The misconception was expressed by a passionate deer hunter who is looking for a puppy that would be a good tracking prospect. One sentence that he wrote really made me think. He said "I'm not looking for a dog to spend my time traveling with tracking for Deer Search Inc. or United Blood Trackers, or the like, but want a family dog that I can work with to help out local friends should they need it."
John and I are members of both organizations, Deer Search and United Blood Trackers, but I have never thought that we actually track for these organizations; we track for local hunters who need our help. These days we get more calls locally that we can handle so very rarely we would drive further than an hour. Most of our calls this last season have been within 25 miles or so. I know some handlers who travel further. Andy Bensing from Pennsylvania has to travel far as in his own state blood tracking is illegal. He travels to Maryland and New Jersey because he is so passionate about blood tracking; he loves it - he loves to train tracking dogs and he loves to track. But his situation is exceptional, and hopefully will change next year as it is quite likely that blood tracking with dogs will become legal in PA as well.
A huge majority of handlers get a dog to track for themselves, family members and friends, and for local hunters once they feel that their dog is a competent tracker. The problem is that dogs learn with experience and they have to get a decent volume of work to become good trackers. There is just no substitute for real tracking. You can train a dog on artificial lines only up to a certain level. A dog might quickly realize that tracking a fake blood line is just a game, and it is a different situation from pursuing a real wounded deer. If you are planning to have a dachshund mainly as a pet and family companion and expect to track only a couple of deer a season, your dog will never realize his potential and will not become a reliable tracker. He needs to do a lot of real tracking, especially in the first few seasons, as he needs to learn on the job.
These first few years might be difficult and trying. Most of the time you have no control over what calls you get from other hunters. Some deer are not mortally wounded and it is very unlikely that you can recover them. A young dog might not be experienced enough for some challenging tracking situations. Backtracks are particularly tough for a young dog, and the same goes for tracking in a deer-rich area abundant with many fresh tracks of live deer crossing a path of the wounded one, the one your dog is supposed to track. Novice trackers, especially the ones with novice dogs, need support and encouragement! They need to learn from others and organizations such as United Blood Trackers can help enormously. An online message board where a member can post a question or share her tracking experience is invaluable. Handlers can also find other trackers in their area and train together. This is a big help for somebody who is just starting and actually can see how training is done in the field and get a valuable hands-on experience.
So why people join United Blood Trackers. I am Membership Director and have access to info listed on applications. These are just few examples:
1. Deer hunting is a passion of mine. Since I primarily bow hunt, I've had many opportunities to track questionably hit deer over the years. It started as a means to minimize wasted deer, but has evolved into a enhancement of the sport that I already love. I like the challenge of finding a deer almost as much as I do hunting and harvesting them for myself. I've only been at it for one season, but I'm hooked.
2. To help other blood trackers and others who need our help in recovering animals, also to learn more, and also to make it legal in ALL counties in Texas.
3. I am training my first tracking dog, and I am looking for every resource available to make him successful.
4. I am interested in tracking with my dachshund, bloodtracking workshops, information from experienced handlers, reading about other peoples finds with their dogs.
5. My dog is young and driven. She has proven herself well in the field and on mock lines. I would like to enter her in some tracking competitions, contribute, and learn from other handlers.
6. We recently brought home our first tracking dachshund and would like to network with others interested in tracking wounded deer.
7. I am purchasing a blood tracker pup in the the next 6 weeks. I want to learn as much as possible. Plan to train the pup as a whitetail tracker and make myself and my dog available to track deer for family, friends and any hunters that want our help. My goal is to help find lost deer in this area, we have one of the highest deer concentrations in Michigan. Very frustrating to see the many deer lost each year. My brother and I do a lot of bow hunting and I have wanted a blood tracker for many years.
8. Want to get better/learn from others.
9. I trained many dogs, but never a blood tracker. I don't want to make irreversible mistakes and need answers before it's to late. There are lots of people loosing deer here that I could help.
Let me finish this post with a picture of four UBT members who occasionally train together. I received it from Chris Barr from Indiana, who wrote:
On October 18, Joe Walters, Ray Holohan, Dan Forystek and I all got together at Ray's home in Illinois for a little dachshund gathering. Ray laid 3 tracks on Friday evening and we ran the dogs on them Saturday morning. After the tracks we let the dogs run in Ray's 4 acre rabbit pen. Then we had home made apple cake and raisen bran muffins made by Ray's wife Claudia (excellent). Ray and Dan both have 1 1/2 year old litter mates out of Henry Holt's Bear, and Neal Meyer's Chloe.
Gerti's track was 440 yards with what Ray decribed as "a little less than 4 oz of blood". She did pretty well. The best part of the track was a squirrel that ran right in front of her. Of course, she took the bait hook-line-and-sinker and wanted to give chase. It was great because I saw the squirrel as Gerti saw it and broke off her track. I was able to immediately correct her to re-inforce that we were there to track, not squirrel hunt. She finished well and I was pretty excited as this was her first track since July 4th.
Attached is the motley crew. Ray with Rosco, Joe with Doc, Dan with Ishe (sp??) and me with Gerti. We had a blast.
BTW, tomorrow (January 8) Ray Holohan and Joe Walters will be representating United Blood Trackers at Outward Bound - Adventure Sports Show in Kankakee, IL. For more ino and directions click here. Come and say hi and meet the dogs!
No comments:
Post a Comment