Tracking dogs for finding wounded big game. Also dachshunds for blood tracking, field trials, their breeding, training and more.
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Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Happy New Year to you and your tracking dogs!
We are joining Tuesday (in the picture) to wish all of you a Very Happy New Year! BTW, Tuesday will be bred this week to Kunox, and hopefully we will have some puppies born in nine weeks. Unfortunately, our waiting list is full and closed, and we are not taking more reservations.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Vonnie is starting to gain her handler's trust thanks to a good tracking job
This message from Mike Martien came on
Christmas Day. Mike lives in Monroe, LA, and his puppy Vonnie came from
our only 2014 litter of Tommy x Tuesday. In his message Mike refers to
Waldo, who was bred by Laurel Whistance-Smith and was sired by our Asko.
Thank you Mike!
Hope this message finds all well, and both of you
enjoying Christmas. Wanted to send you a
quick note on Vonnie. Things have been
really slow for us. Had 2 calls for
tracking, and both of them came while I was out of town with my work. However, we had the second live track for
Vonnie this evening.
A good friend of mine, Mark Hoffman, was hunting with his
daughter Gabby this evening, and knew I needed to give Vonnie more
experience. Gabby shot an 8 point, and
when Mark found blood, and where the deer left the food plot, he did exactly
what I wish all hunters would do, he marked the blood, and left to come get me
and Vonnie. Mark felt like the buck
wasn't hit great, and wanted to wait a little while before taking Vonnie in,
which was a good call on Mark's part.
When I put Vonnie down on the blood she immediately started following it
through the brush and down a steep hill.
I told Mark I wasn't sure she was still on it, while going down hill,
but when we made it to the bottom, we found more blood. She turned and dropped off into a small creek
bed with steep, bluff sides and went 20-30 yards, when we hit a log jam in the
creek and Vonnie started try to weave her way through it. I followed, but felt
confident she wasn't on it. Lucky for me
though, after going through the pile of limbs that looked completely
undisturbed, Vonnie stopped to sniff a leaf that had blood on it. The bluff banks on this creek were now 10-12
feet tall, and nearly impossible for me to climb, but Vonnie made a 90 degree
turn and tried going up it. After two
attempts, Vonnie came back down and went just a little further down the creek,
where another drain came into it and started her way up. While we were doing this, Clay Weeks and Mark
shined their lights up the hill from where Vonnie had tried going up the bluff,
saw the deer stand up, and finished it off.
Therefore, Vonnie has now earned my trust and I will follow her
regardless of "what I think the deer did"... The track wasn't very long, but thanks to
Mark and Gabby Hoffman, they provided an opportunity for me to gain confidence,
and Vonnie to prove her ability.
I'm attaching a photo of Gabby Hoffman with her buck and
Vonnie. Please feel free to post the
above paragraph and photo on your various sites. It'll certainly help us get more tracking
jobs, and make a little girl happy.
Vonnie is much more methodical in her tracking than Waldo was during his
first three years. She works the line
slow and close, and hasn't blown a single turn on any of her 2 tracks she's
been on. Everyone has commented on how
well she minds, and how well she reacts to being around numerous people. I know it's still early to be making a call
like this, but from what I've seen thus far, there's no doubt in my mind that
she will probably be a better tracker than Waldo, and that's a strong
statement, giving Waldo's accomplishments.
I honestly had hoped she'd just be as good as Waldo, but I believe she
just might show me that it's actually possible to be better than him. Many thanks to both of you for providing me
with such an outstanding dog!
Mike Martien's contact info is list on the UBT Find-A-Tracker site at http://www.unitedbloodtrackers.org/tracker-profile/?user=222
Labels:
2014 tracking season,
Louisiana,
Tommy offspring,
trust your dog,
Tuesday offspring,
ubt,
United Blood Trackers,
V2 litter,
wirehaired dachshunds
Friday, December 26, 2014
Not all wounded deer can be recovered, even if you use a tracking dog
Time to get back to the topic of tracking dogs because we really fell behind with our blogging and emails. I apologize to all our contributors and those who are still waiting for our replies.
We received this letter from Judy Catrett on December 10. As you recall Judy lives in Georgia where it is legal to track with a dog off-leash. Mossy (aka Viola von Moosbach-Zuzelek) is an eight-month-old daughter of Tommy and Tuesday. Thank you Judy!
Just a note to let you know how Mossy is progressing.
We have now started doing a fair amount of tracking for hunters other than
those that are guests of the plantation which Craig manages. I had read
John's books, Dead On! and Tracking Dogs for Wounded Deer prior to
tracking season, but have found myself using them as a reference after several
tracks recently. I am always wondering what we (Mossy and I) did not
do when we were unable to retrieve a wounded deer--so I dig into the books
hoping to obtain a little more knowledge along with rethinking what we did and
could have done differently on each track.
Mossy Brooke continues to be an excellent tracker and
her name has become well known around our little town and county as well as
into some neighboring counties. Since I last emailed you, we have been on
several tracks that we were unable to find the deer. One deer had a
broken front leg--the hunter shot the deer straight on into the brisket
area. Leg bone, a fragment of the bullet, and muscle tissue were found at the
site of the shot. Mossy and I arrived approx. 5 hours after the deer had
been shot and after 2 inches of rain. She immediately picked up the trail
and actually jumped the deer within 100 yards of the last blood the hunter had
found (this had been washed away by the time we arrived). She was
tracking off leash as she was in an area that was safe for her to do this and
the briars were so thick and tall that it was almost impossible for me to keep
her on leash. I was 40 yards behind her when she bayed the deer. The
deer immediately ran and she bayed it twice more during her trailing, for only
a few seconds each time. The deer had stopped bleeding and crossed
2 creeks during this tracking. We trailed this deer for 1 1/2 miles and
it was showing no signs of slowing down, so I stopped Mossy as I felt that
this was another wound that would not slow the deer enough for us to retrieve
it.
We had a similar experience with a buck that I think was
shot above the spine and stunned for a few minutes. This was the second
buck that we have tracked this year with this type of injury. Mossy
tracked it on leash for over 1 mile. This track was 11 hours old when we
arrived. On arrival, she immediately picked up on the blood
trail which dwindled to no blood within 150 yards. She continued to pull
strong on the leash throughout the entire track. I finally had to stop
her around midnight as this seemed to be a nonfatal injury with no bleeding
being noted along the trail past the first 150 yards and I had to work the
next day.
We then tracked a deer that was gut shot 24 hours previous
to our arrival. This deer was probably shot in the stomach as acorns and
corn were noted at the shot site. I certainly thought that this buck
would be found. There had been 2 to 3 inches of rain during the 24 hours
that had passed since the shot. She trailed the buck for approx. 1 to 1 1/4
miles total, off leash. She bayed the buck in a very thick pine thicket with
terrible briars for a few seconds, but when the buck heard me coming it
ran. Mossy trailed it to a large pond which neither she nor I could
cross. The hunter's (age 12) father owned this land and decided that
there was no easy way to get to where the buck may have gone if he was
able to cross the water and that he would watch for a floating deer or
buzzards in the next few days. This is one track that I am still
puzzled over. I certainly thought that the deer would be in the edge of
the water and that the wound would be significant enough that Mossy and I could
catch up with the deer. I am still mulling this over in my head trying to
decide what should have been done differently.
Craig took Mossy on a track in which the deer was tracked
for 1 1/2 miles. She was on leash on this track and Craig did not have a
gun as the hunter was carrying a rifle and going with them. After 3/4
mile, Mossy walked into a briar thicket and actually put her nose on the deer's
hip. The deer was still alive --shot through the flank areas (gut
shot)--and it stood up when Mossy touched it. The hunter had been unable
to keep up with Craig and Mossy in the briars and when Craig had to yell for
him to come with the gun, the deer ran another 3/4 of a mile at which time
Craig had to stop tracking due to property lines. Craig has not tracked
as much as I have and did not realize the importance of being self sufficient
and having his own gun. A lesson well learned he said after being dragged through 1 1/2 miles of briars by Mossy.
I am realizing that wounded bucks will let Mossy Brooke get
fairly close to them and they will have a stand off with her if they still have
enough life left in them to possibly survive. This I think occurs because
of her small size and bucks detecting her as not being threatening.
If I try to approach a buck with a wound that may not be fatal, it immediately
bolts as soon as it detects a larger creature approaching. It is almost
impossible for me to get to the buck without making noise due to the thick
vegetation and briars. I would appreciate any feedback on how to handle
these situations. I think that this is one reason a lot of trackers in
the south use larger dogs who actually catch the deer and keep them at bay
until the person with a gun can get there. Don't worry, I would never
trade my Mossy Brooke for a larger dog.
Mossy Brooke is an awesome little dog with a love for
tracking that cannot be described. I consider myself very lucky to have
her--for tracking and more so as a companion. She is almost 8
months old and has now found a total of 26 deer (December 10).
Hope you and John have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Judy
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
It looks like a White Christmas this year in the Helderbergs
This picture was taken on the night of December 9. Then it snowed pretty much for two days. |
These two pictures were taken after a sunset, without a flash or tripod. The ISO setting was 20000. |
Young dogs love to play in the snow. This picture shows Luna and Volt having a lot of fun for as long as it is not too cold! |
Labels:
nature pictures,
our dogs,
our place,
photography,
snow,
weather
The 2nd edition of Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer is out of print
Sorry for a long break from the blog but we had a serious snow storm a week ago or so and ended up without cable for five days. Now everything is back to normal, except for the amount of snow we have to deal with (around 20 inches or so). Anyway, in this post it is not the weather I would like to write about.
The second edition of Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer by John Jeanneney is sold out and now out of print. I know, this is not a very convenient timing as there is always a rush of orders around Christmas time. The fact is that a new, updated third edition should be out in late winter or in spring. It will have all the information from the second edition plus a lot of new info on dog training. Quite a few topics will be updated. If you need this book, you should wait.
Since now the supply and demand for the book are completely out of whack, online book dealers operating through amazon.com and ebay sell second hand copies for $400-800. Don't be a fool and don't buy it at this price. Just wait. In the meantime read articles on the www.unitedbloodtrackers.org and search this blog for topics of your interest. A lot of info is available online free of charge!
The second edition of Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer by John Jeanneney is sold out and now out of print. I know, this is not a very convenient timing as there is always a rush of orders around Christmas time. The fact is that a new, updated third edition should be out in late winter or in spring. It will have all the information from the second edition plus a lot of new info on dog training. Quite a few topics will be updated. If you need this book, you should wait.
Since now the supply and demand for the book are completely out of whack, online book dealers operating through amazon.com and ebay sell second hand copies for $400-800. Don't be a fool and don't buy it at this price. Just wait. In the meantime read articles on the www.unitedbloodtrackers.org and search this blog for topics of your interest. A lot of info is available online free of charge!
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Premium list for the UBT Trackfest 2015
Premium List for the UBT Trackfest 2015 is posted at
Labels:
blood tracking training,
seminar,
ubt,
United Blood Trackers,
workshop
Monday, December 8, 2014
Shot analysis and deer recovery summary by Bob Yax
Bob Yax from Deer Search of Finger Lakes and his wirehaired dachshund Thor recovered this bow-shot 10 pointer on November 30 in Pittsford, NY. As Bob said it must be a tough neighborhood as the buck had two broken G-2s.
Bob also wrote:
Out of the 49 we've recovered in the last 5 years it was the 5th deer that was hit in the chest (without liver or stomach involved). It was the 4th that had a slice across the
outside of the heart! The only other chest shot we've recovered, was a double
lunger (hit in the rain) that went only about 150 yards.
We've never recovered a chest/lung shot deer (other than
heart) that’s gone beyond 150 yards. If they can breathe long enough
to go beyond that, they can breathe for a long time (days) &
distance. Many times we’ve kicked up these marginal chest shots the next
day, and they were still going strong.
Marginal lung shots are the worst!!!
Note, all these heart shot deer acted as if liver hit.
They all bedded quickly, within 100 yards, but then got up out of that 1st
bed. Three of them at least 2 hrs after being hit. All were
found within 300 yards of the hit site. None of these were pushed very
hard – the hunters backed out after pushing them out of their 1st
bed – that’s the secret !
Friday, December 5, 2014
Born-to-track Wirehaired Dachshunds Calendar for 2015
The calendar with pictures of our dogs is ready and can be purchased for $19.99 from this link
http://www.cafepress.com/ calendarsbyjolanta.14476799 02
MAKE SURE that you choose January 15 as a starting month. Cafepress has daily discounts so you can probably order at a much lower price if you wait. Today I think it is 20% off. This is a "print on demand" technology so a calendar is printed when it is ordered. I have not seen how the calendar looks printed (only on my printer) so if there is something wrong, please let me know. Cafepress has 100% guarantee so you will be able to return it if you don't like it. The calendar includes only my pictures and they are of only our dogs. Why did I choose these particular pictures? Because they were speaking to me so I hope that they will resonate with you as well. John liked them too.
THANK YOU for being a fan of our dogs!!!
http://www.cafepress.com/
MAKE SURE that you choose January 15 as a starting month. Cafepress has daily discounts so you can probably order at a much lower price if you wait. Today I think it is 20% off. This is a "print on demand" technology so a calendar is printed when it is ordered. I have not seen how the calendar looks printed (only on my printer) so if there is something wrong, please let me know. Cafepress has 100% guarantee so you will be able to return it if you don't like it. The calendar includes only my pictures and they are of only our dogs. Why did I choose these particular pictures? Because they were speaking to me so I hope that they will resonate with you as well. John liked them too.
THANK YOU for being a fan of our dogs!!!
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Brady Hesington's Wachtelhund Caliber recovers two deer in one day but there is more to this story
A big thank you to Brady Hesington, a United Blood Trackers member from Missouri, for sharing his recent tracking experience.
I'd like to share one of our more memorable tracks of the
year. I received a call on a Monday afternoon from a gentleman who lives
about an hour from me. He related that his son had shot a nice buck the
previous evening, and they needed help locating it. Unfortunately, I was
working and wouldn't be available until the following morning. After
taking a phone survey of the shot, I felt that we had a reasonable chance at
recovery. I was also impressed that the father shared his desire to
instill in his children the importance of making every effort of recovering
animals that they shot as a way of honoring God, their Creator. The
details were as follows...
The father and son were hunting together on a ridge,
with the father sitting not far behind his son, Luke. A buck came up
along the opposite ridgeline, along the edge of a field, and Luke took the
shot. The buck ran into the field and the hunters could hear him taking
loud, sucking breaths. Luke asked his dad if he should take another shot,
but his father, Jayson, an experienced hunter, told Luke that the shot was
through the lungs and that no further shot was necessary. The buck then
dropped his head and laid down. After several minutes the two stood up to
go look at the deer, and much to their surprise it rose and took off into the
woods. Expecting the deer to be down, they followed the blood trail for
about 100 yards and heard more crashing, which prompted them to back out.
The following morning, they scoured the woods along with two additional
searchers. They progressed the trail by about 200 yards, but did not find
the deer. Later that day a large rainstorm blew through washing away all
the blood. That's when I got the call. The track had led them
within 75 yards of a small river, and they had not searched on the opposite
side, as they had not received permission. My hope was that the deer was
not far on the other side, and that we would be able to find it quickly if they
received permission. I told Jayson to do his best to gain permission, and
an hour later he called back to tell me that he had it. Later that night he
called me back to tell me that his daughter, Sydney, had also shot a deer and
after tracking for about 100 yards they decided to back out since I would be
arriving in the morning...good idea! He was unsure of where young Sydney
had struck the deer, but informed me that there seemed to be a lot of blood.
The next morning I arrived at the sight with both my
wachtelhund, Caliber, and my BMH, Chloe. Most of my time tracking this
year has been spent with Chloe, as I am trying to develop her skills.
Caliber, sadly, has not gotten a lot of tracking time in the woods, and I
was anxious to get him on the 15 hour old track and save Chloe for the 40+ hour
old track. Caliber has shown great ability on tracks of all ages, but is
not as motivated on really old tracks with no or minimal sign. Chloe on
the other hand, will dig for scent to track no matter the age of the track.
The problem is she is less discriminating on what scent she takes at
times, which is why I have spent so much time working with her this season.
We decided to start with the "easy" track. I started
Caliber at the hit sight, and true to the report, there was plenty of blood.
Caliber took off without a hitch. We covered the first 100 yards
easily, then progressed the trail another couple of hundred yards past the
point of loss. There was intermittent blood along the way to reassure us.
At that point, Caliber began acting like he was on a hot scent and really
began to track fast. I slowed him down and restarted him a couple of
times to get him to focus. He took the trail to about 600 yards into a
field, then made an abrupt turn along the field edge. After another 100
yards I hadn't seen any sign, so I set him down and searched the field edge for
a bit. Unable to find any confirmation, I allowed him to work the field
edge into a thick, brushy area. He was searching through the area when I
heard a LOUD crash up ahead of us. My brain immediately screamed "leg
shot deer" because of all the racket. Then I saw him jump up out of a
deadfall and run into a field. It was obvious that he was wounded when he
ran, and I felt certain that it was a leg shot, but could not see his wound.
Caliber and I took off in pursuit, and after a short chase, I allowed
Caliber to bay and hold the deer so that I could put it down. Caliber was
able to pull it down, but suffered a cut along one leg in the process. He
held it while I quickly dispatched it. A quick inspection showed that the
deer was hit just inside the hind leg, dislocating the joint and entering the
groin area. The deer, no doubt, would have had a lingering death had we
not recovered it. This was Sydney's first deer, and she was very excited
by the whole experience...as were we all! When Jayson approached, he
initially thought that this was a different deer than what Sydney had shot
because one of the deer's antlers had broken off somewhere along the way.
When everyone was gathered, Jayson and Sydney said a prayer of thanks for
the deer and for the recovery. It was special to be a part of this
family's traditions.
Sydney and Caliber with her first buck |
After loading the deer, we loaded up and headed to the sight
where Luke had shot his deer. I started Chloe on the track and she followed
it "perfectly" along the trail where they had previously tracked the
deer. Unfortunately, there was absolutely no sign remaining after the
previous day's deluge, and the hunters had not flagged the trail. Still,
there were plenty of landmarks, and by accounts Chloe was doing a good job of
staying on trail. We proceeded up to the area where the hunters had lost
the blood previously. At this point, there was some confusion about where
the deer had made a hard left had turn. Chloe wanted to track straight
where they thought the deer had turned, so I redirected her into that area.
She tracked around in the area, but didn't make me very confident that
she was on the deer. I then let her track in the area where she wanted to
go and we ambled along the woods for a ways, and ended up at the end of the
small peninsula of land along the river...no deer. After several restarts
we weren't making any progress. As Jayson had obtained permission to
cross the river, he and the rest of his crew went back to the house to pick up
a canoe to help us cross.
I decided to put Chloe in the kennel box and
give Caliber a shot at the trail while I waited for them to return. It
took little time for Caliber to pick up the trail and begin tracking aggressively.
He was very motivated after getting to catch the other deer.
Caliber would prefer to bay deer and wild hogs than just about anything
in life, so he was highly motivated on the track. I wondered if he was
"cheating" and following our footprints rather than tracking the 2
day old blood scent, but that was soon put to rest. The deer had run
through a large downed tree which had a 4 foot section cut away. It was
an obvious landmark where they had actually found blood on their second
tracking attempt. Chloe, had missed that section and tracked a line 20
yards around it before coming back onto the correct trail. Caliber,
however, nailed the track without missing a beat. He was definitely not
tracking us as we had not walked that route! Like Chloe, Caliber, also didn't
take the hard turn where the hunters had thought the deer may have detoured,
but rather took me about 50 yards further before making a sharp left into an
area that looked similar. He then led me straight down to the river.
As he searched our edge of the river bank, I began looking at the far
edge for an area where a deer may have exited the creek. The river wall
was nearly vertical on the opposite side, so there was no way that a deer was
going to climb out at that point. That's when I noticed the brown lump
laying on the gravel bank. I was so excited, that I took off my shoes,
rolled up my pants, and waded across the river in 35 degree weather!
Caliber followed along as well. When I got to the deer, I couldn't
see a wound, but upon further examination there was a bullet hole low in the
chest just in front of the near leg...a low lung shot. This would explain
the "sucking" sound that Jayson had described to me, and the low
forward shot would explain why the deer had not expired more quickly.
There
was just one problem. Jayson had told me that his son had shot a
"big buck," "at least an 8 point, but possibly a 10 or 12, and I was standing over a 3 point. The deer was untouched by any
predator or birds (prior to Caliber pulling out all its hair), but looked to
have been dead about the right amount of time. I called Jayson to
confirm, and he assured me that it could not be the right deer. When he
arrived on the river by canoe, he again assured me that this could not be the
right deer. Oddly, if this deer had been shot on the opposite side of the
river it would have had to jump to its death off a 10 foot sheer bank with a
maze of exposed tree roots below. Not impossible, but questionable.
We did walk down the bank to a point where we were able to climb up and
searched the area for a bit, but did not recover another deer. It's
difficult to believe that a seasoned hunter like Jayson would have thought that
a 3 point was a 8, 10, or 12 in the heat of the moment, but equally difficult
to believe that Caliber would lead me straight down a track that would end up
at someone else's wounded deer. Either way, it made for a great day of
tracking!
Caliber and the 3 point...his buck |
Monday, December 1, 2014
Memorable tracks do not have to end with recovered deer or bear
Sometimes the most memorable tracks do not produce a dead deer or bear at the end. These are two examples of such tracks that were also very long. A big thank you to Chris and Pete for sharing them with us..
Chris Barr from Indiana tracks with Gerti (Gwen von Moosbach-Zuzelek), who is a 5½ year old daughter of Billy and Gilda, and the track is a direct quote from his email:
I
wanted to tell you about my most recent track with Gerti which occurred this
past Tuesday evening. The hunter shot a
small buck at 9:00 in the morning with a head on facing chest shot. He had blood and bone
fragments at the hit sight. He tracked for approximately 150 yards before
losing the blood. I arrived at the hit site at about 7:00 that evening and put
Gerti down at the hit. She took off immediately with no re-starts necessary.
She pulled me down to the point of loss very quickly. I had not seen any blood
since the first 50 yards or so but she was pulling very confidently. We
continued for several hundred yards with no blood. I called back to the hunter,
who was doing a great job of keeping up, that the rope “felt” the same as it
had since the hit site but that I was dying for some confirmation. (I have a
bad habit of not trusting Gerti sometimes). Well I finally saw some blood and I
felt very confident that I could pretty much blindly trust her from that point
forward.
It
ended up being a 3.5 mile track where we caught up to the deer twice and I even
got a shot at him the second time. He only let me get about 30 yards away. The
cliff-notes version is that we were in Yellowwood State Forrest. We had no cell
signal and we had to rob the batteries from my portable radios for my GPS as it
had gone dead. We kept pushing the deer because I just felt (and I checked with
2 experts) that it was the right thing to do. To this point, I had never had a
track where I had seen the deer and not eventually recovered it.
We finally had
to make the hard decision to abandon the track. We recorded last blood with GPS
coordinates and he was going to try to come back. I was honestly starting to
get a little freaked out when everything battery powered we had was dying. I
was concerned that if we lost our lights that we may have a long night in the
woods in front of us. Temps dipped into the 20’s, and as you can imagine, we’d
worked up quite a sweat.
This
was without a doubt Gerti’s best track of the season. I give her credit for a
“find” because she found him twice! I believe shot must have glanced down and
along the brisket and hit the shoulder. I think we could have eventually walked
him down. I hated to leave him.
We’ve
had a frustrating season. This was only our 10th track total. We are
usually in the 20’s by now. I haven’t had the local calls I’m used to and many
of the UBT calls have just been too far with me working and hunting myself.
This was our 3rd find and possibly Gerti’s best track ever. The
total distance from the truck back to the truck was 5.5 miles….and suffice it
to say there were no fields and the hills of Brown County can get steep.
When
we made it home around midnight Gerti ate supper and then disappeared under a
blanket with my daughter’s fiancé. Not a bad life…for me either.
---------------
Pete Martin from Kiamesha Lake, NY, wrote recently about one of his tracking adventures with Lisa von Moosbach-Zuzelek, a 9½ year old daughter of Billy and Gela.
What an
unbelievable bear call on Saturday night of November 15. Took up track
Sunday morning @ 7:30 am, 11 hours later. Bear was shot with .270 @ 50 yards by
a 17 year old hunter. It was in Ulster County, on state land in Voor
Nuy Kill area outside Ellenville.
The hit
site showed moderate blood and hair. As we proceeded to track it was obvious that
the bear was bleeding profusely. The hunter, his dad and uncle did excellent
job tracking bear 400-500 yards, zig-zagging up and down side of steep
mountainside. We passed last marker and blood. Lisa was on this track like
nobody’s business. Straight down mountainside to small wet swampy area with good
blood all the way.
Here
comes the LONG TRACK made short. Next 4 miles up mountainsides, down steep
hills, flat open hardwoods, blowdowns, streams, mountain laurel. You had to
crawl on hands and knees. Lisa showed us every little blood spot you could
possibly imagine, It wasn't too long, maybe one mile, I realized and explained
to tracking crew we were pushing a wise old bear. We saw fresh wet blood. At
start of track blood was plentiful and dark. This bear couldn’t have been that
far ahead of us but just far enough we couldn't catch up. Lisa was totally vocal
which indicated to me she was on very fresh scent and blood.
There
were two very tough checking spots for Lisa to figure out but after 12 minutes or
so she took us off in the right direction to more blood. Amazing. Some blood
drops were 75 to 100 yards apart. I could not believe the strength and
persistence of this bear. This bear did everything you could imagine Circled, went
up and down same but different hills more than once, back tracked, bedded. Near
the end blood was getting watery and weak but Lisa was right on it. The tracking
crew and hunter could not believe it. At one point close to end of track
someone behind me said "you have a million dollar dog -never saw anything
like this before. These were experienced hunters.
Lisa never quit pulling, nose to the ground so focused and vocal. She
wanted this bear so bad and knew it wasn't that far ahead of us. Still had
small drops of blood going up yet another hill. Hunter’s father and uncle
decided we were not going to catch up to bear, and they called off track after 4½
hrs. Everybody was completely exhausted,
myself including. My only regret is that we didn't
take a long break and continue to track as I thought the bear must be at his
end. We were almost to the Roundout Reservoir.
Labels:
2014 tracking season,
blood trailing dogs,
leg hit deer,
no find,
tracking wounded bear,
von Moosbach-Zuzelek,
wounded bear tracking
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