I got my start in tracking in the fall of 1998. I was 15 back then and my father brought home a soon to be rabbit tracking machine. The minute the beagle pup hit the ground
I was glued to his side. Following
careful instruction from my father, I molded the pup into a finely tuned
tracker. From the moment my dog circled
its first rabbit I was hooked on hounds.
We went on to develop some of the top beagles in the state of Wisconsin. Along with beagling, I was slowly becoming a
hunting fanatic. Many long nights spent
tracking wounded game, only to come up empty and disappointed, encouraged me to find a solution to this ethical issue.
In the summer of 2009 I began working with a slow tracking beagle on
blood tracks, and slowly the hound impressed me with his ability to finish
tracks successfully.
To say I was green in blood tracking training would be an understatement.
Laying deer blood lines was as far as I went with the hound. I knew none of the information I know now on
the art of using dogs to recover wounded game.
I laid a few 100 yard lines using an astronomical amount of blood and of
course the dog followed the ridiculously overdone blood trail to the end where
he rejoiced over a non fleshed deer hide.
The amount of scent that was placed along my first artificial lines must
have been overwhelming to the hound. I
have to chuckle at the way I started this past time that slowly became an
obsession.
Throughout the fall of 2010 I took 13 tracks and recovered 1
deer. I learned a lot on those 13
tracks; however, I had barely scratched the surface of the finer points of
wounded game recovery. Over the next 2
years I learned basically through trial and error and from John Jeanneney's book. I researched through literature and by prying
at any tracker that would talk to me. I
continue to learn each day and take in all information. I am a firm believer that adapting and
molding training methods is crucial to producing successful dogs.
My example of change is my decision to change
breeds to become a more efficient tracker.
After experiencing numerous setbacks with beagles and water barriers, I
made the decision to switch to bloodhounds.
I purchased Boomer, my prized bloodhound, in the early spring of
2012. He had come from law enforcement
bloodlines and his tracking skills revealed themselves early. Boomer’s skills were far superior to those of
the beagles I had worked with in the past.
He was completing 400 yard tracks before 4 months of age, and I was
impressed and eager to get him on some live tracks. In Boomer’s first hunting season we took over
60 tracks and recovered just over 40% of the deer. Boomer will turn one year of age this next
month. He is my most valued possession
and an excellent worker.
I have recently added a female to our tracking team. Her name is Riley and she is 3 months
old. She will be slowly worked into the
equation this next fall, but so far she shows incredible tracking prowess. I have also taken on the task of training a
hound for a client in western Wisconsin.
I lucked out on this dog because the pup is a natural. The training has been a huge success. I am excited about the upcoming tracking
season and eager to see what we are capable of achieving. You can follow Bloodhound Deer Tracking
Services on Facebook click here.
Riley and Boomer |
2 comments:
Do you train dogs for their owners?
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Greetings from Spain
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