New Jersey Special Wildlife Permit Certifications

by Andy Bensing

On Sunday morning July 10, 2011 I had the pleasure of judging 2 NJ dog handlers, Joe Lowry and Don Kline, for their certification test so they could participate in the NJ experimental blood tracking program. As a requirement to be on the special permit, NJ requires permittees to pass the United Blood Trackers' UBT-I evaluation. Both handlers traveled 2 ½ hours from NJ to Hamburg PA for me to administer the certification. It was a long drive for a short UBT-I line but the bonus was that the location was in a state forest right across the street from Cabela's!

Click on the map to enlarge

Joe's dog Greta, a 2 year old Drahthaar, was the first dog up and basically drilled the line and easily passed the evaluation. You can see from the GPS map that she was directly on the line 95% of the time except for the first turn which she cut short by winding the second leg. Greta motored down the 500 meter line in 11 minutes never missing a beat. Although time is not a factor in the UBT-I evaluation, her speed and accuracy was quite impressive. Actually she would have been done in ½ the time but Joe downed her 4 or 5 times along the way to stop and look for blood and confirm the correct course.


Joe Lowry with Greta

 Don's dog Jager, a robust 2 year old wire haired dachshund, was the second dog up. Jager went directly down the first leg with perfect accuracy but ran off the first turn and was called back. After restarting, Jager carefully picked his way down the second leg and found the wound bed with no problem but drifted off the line right after the wound bed and was called back a second time. At the call back, Don reported that he knew his dog's head was up and he was off the line and not tracking before I called him back. This was as much a handling error as a dog error. Just as in natural tracking, when your dog is off the line and you know it, during a test you are allowed to take him back to a known correct spot on the line. Don should have picked up his dog when he saw his head was up and gone back to the wound bed that was close by. He could have easily restarted him at that known location on his own without having been called back by the judge. The rest of Jager's line was very good and Don and Jager passed the evaluation.

Don Klein with Jager

A special thank you has to go out to Darren Doran, the NJ permit coordinator. Darren organized the event and also served as an apprentice judge.

In the back row Darren Doran and Andy Bensing, in the front row Joe Lowry with Greta and Don Klein with Jager