"Von Moosbach-Zuzelek" dachshunds: tracking wounded big game comes first

It looks like the use of dogs for recovery of wounded big game is spreading rapidly. At present a lot handlers and dogs are providing this invaluable service to hunters. We are happy that "von Moosbach-Zuzelek" dachshunds that have come from our breeding continue to play important role in finding deer, bear and elk for hunters in many states.

October 12: Congratulations to Walt Dixon from Tully, NY on a great weekend of tracking. "This is the first of two emails with photos of "Ari's great adventure" on Saturday. She went two for two on difficult calls. The bowhunter in this case hit the deer too far back, in the intestinal area, according to him. The buck was hit around 6 pm on Friday and Saturday morning we went to the hit site about 9:30 am. The arrow had some partially digested particles and brown film on it. There was no visible hair or blood at the hit site. Ari was able to track it about 300 yards to a river with no visible sign, but then acted unsure of herself. She seemed to be checking the river as thought the deer had gone in. I decided to take her back to the hit site to see if she'd follow a different path, and told the bowhunter that if she came the same way we'd have to just stick with her because we had absolutely no sign to contradict. Ari took the same path and at the river she checked around then decided to follow the bank to the east. Every so often she'd check the water then come back up the bank and about 150 yard along the river bank the hunter following me said he saw blood. Within the next 75 yards we recovered the deer dead along the river bank! The bowhunter was amazed!
The picture shows Walt with Ari (our Billy's sister) now 10.5, and her young nephew Dachs.

This was a second deer that Walt Dixon's Ari (Ariel von Moosbach-Zuzelek) recovered that Saturday. Walt wrote: Here's the second difficult recovery Ari made on Saturday. This call came in as we finished our first recovery and the bowhunter stated that he had 60 yards of blood, but felt it was a good hit. I had Denise Sobolewski take the lead with Ari and in dry, sunny, breezy conditions they had no sign until about the 300 yard mark where Denise spotted some blood. She continued to trust Ari and found only a couple more spots of blood until she hollered "we've got your deer" at about 700 yards. What continues to amaze me is how a good tracking dog sticks with it and apparently can smell something to follow under very challenging conditions. Ari went 2 for 2 on her "great adventure Saturday!"



 

This Michigan buck recovered by Maggie (Danka von Moosbach-Zuzelek). By the way, Maggie is Ari's younger sister.  Her owner Michael Polavin said: This is the picture of the buck Maggie found for this girl last night. The buck was shot with a crossbow at 45 yds. They tracked for a quarter of a mile. Arrow shaft broke & came out. Once that happened it stopped bleeding. They looked for hours. Finally they called for Maggie. I was too tired/sore to go out tracking and told Doug he could take Maggie. She tracked it down in 5 minutes. Doug said they never would have found it w/o Maggie. Once the deer stopped bleeding it doubled back on its track. W/o Maggie they were all looking in the wrong direction. They girl cried once Maggie found him, I wouldv'e too!!!! It was her first deer.

October 15: First recovery of the season for Kevin Armstrong and Karma von Moosbach-Zuzelek from Naples, NY. The track was 9 hours old, around 500 yards. The deer never took a bed. Kevin said "It was pure joy to watch my now completely mature tracking dog repeatedly correct herself and straighten out difficult turns in difficult terrain with all the oddities that our Bristol Hills gullys impose on scent. I'm mighty proud of my little tracking dog."

November 1: Heavy overnight rain, hours of sustained high winds, and coyote interference could have prevented Kevin Armstrong's Karma from finding this deer. But it didn't. 14 hour old trail.

September 24: Stan Kite and his Rilla von Moosbach-Zuzelek got their first legitimate find. Stan wrote: Older son (Bunk) called and told me he had a high shoulder hit, with exit low and back--I knew he gave me an accurate description, so I was confident. Deer was slightly quartering toward at shot. We knew deer would die due to gut on arrow, but didn't know what vitals were hit. We waited about 2-1/2 hours, then Lee (younger son), Bunk, Rilla and I set off to see what we could find. Hit sight revealed no blood or other matter. Rilla was very anxious, took a quick sniff and headed off. She circled around about a 10 yd radius, coming back close to the hit site. I restarted her, and this time she "vacuumed" extensively around the hit site, then angled off with nose to the leaves. After 20 yds or so, she really started pulling with all her might (this was evident by how hard the briars and brush were whacking my face-LOL) She missed a check to the left, but quickly recovered the trail and was back, pulling hard with nose glued to the forest floor. After a few minutes, I saw that tell-tale white belly laying there. I screamed "WE GOT IT", but the boys were back a ways looking for blood and couldn't understand me. I was glad to shout it again, but louder! Rilla went right to the deer, biting and grabbing it before I could catch up. What a proud moment to have BOTH MY SONS with me for our first find! To make a long story just a little shorter, arrow caught top of one lung, liver and gut. Entrance left no blood, and exit was completely plugged, leaving no visible blood. Bottom line--this deer would have been found by a couple people doing a grid search, but that would have taken quite a bit longer than the 10 minutes it took Rilla. Both sons said several times they never saw a drop of blood the whole track, and they are very experienced trackers. Yep, the little girl earned her supper tonight, but more importantly, she earned the respect of her "two-legged brothers".

September 21: first day of Michigan youth hunt and first track of year for
Moose von Moosbach-Zuzelek with Kyle Stiffler.

October 26: Susie Garner from Ohio wrote about her tracking experience with Summer von Moosbach-Zuzelek. Second cousin, Aleisha, shot a nice little 8 pointer last night - her first buck - at her Grandpa's house - just down the road. Summer and I went and tracked it for her this morning. Summer did great. I don't think Aleisha would have had a problem finding it though. It wasn't far from where it was shot. But it gave Summer and I some quality tracking time together. She did great and was very upset that 'her' deer was being drug away. Like most dachshunds, she believes in finders keepers. The only bad part is she seriously needed a bath when we got back home

October 22: Darren Doran from NJ and his Theo von Moosbach-Zuzelek found this buck 36 hours after it had been shot. Unfortunately coyotes got there first.

 

Another fine buck for Darren Doran from NJ and his Theo von Moosbach-Zuzelek.

October 13: Pete Martin's Lisa von Moosbach-Zuzelek found this bear for Vito Marsico

 

 

This and the next two pictures show Bre (we called her Uschi von Moosbach-Zuzelek). She is a Sky/Mielikki puppy, born May 10, 2013, and she was the one who had the most coat. Her owner Ronnie Haney wrote "These are Bre's first finds. A doe and tow bucks taken by my grandchildren during Youth Rifle season here in Okla. The doe find was impressive as the deer made two 90 degrees and went into heavy thicket before expiring. Bre led us directly to it. Man I was so proud. The smaller buck was an 8 hr track with misty rain. She was a bit slower and with several corrections in a 200 yd trail due to the wet condition. This was her second find. The larger buck taken by my Granddaughter was an easy find and her (Bre's) third for the day. This one was just at sundown. Little Bre and me too for that matter was tired that evening as two were taken in am and with one during evening."

 

 

October 30: Pam Maurier from New Hampshire and Tucker (Storm von Moosbach-Zuzelek) found another buck.

October 27: Congrats to Ray Maurier and Tucker (Storm von Moosbach-Zuzelek)
on the doe found for young hunters.