A busy weekend for two "von Moosbach-Zuzelek" tracking dachshunds

It was a very busy weekend for two dachshunds out of our breeding - Quenotte (Joeri/Keena) and Gerti (Billy/Gilda).

This is a first tracking season for Quenotte and Kevin Wilson, who is a year-round bowhunter and District leader for Suburban Whitetail Management of Norther Virginia.  Kevin wrote:

This was the first weekend archery hunting in the local parks.  Here are a couple of photos from two recoveries.  The first was a double-lunged doe that went less than a 100 yards from my shot.  We did this one for a warm-up.  The second deer was shot by another hunter, went about 200 yards with very little visible blood and died in an awful thicket.  We would never have found it without Quenotte's assistance. 

Quenotte and I learning some great tracking lessons and having a lot of fun in the process.

Note: She is not tracking in her leash with the pink skulls.  She just wears it after/before actual tracking.  We use the orange polypropylene leash for tracking.

Chris Barr and his two and a half year old Gerti are experienced trackers. Chris wrote:

Gerti had a busy start to her tracking with the youth season opener on Saturday. We had three tracks for the day.    

 

1. The first was a 13 year old boy who’d shot a doe in the leg. He believed it to be a lower front leg hit. We found bone fragments and very little blood. Gerti tracked for a few hundred yards. I’m pretty confident that she was on the correct deer as the one heavy hoof print indicated a deer on 3 legs. The problem we encountered is that almost immediately we were off the hunter’s property with which he had permission. There were ½ million dollar homes in the area and I was pretty nervous that we were going to make someone upset. With no more evidence than we had and the circumstances, I chose to pull out. I felt bad, but I wasn’t willing to risk trespassing and there were too many landowners in the immediate area to possibly gain permission from them all. 

 

2. The second came while in route to the first. Caleb Sorrells, 15, is pictured with his 8^th bow deer of his life. By the way, he’s vowed to never take a deer with a gun. Caleb has provided the first track of Gerti’s first two seasons, and the second of her third season. All total, we’ve tracked 5 deer for him and found 4. His dad filmed his hunt and after reviewing the tape, they felt they had a 1 lung, possible liver hit. They tracked until the blood became pretty sparse which is when they called. Gerti and I arrived about 2:00. We took up the track and 275 yards later, we found the doe. It wasn’t a perfect track, had a few corrections, but it all worked out at the end. Charles videoed portions of the track. When I get an edited copy, I’ll send it to you.  

 

 

3. After Caleb’s track I hustled home to prepare to take my daughter’s boyfriend out for an evening youth hunt. Jake had football practice in the morning. He’s a stud running back for Franklin who’s stacked up nearly 1000 yards and 10 touchdowns in the first 6 games of the season. I got home, flew around the house, took off and we were on stand by about 5:40. At around 6:45, I felt a frantic tap on my leg which I was sure meant that Jake had seen a deer. I turned to see a small buck emerging from a small stand of trees. It was about a 75 yard shot which resulted in a leg hit. Having learned from my own mistakes, and from reading John’s book, numerous times, we just bailed out of the stand and went home to get Gerti. We put her down within an hour of the shot and away she went. There was little to no blood at the hit site and after about 150 yards of her pulling and breathing frantically, I restarted her  (be sure to reference John’s book regarding trusting your dog). We re-started and away we went almost step for step the trail we’d just taken. Once down in some really nasty vines and briars, Gerti started to open. Still with no blood or other sign, I radioed my buddy who’d come along and told him I was just going to see where Gerti took me. We made it through a stand of timber and into a standing bean field with Gerti pulling harder than ever. Still not completely convinced, I looked down and saw where the deer and fallen and knocked down some beans and left some blood. (Confirmation for the dope on the rope). We tracked through the beans another 100 yards and jumped the deer. After some more excitement at the end, Jake was standing over his first buck with Gerti attempting to chew off a ham like a grizzly bear. 

 

We hung the deer in my garage and I still made my 25 year class reunion by 10:00 p.m. Luckily for all involved, it rained all day Sunday. Gerti and I sacked out on the couch nearly all afternoon watching football. WHAT A LIFE FOR BOTH OF US!!!

Sorry for the long post.

Take care,

Chris and Gerti………and Oscar.

 

Congrats to Kevin and Chris and their dogs!