trail. Karma soon found the turn and took me through suburban door yards and across driveways. The hunter confirmed that we had tracking permission as we went from one property to another.

The trail was confirmed by an occasional drop of blood. After 1/2 mile the deer was veering to the west, away from the homes. Karma soon found a second bed. The blood leaving this bed was much fresher than the blood leading to it, so I knew we had jumped the deer. Now Karma was locked on to this deer. I knew that nothing could break her concentration. Rather than back off I decided to try to run the deer down. Away we went through swamp and thicket for over a mile. From time to time the trail was confirmed by a drop of blood. From time to time I would find a drop of blood with the fingers pointing back at us, indicating that the deer was moving in front of us and watching his back trail. In another 1/2 mile we were going through water nearly to the tops of my 18 inch pac boots. I took this to be a last ditch effort of a desperate deer trying to lose the trackers.

I was right. As we came out of the swamp and up a bank covered in rose, wood vine, and thorns, there lay our buck. He was still alive but his head was drooping as in sleep. The deer was 10 yards from Karma when I spotted him. I gave the hunter my dog lead and pruners to hold as I moved in for a killing shot. At 5 yards I cocked the hammer of my .44 mag. Hearing this the buck leaped to his feet and fled. The laser was on his chest so I squeezed.

The lucky bullet severed his spine, knocking him down and allowing me to dispatch him as humanely as possible.

Breathless, the hunter and tracker watched in celebration as Karma claimed her buck. We walked exactly 1 mile from where we dragged the buck to the road and the where the truck was parked. So, if we straitened out the trail we had probably tracked the deer from 1.5 to 2 miles. Maybe more.

The once skeptical, now totally impressed hunter, gave Deer Search a very generous donation.

Sorry about the poor quality picture. I had forgotten my camera and have to be content with a cell phone pic.

Kevin

Great future ahead for Andy and Ruby, a very promising blood tracking team from southern Maryland

This is a first blood tracking season for Any Pederson from southern Maryland and his wirehaired dachshund Ruby. Ruby is a daughter of our Billy and Pepper Berger von Arno Yergz owned by Gail and Art Berger, and she was born December 13, 2008. Andy has been a volunteer tracker at the local Navy Base for the past 20 yrs. and getting Ruby has fulfilled his dream. The future looks bright for this promising team. Thank you Andy for sharing your experience with us!

12 Oct 09:
Ruby and her first encounter with the real thing. She was fun to watch; when she came up on the doe, she laid down about 5 feet away and pondered her options. She soon started licking up blood and chewing the ear - it was an effort to keep her off her trophy. It was not a difficult deer to track - Ruby covered the 120 yds in 4 minutes.

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4 Nov 09:
Ruby convinced this hunter that she was right about where the buck ran off - no blood was evident at the hit, and the hunter opined that he heard the buck run off in another direction. The 250 yd track took Ruby less than 5 minutes to cover. The buck could have easily been lost.

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21 Nov 09:
A very difficult track of ~175 yds that took about 10 minutes - very dense cover. There was very little blood in evidence after the first ~50 yds of the bow hit. Ruby lost the track a few times, but managed to pick it up to the end. The hunter credited Ruby with saving a potentially lost deer.

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25 Nov 09:
This buck could have been sight-tracked, but my friend called me off my stand and waited for me to get Ruby. Just after the hunter told me he thought the buck went off to the right of our track, we came across his broken arrow. I did not see much blood - not a pass-thru and the hit was high. Ruby ran the ~150 yd track under 5 minutes. My friend commented: Awesome!

Blood tracking with a Jagdterrier

We received this e-mail and pictures from a fellow Deer Search member - Marc Niad, from Yorktown Heights, NY, who tracks with a Jagdterrier Dakota. Marc says:

"I am happy to report that two Westchester County, NY bow hunters were greatly elated and appreciative Deer Search and of my dog Dakota's ( German Jagdterrier) ceaseless efforts which helped find their bowshot deer.


The first picture is of a 7 pt. buck shot on 11/6/09. The track was initiated 6 hours after the shot. The wounded deer crossed two roads, then walked further down the second road and subsequently turned back into the woods. It finally ventured up a hill and expired where Dakota then found it. As you can imagine, the hunter was very appreciative.

The second picture is of a doe that was gut shot on 10/25/09. This time Dakota started the track 7 hours after the shot and found the deer within a short time. Again, the result was another grateful hunter who was rewarded with his deer."

Great job Marc and Dakota!

Rough terrain, no blood, but easy recovery for Joeri

posted by John Jeanneney

We have been getting most of our deer calls in the big woods of rough, mountain country. It’s a red oak acorn year and the smart deer are up in the big timber where there is plenty of feed, but where it’s remote enough to keep the hunting pressure low. Last Saturday we had promising hit site evidence that led to a very long track with occasional verifying blood. After two miles of ledges, briars and logging slash we came to an old, cold bed with just enough blood to assure as that we had been tracking the right deer. The only satisfaction was very good dog work.

Yesterday's scenario was less promising at the beginning, but this time Joeri found the deer. Again the hit site was up almost at the crest of a mountain again, but this time we rode in style on a very powerful utility vehicle.

The hunter had found very little blood (four drops), but Joeri had no difficulty picking up the scent line which was less than four hours old. He started off “right” according to the hunter, but then Joeri veered off to the left. The hunter had just found another drop of blood farther up the mountain, but Joeri knew where he wanted to go, and that way was down. Hanging on to trees, I worked down the steep slope after him. And there was the dead buck, tucked away in a tiny, deep ravine that would have been easy to miss in an area search. He had gone only 150 meters by the GPS. The shot placement, with a 12 gauge rifled slug, had been almost perfect, but there was almost no bleeding even in the bed where the buck died.

Our new Thanksgiving tradition - pictures of our dogs

We are thankful as it has been a good year for us and everybody here is doing well (humans and canines). We have not lost any dogs to illness or old age, and added Mischa and Paika to our pack. We were sad to let Emma go to a new home but she is doing great there. I am starting a new tradition this Thanksgiving by posting current pictures (most of them taken today) of all our dogs (11 dachshunds and one beagle). I’ll continue to do it on future Thanksgiving days. I skipped all the titles - it is just pictures and registered names. We start with our oldest- Alfi.

Alfi von der Hardt-Hardt-Höhe, born November 5, 1997

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Asko von der Drachenburg, born June 20, 1999

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Elli von Moosbach-Zuzelek, born June 13, 2001

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Gilda v Moosbach-Zuzelek, born March 27, 2002

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Billy von Moosbach-Zuzelek, born February 4, 2004

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Keena v Moosbach-Zuzelek, born April 7, 2005

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Darin von Moosbach Zuzelek "Bernie", born October 15, 2005

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Mischa z Kmetónyho dvora, born May 20, 2006

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Joeri vom Nonnenschlag, born February 18, 2008

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Tom vom Linteler-Forst, born March 26, 2008

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Paika v Moosbach-Zuzelek, born March 30, 2009

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Stone Apple Rip, born June 2, 1999

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

Cleaning up the running grounds with Charlie Flexer's amazing CAT 297C

Our dogs need exercise and an opportunity to use their noses all year round. To provide this we have an 11 acre running enclosure with a good number of cottontails. The big patches of staghorn sumac between the feed strips had become badly overgrown, so we hired Charlie Flexer and his CAT 297C brush clearing machine to grind up the ten foot growth and shred it down to ground level. Charlie specializes in controlling the brush and young trees in beagle club running grounds, and he was already nearby clearing areas of our local New Scotland Beagle Club.

The shredded sumac in our enclosure will quickly resprout next summer, so we asked Charlie to work over about 2/3 of the area. White pines were dropped for winter shelter. The remainder of the sumac was left standing to provide food and cover for the rabbits this winter.

These videos show what an amazing machine the CAT 297C. Despite it size, it is agile and can do amazingly precise work. And it works fast. Of course this requires a highly skilled operator and Charlie is all of that. He worked one day from dawn to dusk, and accomplished what would have taken me months with hand tools.

Charlie arrived with a big Ford 550 truck and trailer carrying various attachments including a shearing tool capable of cutting 15 inch trees and a giant culti-packer designed to prepare food plots. Also on board were eight of his 20 beagles. Charlie staked these well-behaved hunting beagles out on a 50 foot chain with a drop chain for each hound. They were clean, well conditioned and clearly they loved the boss and their life riding the roads of the Northeast.

Charlie lives in Pennsylvania and can be reached at 570-279-0790.

A day after

Do bitches make better blood tracking dogs?

by John Jeanneney, Full Cry October 2009

“Bitches are better!” We’ve all heard these words start an argument in no matter what hunting dog sport. It’s no different when it comes to tracking dogs. And I must say that it’s usually the handlers who have tracked only with bitches who talk the loudest and are the most certain on this point.

Personally I’ve been gathering experience on the gender question for 34 years now and I don’t think it’s all that simple. Male and female dogs have different characters, just as boys and girls do, and these differences are strongest in the adolescent years.

I have found that young female tracking puppies “get it together” sooner than males. They are less rebellious and more eager to please; this makes for easier training. If you cull early, more females will make the grade than males. When it comes to staying focused on the line, they ignore the distractions of hot lines better than their brothers.

Adolescence is the real testing time. It tests the patience of the owner handler almost as much as having a teenage son. I fondly recall my own early teenage years, but I’m sure that my teachers didn’t have the same warm feelings. I was always in trouble and I was kicked out of class a good part of the time. The other spitball shooting wise asses in my class were all males too. This is the common pattern

In dogs adolescence usually begins around nine months of age. It is usually over before age two. In Bavarian Mountain Bloodhounds it is common for it to last for three years. Lab trainers, on the other hand, experience much fewer problems. Tracking dachshunds are somewhere in the middle. If you want to minimize adolescent down time, go with a female puppy.

In adulthood males begin to catch up and surpass many females that looked more promising before maturity I would like to believe that this is true of both dogs and humans. The male brain is working more efficiently now, at least in human, brain wave tests. The stronger disciplinary tactics, required for the “teenage” rebel are no longer necessary. The aggressiveness of the male is now focused on getting important jobs done.

A seasoned male is certainly more convenient to work with than a bitch that comes into heat just when there is the most tracking work to be done. Many bitches really fall apart at this time, but my best bitch ever did a great tracking job on the day she was bred. There are exceptions to every rule.

Whelping is another handicap for bitches. They shouldn’t track for the last four weeks of pregnancy, and then they are occupied with puppies for six weeks more. Once their mammary system is tucked up again, the brain still may not have returned to normal. I had one tracking bitch that completely lost her ability to track a wounded deer, even when there was a decent blood trial, for six months after weaning her pups.

At this point you are probably thinking, “Who needs this!” I’ll spay or neuter my pup; my vet is eager to the job. Wait a minute! Better yet wait a couple of years. For one thing it takes this long to make sure that your dog or bitch has the very superior abilities that would make it suitable for breeding.

There is another factor, which is difficult to explain. A neutered or spayed puppy grows up to be a dog without a gender. If the castration or spaying comes after maturity the gender personality is by then already established, and the surgical operation doesn’t change things very much.

As a handler I find that I can relate better to a dog that is male or a bitch that is female. There is definitely a difference between male and female company, but both mean something special when the handler/dog team are working a tough track on a long cold night. Working with a “steer” just isn’t the same thing. I’ve spoken about this with other experienced handlers, and they agree. They want to track with a canine that is definitely male or definitely female.

Whatever gender you choose is pretty much a matter of personal taste. If you are getting your first tracking partner, a calm, eager-to-please bitch puppy may be your best choice. Just don’t underrate the males. Basic ability is more important than gender.

Speaking for myself I have to admit that my two best tracking dogs ever were two bitches, Clary von Moosbach and Sabina von Moosbach-Zuzelek. But right now my own two top choices for tracking difficult calls are males. We’ve survived their difficult early years together, and now they calm, steady trackers with great desire to find their game.

Pictures of Radar's recoveries

Radar (Oak v Moosbach-Zuzelek) was born on January 18, 2009, and he is owned by Rex Marshall from Ohio. Being born so early in 2009, Radar had to wait a while for a chance to track "real deer". It finally happened. Two pictures below show deer that he tracked and found. More info about these recoveries is posted on our other blog.

This is an excellent start to Radar's blood tracking carrer!

A big night for Poppy and her first recovery

It was a big night for Poppy when she recovered her first deer. You can read a short report about it here. Congratulations Derek, and good luck!

Pictures from the DCA National Field Trial, Swatara Beagle Club, PA

The other day I finally put together albums for pictures taken in PA on October 12-15: the Metropolitan Washington Dachshund Club field trial and Dachshund Club of America National Field Trial.

These are the pictures of me with our dogs which placed at the National trial:

DCA National Field Trial Results Swatara Beagle Club, Middletown, PA (Total entry: 135)


OAAD - 23 Starters, Judges: Jerry Price and John Merriman

Place #2.Tommy - Tom vom Linteler-Forst


OAAB - 40 Starters, Judges: John Merriman and Robert Schwalbe

Place #4 Mischa - Mischa z Kmetonyho Dvora
NBQ Paika - Paika v Moosbach-Zuzelek SW (placed #3 prevoius day)

Mischa (above)

Paika and Mischa (2 pictures by Sidney Stafford)

FCB - 38 Starters, Judges: Jean Dieden and Robert

Place # 4 Elli - FC Elli v Moosbach-Zuzelek SW

Trust your dog - part two

Since our last post on the issue of trusting your dog http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/2009/10/trust-your-dog.html we have heard many more stories falling into this category.

Scott Semrau wrote:

When I joined Deer Search & apprenticed for a season, my "Master Handler" Ed Avis hammered this home. Trust your dog, not the hunters. It happened again. The hunters are sure the deer did not go the way the dog is heading. WRONG! The nose knows. Another 9 point for Buddy.




Certainly it is easier to trust the dog when the dog is matured and experienced. But for novice handlers working with young dogs the issue of trust is not that simple. We received this e-mail from Jeff from Wisconsin who is tracking with Chloe (Emmy von Moosbach-Zuzelek) who is 19 months old.

" I haven't sent any emails this tracking season as it has been an extremely frustrating one. In the last 2 weeks, I have had 21 calls to go on and out of those 21, I have gone on 10. The season started out slow with calls but picked up rapidly! The first few calls were definitely not killing shots and I'm quite sure the deer were not fatally shot but I was eager to get started. A number of the calls were tracks that were 12 hours old or more in dry conditions. I had the word out to a lot of hunters about calling me with easy tracks, but those never came. As the frustration built early in the season, I was able to talk with Larry Gohlke a few times and share my concerns with "my" tracking methods. He felt I had to trust my dog more and let her work farther on a line with no visible blood. Much to my surprise, the next few tracks had different outcomes.

One in particular was a lung shot deer which the hunter told me the buck ran into a corn field and then up on a oak ridge. After last blood, Chloe became confused but showed interest in going deeper into the corn. I pulled her off twice and tried to get her to focus on where the hunter claimed the deer ran. After no interest in the oaks, I told the hunter I was going to let Chloe do her job and I would follow her as far as she wanted to go. Long story short, she got on a hot trail scent and through the corn we went. Again, after approx. 150 yards of tugging I was ready to end the track as there was no visible blood. I stopped Chloe to calm her down and talk to her and let her know I didn't feel we were on the right track. As I knelt by her I looked down and there was a small pile of blood! I couldn't believe it! We went a bit farther and more blood. In total we trailed this deer over a half mile and most of the track was with limited or no visual blood. The hunter could not believe that was blood from his deer but he was the only one hunting the area.

Yesterday I went on another call and did not recover the deer, but had the same situation happen. Hunter shot the deer at 10 yards from a 20 ft. tree stand and thought he had hit the lungs and heart. Chloe picked up the blood trail which was about 3 ft. wide, spraying on trees and all over the place. Trailed the good blood about 100 yards and it stopped. Chloe continued down the trail again with no visual blood and we went a few hundred yards before she looked confused and began roam frantically. Took her back to last blood and start over again, she took another trail same story, nothing. After a search of all the trails, I decided to focus on the first trail. We passed the ribbon I put in the tree the first time we stopped and she was really digging and pulling. I remembered what Larry Gohlke had told me a few nights earlier about trusting the dog and let her work. Again I saw nothing that showed a deer had went this direction until I stopped Chloe to take a break and again I looked down and there I stood in a blood soaked deer bed!! Again this was approx 200 yards from last visual blood. Chloe found two more beds with blood in them but we were unable to recover this deer either.

I contacted Larry G. again to share my track with him and he is full of great tracking knowledge. He reassured me that recovery isn't always the most important factor and not emphasize stats how many calls and recoveries we have. He assured me the fact that she is learning and able to continue on tracks that distance with limited blood is a victory itself. Larry felt this deer may not be fatally shot as the arrow may have hit a rib and stayed between the ribs and front shoulder coming out low which made the blood trail so heavy at first and not hitting any vital organs.

The last three tracks have reconfirmed the fact that Chloe does know what she is doing and I have to have more confidence in her tracking abilities. She and I just want to recover one deer before the season ends! I know I have ready several articles by many great trackers about trusting the dogs nose and again I have found this out first hand."

Question about the scent of deer interdigital glands

Frank asked:

How long do you think the scent of the interdigital gland lasts after the hoof has been removed from the deer. I ask this because the last few training tracks I have done for my 5 month old Majestic hound consist of taking a deer leg on a stick and making a track and leaving the other deer leg at the end of the track. The pup has found the leg both times but there has not been any other deer tracks in the area. My next training session will be around allot of other deer tracks so would you want fresher legs than say a week old leg to compete with the live legs of the deer in the area. I hope your season is going well and thank you for your book it has really help me train my dog.

John replied:

I think that it makes a difference as to how you handle the deer hoof. I use a set of deer feet in tracking shoes over a month or more, on four or five different half mile tracks. In between tracks I store the tracking shoes, with hoofs attached, in a big plastic garbage bag in my chest freezer, and I suppose that this freezer storage helps to preserve the scent form the interdigital glands. The track itself is something that my dogs can follow after 24 hours. I imagine that a Majestic could do better than that.

On a track made with an aged deer hoof, we really don’t know whether the dog is following the scent of the interdigital gland, or just the smell of the rancid or rotting meat. There is much that we don’t know about what the dog actually perceives, but we do know that tracking shoes, or a deer foot on a stick, are good training devices.

Ability to self-correct is very important in a blood tracking dog (and husband)

Joeri's recovery #6 took place yesterday in Claverack, NY

John Jeanneney wrote:

Yesterday we had an interesting call down at a site in Columbia County about 45 miles away. The eight pointer had been hit by a Rage broadhead far back in the rib cage about half way down. I took young Joeri, who is doing very well but can always profit from more experience.

The arrow has entered and exited, but the interesting thing was that there was very little blood at the beginning and none after 75 yards. This lack of blood came about despite the fact that there was a two inch entry hole and a somewhat smaller exit hole. You see some strange things! The scent line was about 8 hours old.

Joeri worked slowly and carefully for about 300 yards, but then his body language showed that he knew he had run out of line. We started going back over the line we had just tracked, headed back to the last marker I had put up on blood. On the way back Joeri put his head down and began pulling hard to the left. “I’ve got the line now”, he said. Within 50 yards there was the dead deer.

I can’t be sure whether the deer backtracked from where Joeri ran out of line, or whether Joeri simply overshot a sharp turn and later corrected himself. Joeri communicates pretty well by body language, but he still leaves certain questions unanswered. Anyway he does correct himself. On this point Jolanta, my wife, believes that my dog can teach me something.

Below - the closeup of the last part of the track.

Karma finds a paunch-shot deer that was pushed too early

Kevin Armstrong wrote that "it was an interesting recovery. The hunter had pushed the paunch shot deer way too early and drove him several hundred yards on the afternoon and evening of 11/15/09. In the morning on 11/16/09 the trail was lost where the deer entered a standing corn field. By the time Karma and I arrived, in the mid afternoon the cornfield had been cut. Karma picked up the deer's trail on the marked line from the evening before and interestingly followed it from 20 to 40 yards off the bloodline. We went 1/4 mile with Karma pulling hard all the way, out of the clover, through a thicket, through the hardwoods to the standing corn which was now a field of corn stubble. Karma pulled hard down and across the corn stubble. At the opposite edge of the stubble field and the edge of another thicket lay the prize just feet from where the tractor and corn harvester had gone.

The elated hunter and I praised Karma as we had a little photo session.

The more I track with Karma the more I'm coming to believe that the scent trail is more a broad plume of scent rather than a narrow line of scent. Like wood smoke from a neighbors fireplace wafting through the neighborhood.

At times Karma was nearly 50 yards from the known blood line but she clearly had the scent in her nose and was just as excited as she would have been running through puddles of blood."

Cheri Faust and Danika from Wisconsin recover two deer for local hunters

We wrote about Cheri Faust's Danika (FC Danika vom Nordlicht TD SE) recently. She is having an incredible field trial season - she has seven first places and four Absolute wins in 19 trials. But this is not all! In the last week she has recovered two deer for Wisconsin hunters.

Cheri writes: "This deer was an 8-pointer that was shot the first time at 7:30 Saturday morning (one lung, diaphragm and liver) and then a second time in the neck 6 hrs later. He was recovered at 4:00 p.m. 250 yds from where the second shot was made. The only blood we had was at the start in some marsh grass. We crossed a green alfalfa field then worked along the edge of a standing corn field. Danika made a 90 degree turn into the corn, went in 8 rows, and made another 90 degree turn to the deer.

This was a 9-pointer that was gutshot Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. and recovered 800 yrds from the hit site at noon on Thursday. We had blood for the first 50 yds and then nothing until one spurt of blood on the trail in hardwoods next to where the deer was found in.

Both hunters were very happy having their deer recovered, and I was pretty happy with my dog!"

Fred Zoeller's blood tracking team includes a dachshund and a Bavarian

Fred Zoeller lives in Cooperstown, NY, and he is a member of Deer Search. His tracking team inludes a dachshund Cretchen (Demi von Moosbach-Zuzelek) and a Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound Minka. Below are the pictures of their recent recoveries.

Above - Cretchen

Minka

Great job Fred!

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."