A good start of the blood tracking season

Today we found in our Inbox two e-mails with reports and pictures of the first finds of the current blood tracking season.


The first e-mail was about Michael Ocetnik's Eddie. Eddie is just a 7.5 month old pup from our E-litter. He is full of energy and very eager to track. This is what Michael wrote:


Today the deer was hit in the abdomen area and little blood was found except for the arrow near the hit site. Eddie was fired up; he gets very excited when he gets in the truck. When I arrived I tried to walk him but that was no good, so I wore his butt out with a tennis ball for about five minutes of playing fetch. This really relaxed him so the walk to beginning was good. Eddie actually took his time, he even spent a few seconds smelling the arrow and the leaves! It was enjoyable watching him track at a walk. He was very deliberate and didn't wander off like he would normally. The deer had been hit just a few hours earlier so the trail was very fresh. Eddie found the deer in tall grass at the bottom of a ridge, in fact I wasn't sure why he had stopped until I saw the deer. He wasn't to sure what to make of it. After much praise he was like a hungry wolverine. I let him eat pieces of the liver and kidney. He knew I was very happy with him.

Michael, this is a very creative approach to use the ball to take some excessive energy off Eddie. What an excellent idea! Good luck with future calls.

The second e-mail came from Dave W. whose Arlo found two deer on one day. Arlo is 5.5 years old but Dave got him just few months ago. This talented dog was not a right fit for his first owner. We got Arlo back and after holding on to him for a over a year, putting a field championship on him, we looked for a working home for him. Well, it is not easy to rehome a dog with some issues (extreme possessiveness). Luckily, Dave saw a lot of promise in Arlo and with some help from Andy Bensing, a professional dog trainer and president of the United Blood Trackers, he persevered. It was such a pleasure to read Dave's message: "Arlo made me so proud. Thanks again for him and keep tracking." Below there is a picture of Arlo with his first find of the season.