Great tracking season for Sally and Petey from Vermont

Sally Marchmont and Petey (Matthias v Moosbach-Zuzelek) are a tracking team in Vermont, and we wrote about them before. Petey (Buster/Keena son) was born on March 19, 2007 so this was his second real tracking season (he was just seven months old in fall 2007). I could not be happier with Sally's report.


Hi Jolanta and John -

You will be happy to hear that Petey and I have had another successful tracking season. We took 20 calls and found 8. We had good tracking weather and hunters that were really good to work with. I had hoped to get more calls, but I did get some repeat customers which was nice to see.

During our training this summer, I managed to get Petey to slow down fairly well, but it was a completely different story once we started taking calls. He gets so excited and worked up, and I know he's less effective that way. I had hoped he would be a little slower this year, but it looks like it's going to take more time.

Over the first part of the season, I was beginning to think that I was picking him up too soon when I wasn't seeing blood, and it seemed as though when I picked him up and brought him back, it threw him off. He would seem to lose momentum and focus, almost as if he thought that I was telling him he'd gone the wrong way. So I decided to trust him more and let him go longer without seeing blood, with good results. One of the pictures attached is of a beautiful, 200-pound, 8-pointer we found for a lady who had shot him in the pouring rain. The rain had washed all the blood away so I had no choice but to trust Petey completely. He made short work of it, so it was a lesson well learned for me.

The best thing Petey did this year was during a track but had nothing to do with tracking. We had gone into a mass of pricker bushes after a deer when he slipped out of his harness. The prickers were so thick that I couldn't see the ground and it took a minute before I realized what had happened. I had no idea where he was but within 30 seconds of calling, he was at my feet.

Tom and Chris DiPietro were a big help again this year. Chris hurt her knee so couldn't track for most of the season (she's having surgery next week), but Tom and I took some calls together. Musket had another good year. He's in great shape and still going strong. We're having our table again at the big hunting show, and we're making plans to do a lot more advertising next year.

Petey continues to be strong and healthy, and an absolute pleasure to live with. Merry Christmas to you both and a happy and healthy New Year. Sally