John: After reading you book several times and about four different tracks using bottled blood and liver and a green hide over the past three weeks I finally got a chance to track a buck on the farm tonight. The buck ran about a hundred yards in real thick stuff( heath) with a very faint blood trail. I am not sure that it could have been followed by eye. I gave it about one and half hours to settle down and not sure about how hard the buck was hit. A light ran came as we waited. I went back to the barn and got the hound and loaded him in the ATV. I stopped about a tenth of a mile short of the spot where a saw a drop of blood near the location where the buck was shot. I lead the dog with the rope and collar we had been working with as described in your text. He picked up the trail at the point of impact and we took off into heavy cover. I could see no blood and slowed him down and got on my hands and knees as we went and I cannot express the joy when I saw a tiny droplet of blood on a leaf, with a boost of confidence we continued for a distance of about a hundred yards in thick tall grass and brushy trees to find the six pointer laying dead. At first the hound (Hercules) acted surprised to see an animal at the end of the track but in short order was licked the wound and worrying the carcass a little. I made over him as never before and fed him a tiny piece of liver. He was as proud as it he had found a bull elephant and I must confess so was I. Thanks for putting all the information in your book that I was able to work with Hercules on to achieve this goal.
Thank you Johnny and congratulations!
How is Elli?
ReplyDeleteMajron,
ReplyDeleteI am concerned about Elli. Got this evening back from a vet. We were hoping that tubes would come out but this did not happen. She has still a lot of bloody discharge so the tubes are going to stay till Tuesday. Antibiotics and antinflammatories got extended. I don't like the look of her belly telling the truth :( Her temp is normal, and she eats, drinks and walks the stairs slowly, so she is feeling not so bad. The vet also told me that had we waited with a surgery one more day, she would have probably died of septicemia as the tissue they took out was purple. Scary!
But if she eats and drinks its usually a good sign. Our dogs are fighters. My old Nova (se posts from Feb and March) she had several big operations of cancer and she got more than a year with us with good life quality and joy.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, John's "Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer" needs to receive an award recognizing it's contribution to hunting/dogs books in America. The content representing his experience with tracking dogs for thirty plus years along with the thoroughness, readability and organization he has put into it is an invaluable working book for the increasing number of hunters being attracted to this area of the sport of deer hunting. The constant testimonials I keep reading just like in this successful track with Hercules and Johnny along with my own success firmly shows what new hunters with proper chosen dogs and good (excellent) guidance can accomplish. I have no idea how to go about getting John's book up for award recognition but would hope that someone in this blog's audience would. I will testify any time for the worth of doing it.
ReplyDeletePat,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the great endorsement!