Happy 10th Birthday Billy!

Tomorrow our Billy (FC Billy von Moosbach-Zuzelek, SchwhK, Wa-T, BHP-1, BHP-2, BHP-3, SFK, Deer Search certified) is going to be 10 years old.

Where did the time go Billy? It seems just like yesterday I was holding you in a palm of my hand. Your eyes can see deep into my soul. I hate watching you getting older and hope that our journey together last many more years!

Happy Birthday Billy!

Nine years ago our Elli whelped a litter of eight puppies, six males and two females. This is how Billy came into our lives. He was weighing 280 grams, and was one of the smaller pups in the litter. But almost from the beginning he caught our eye as he was a very enterprising and outgoing puppy. He might not be the best blood tracking dog that we have ever had or bred, but he is one of the most trainable dogs, who loves to please and cooperate. Only those who know him closely can appreciate his flawless temperament and depth of character.

Many happy returns Billy! We love you!

Billy at the age of nine years.

Billy  when one day old.

Tracking wounded bear in the Catskills with two dachshunds, Billy and Joeri

On October 24 John and I went on a bear call that was referred to us through Deer Search. A big bear was shot at 6 PM on October 23 in the Catskills, and according to the bowhunter the bear was liver-shot. We decided to take two dogs with us, Billy and Joeri.

We started to track at 1 PM next day, and this was the steepest and roughest terrain we have ever tracked in. I have just gone through six weeks of physical therapy for the lower back pain, and did not expect to track in such a rocky, ledgy, mountainous terrain (a lesson learned - we should have asked more questions when talked to the hunter on the phone).

We started to track with Billy, who showed us some dry dark blood on the ground and saplings. This part of the track is showed well on a short video, which I took while John was handling Billy.

We started to track with Billy

But after a while Billy took us down the hill and since we were not seeing any signs of the bear, we decided to give Billy some rest, put him back in the car and go back to the starting point with Joeri.

John and I took turns handling him, and Joeri was able to advance the trail further up the hill. We ran out of blood signs fairly quickly, but Joeri was pulling pretty hard while we were climbing the hill. There were so many caves and dens that a wounded bear could crawl into. At one point we encountered what must have been a bear bathroom as there we piles of bear poop all over the place. Some of it was very fresh. Joeri was animated and wanted to go into one cave.

Joeri climbing the rocky hill had a good workout...

... and so did the rest of us

Bears must be using this small area as a toilet.

Joeri was very animated around this den and wanted to crawl there. We were sure that bears were using this den, but had no evidence that "our bear" was there.

I know that dachshunds are not supposed to move like mountain goats but this track underscored the need for sound conformation in the working dachshunds. Joeri who has excellent ground clearance never had any problems with the terrain.

At one point we came across bear vomit full of corn.

We searched the area for 3.5 hours and did not locate the wounded bear that we were tracking. Bears are abundant there and this fact plus the really steep and rough terrain made the tracking difficult. For calls like this a close working dog such as Joeri  was certainly a good choice. He has never showed any hesitation in following the scent and his great conformation allowed him to track for a long time. Both John and I were tired but we knew that even though we did not find the bear we did everything we could.

Realities of blood tracking with dogs

Most of the time handlers of blood tracking dogs write about their successes when they find a wounded deer or bear that the hunter could not find on his own. After reading these success stories novice handlers might have unrealistic expectations and become discouraged when their own tracking attempts do not always end up with recovered game. There are many potential reasons why a tracking team fails to recover wounded game. The account below of 36 hours in a life of tracker John Jeanneney will present the reality of occasional failures.

This story starts at 1 PM on October 17 when John and Joeri started to track for Bill Cafariella of Charlton, NY. Bill shot a really nice buck at 6 PM on Sunday, October 16. He thought that he had a gut shot deer that probably had not gone too far. He tracked it for a while but then it started to rain. There was probably half an inch of rain overnight, and next morning all signs of blood were washed away.

On the approach to the hit site.

 John and Joeri started to track on Monday at 1 PM, and I went along to take pictures. Joeri with difficulty carried the line for 300 yards, and after that he no longer seemed to be positive. Around 3 PM I asked John whether he was ready to go home as I had to go to a post office to ship some books. His firm and very emphatic answer was “no”. I drove to a nearby post office, which was closed for an afternoon break, and when I got back to, 45 minutes later John was still in the woods searching. He searched the area until 5:30 PM, but Joeri never picked up the line again. We left disappointed feeling that the buck was lying dead nearby.

Bill and his eight friends resumed the search and found the deer next day, totally devoured by coyotes, in the brambles, probably 65 yards from where Joeri had lost the track. Coyotes left only the deer head intact. When we started to track we were under the impression that the deer was gut shot through the stomach as Bill found some corn on the ground. Actually the arrow had come down through the shoulder blade, passed through the chest cavity and exited out of the bottom of the stomach. The deer must have died very quickly, and coyotes must have destroyed it during the first night. We are not sure whether the abundant coyote scent in the area was a problem for Joeri.

Bill with the remains of his buck.

While John was working on Bill's buck, another call came in. This one was from Fernando Gonzales, for whom we tracked a bear two years ago. He needed John to track a bear for his friend. Fernando was sure that Andrew Torres’ bear was dead or mortally wounded as they found 15 feet of small intestine. Under normal circumstances John does not track bears at night. But knowing that the bear would be dead, he decided to go. So we drove back home where John got a quick meal, and after a short break he drove to Rensselaerville and took Billy with him.  John was taken to the point of loss rather than the hit site, and it was heavily tracked up. The cover was very thick with dead falls. Billy was unable to take a positive line out of the area so John decided to come back home and resume the search next morning. When John and Billy went back next morning they made a large 200 yard radius circle around point of loss and managed to pick up the line. They tracked 150 yards to the dead bear. The 200 pound bear was wounded low in the abdomen, and he would have not been found without Billy.

 

Andrew Torres (hunter), John and Billy (the tracking team) and the bear.

The same morning that John and Billy found the bear another hunter at the lodge, Ron Burris, had shot a large buck too far back. Material on the the arrow showed that it had passed through the stomach. Ron had waited a couple of hours, then jumped a deer from a bed, but here was not enough blood for him to track. John and Billy began to track this deer shortly after noon. They jumped the deer still strong and tracked it through rough cover for 2 miles. The deer remained strong so when he crossed the road John marked the line. With the intention of returning a few hours later John drove back home, luckily in time for dinner.

He did not get much rest as the phone rang again, and this time it was Dan Hardin, a licensed handler who does not have a tracking dog yet. Dan needed tracking services as he had wounded an eight pointer that evening. So it was agreed that John would take two dogs, Billy and Joeri, and with Dan's assistance he'd finish tracking Ron's deer first.

Around 8 PM that evening John and Dan resumed tracking. Billy started because he knew the line and the scent of the deer. Joeri who had rested more took over, and the handlers worked both dogs while getting occasional drops of blood to verify the line. They followed the buck for three more miles through rough wooded country, returning within a thousand yards of where the deer had been shot. To their amazement the deer had shown no sign of weakening after 13 hours and five miles of travel. It is very unusual that the stomach shot buck will be on his feet and moving strongly 13 hours later. But it happens. Finally the handlers picked up the dogs and headed for the road where they were picked up by another hunter from the lodge.

John and Dan then drove about 10 miles to Greenville, where Dan lives and where he had shot the deer. It was now shortly before midnight. John handled Joeri, who found the deer in 200 yards. The deer was shot in the back part of the ribcage and the arrow had passed through the liver. 

John was in his bed at 1:30 AM.

Joeri with Dan's deer.

First blood track of the season - tracking wounded bear with John and Billy

Yesterday John went with Billy to track a wounded bear so I asked him to write a short report about the experience. Often handlers write only about tracks that lead to recovered game, but sometimes dogs show their best work on tracks that don't end "successfully". This is what John wrote:

After enviously listening to the adventure stories of my friends, I finally got my first call on September 26. It was a wounded bear, 65 miles to the North where the bear season is already open. The big bear had gone down instantly at the rifle shot, which usually means a shot to, or close to, the spine. However, the bear got his act together, got his hind legs going and ran off. The hunter got in two more shots, but he was not sure that he had connected.

Billy and I needed a workout, even if the odds for success were small. And it was a good work out. The track descended into a big swamp, and we waded around verifying the 22 hour old line with very occasional drops or smears of blood. The hunter had painstaking trailed 300 yards and Billy took it for another 700 with many loops and turns. The bear never bedded. I picked Billy up on a line that still had tiny drops of blood on it.

I was proud of Billy, and of course Billy was proud of himself …and showed it, especially when we got back to the farmhouse. Billy has found many deer, but clearly he is best at tracking bears, and he loves to do it.

Billy's fantastic weekend at field trials

On the Memorial Day weekend, just two days after we had come back home from Trackfest, I was scheduled to judge open stakes at dachshund field trials in Batavia, NY. The plan was to take Quenotte (she just needed few points to finish her field championship), Tommy and Paika. But Paika came in heat so she could not go as a field champion stake was combined (when females and males are run together females in heat are not eligible to participate).

I could not decide which dog instead of Paika to take with me until the very last moment. Bernie or Billy? I run Bernie on rabbits quite often, and he is very good. And it has been a very long time since Billy ran in field trials as we have been using him mainly for blood tracking. I really could not decide. I even printed entry forms for both, Bernie and Billy, and when John asked whom I was going to take, my response was that I would not know until the very last minute. I was leaning towards Bernie, but John thought that Billy was a better choice. When I finished packing my car and put Quenotte and Tommy in their crates, my choice became clear - it was going to be Billy.

There were three trials, on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and a field champion stake was large - 34 entries on Sat and Sun, and 31 on Monday. Thanks (not!) to the luck of draw on Saturday Billy ran in the first brace. I prefer not to be in an early brace, but I was really impressed with his run and thought that he had a chance to be called back in the second series. In the end he was called back 4th and climbed all the way to the first place.  Then he went to win the Absolute run (equivalent of High in Trial)!

On Sunday Billy did very well again, was called back second in the second series and ended up first and the Absolute Winner again. His line control and check work were very good. On Monday he had a great run in the first series as he brought the rabbit back to the gallery, but he was called back only 6th. He ended up NBQ, which is equivalent to the 5th place.

This was a pleasantly surprising weekend. Many years ago as a young dog Billy finished his field championship very quickly with three first places, but we almost did not run him at all as a field champion. With as many dogs as we own, we have to make some tough decisions who is going to be used for blood tracking mainly and who will be run at field trials. Billy is seven years old now, and his main field experience comes from blood tracking, which I am sure really sharpened his skills of working a scent line.

Billy is a great companion; he is easy going and has a heart of gold. He travels extremely well, and we had a lot of fun together. The weekend in Batavia provided an excellent bonding experience, and I am sure he will be coming with me to more field trials in the fall.



More about Batavia field trials in the next post.

Joeri's first deer; Billy's first deer of the season

posted by John Jeanneney


Yesterday was a good opening day for us. Jolanta went with me on the two calls so we were able to handle two tracking dogs, Joeri and Billy.

The first call was ideal for young Joeri as an introduction to the real thing. It was a stomach shot that went about 150 yards. This line was about 5 hours old. The hunter was afraid that if he pushed the deer he might lose it, so he wanted to get a tracking dog on the line.

Joeri, with Jolanta handling, had little difficulty tracking the sparse but visible blood trail across a brook and through some thick cover until he found the deer dead. Joeri thought that that the deer was much more exciting than that old deer skin at the end of the line.

Jolanta with Joeri

The second deer, a big 7 pointer, was much more challenging.
Joeri started again with patient Billy acting as back-up dog. Although the pass-through shot proved to be almost perfect for placement, there was very little external blood on the ground.
Joeri did well on this older, much more difficult line, but after about 250 yards he missed where the buck had changed direction and had gone up hill.

Billy, tracking along behind, recognized Joeri’s mistake and followed the correct scent line up the hill. Then I saw a drop of blood. Billy and I made another turn and in 25 yards there was the big deer dead.

It was old stuff for Billy, but Joeri tracking along behind thought that this was just amazing. The two dogs shared “their” deer with only a few minor growls.

The hunter went wild with joy, hugged me and kissed Jolanta on both cheeks.

Gary and Buster - a tracking team from Deer Search of Western New York

Gary Katta from Deer Search of Western New York tracks with Blue Hill Albert aka "Buster", who was born on May 7, 2007. Buster was bred by Carl Eisenhard, and ge is out of Blue Hill Alice and our FC Billy von Moosbach-Zuzelek. Even though Billy is not a prepotent sire when it comes to stamping his get with his looks, Buster looks very much like Billy. The picture of Buster below was taken by John Jeanneney in February 2008.

Now Buster is 18 month old and on his way to be a valuable tracker. Gary sent the pictures showing Buster with the deer he recovered this past season. Congratulations to both of you!

The picture above shows the first recovery for a new handler Darin Katta.

What is your success (recovery) rate?

by John Jeanneney

Full Cry, December 2008

What’s your success rate? This question is so simple… and so complicated. I hear it a lot, and I know that the people who ask expect to hear a high figure like 90%. Some tracking dog/handler teams, in some parts of the country, may get close to this figure, but usually the percentage will be far lower. Let me explain.

If I really wanted to impress the Guinness Record Book folks, I would move to a part of Texas west of the Piney Woods, to a county where it is legal to use up to two dogs, off lead, to track, locate and possibly bay up the wounded deer. I would want a big dog, like those used by Roy Hindes in South Texas, who can stop and bay a deer, even if it has a potential for many miles of travel. Some of these bayed, wounded deer might otherwise survive, but the management objective is to satisfy the hunter and keep alive only the healthiest deer.

By contrast in the North most state regulations require that the tracking dog be worked on a long leash at all times. The majority of northern deer hunters clearly want it this way. And because of small properties, numerous highways, and big, dog-hungry coyotes, I personally wouldn’t want to do it any other way.

Getting back to Texas, most of it is dry country with tough tracking conditions. To avoid messing up the dogs, and to avoid pushing the wounded deer too far, hunters are discouraged from trying to eye-track on their own. “Easy deer” that might be found by the hunter, according to the “do it yourself tradition” of the North, end up being found by the dog in the Texas. This makes for better success ratios. This difference is a factor in many of the Gulf states as well.

It’s pointless to argue that the Texas dogs, for example, are better than the northern dogs because the Texas numbers are better. Traditions and conditions are very different around our country. To each his own.

Both North and South, recovery percentages can be manipulated to improve recovery rates. Every handler has to turn down a few deer calls because it’s extremely unlikely that the deer is seriously injured. For example I had a hunter call me because “his” buck snorted after the shot. Another showed me the white tail that he had shot off.

The magic of the dog only goes so far! Personally, I turn down the high back hit cases in which the deer went down instantly, and then, while the hunter was congratulating himself, took off. “He couldn’t have gone far. I hit him hard!”

But in between the low percentage calls and the dead certain calls there’s a broad range of requests that you just can’t be sure about. The wind was blowing so hard that the hunter couldn’t find any hair, white or brown, at the hit site. It could be purely a muscle shot, non-fatal, or a stomach shot certain to kill the deer. The handler, himself, might be able to evaluate the hit in the first 200 yards, but he has to make his decision to take the call on what the hunter tells him over the phone.

If the tracker plays it safe and takes only the sure kill cases, he will have an impressive success ratio. But he will find fewer deer overall than the tracker who takes most calls that come in. Somehow, I think that this problem is easier to handle in states where the handler gets paid, no matter what the outcome. In New York State the bankers get paid pretty well, no matter what happens, but tracking dog handlers are forbidden by state regulations from charging a fee. In New York we track for love… and don’t misinterpret me. In a good season we find a third of the deer we track. But we are proud of this because we are also accomplishing other things.

We did not recover a deer on this call, but we were quite certain at the end of the call that it was not mortally wounded.

Another Way of Evaluating a Tracking Sortie

If an experienced handler tracks a deer a half mile, he usually has a pretty good idea of how it is hit and how likely it is to survive. He has inspected the hit site much more carefully than most hunters, and he may have found bone fragments of even broken teeth. Interpreting hair at the site is a fine art which he has mastered. As he starts out on the line his dog shows him sign that the hunter may have missed: smears on weeds and brush that indicate how high the wound is on the deer; only one blood drop in twenty may show the watery consistency and dark color of a stomach shot, but the close working tracking dog points it all out. The team tracks far beyond the hunter’s point of loss or where he quit. If the dog finds a cold bed with only a few drops of blood, this strongly suggests that the deer is going to make it. If the deer jumps fences 12 hours after being hit, this is also a sign that the deer is in pretty good shape.

It rarely does happen that a deer shot far back in the large bowel is both mortally wounded and unobtainable. The handler can follow it with his leashed tracking dog, but it will not die for days. A jaw-shot deer is in a similar situation. Then he will wish he were in Texas or one of the Gulf states where the dog could be released.

In any case the tracking dog that follows the line perfectly, but fails to find the unfindable deer, is not a failure. This dog did his job, yet the handler can’t claim a find. His recovery rate/success rate actually goes down a few percentage points. Still the experienced handler, with his professional attitude, believes that his dog was a success.

How does the hunter feel about it? After 890 deer calls, I find that the hunter feels much better for knowing what happened, even if he did not tag that deer. Of course he wanted the trophy and venison, but knowing that the deer did not die a lingering death and then feed the coyotes is the next best thing.

For the large landowner managing his property for quality deer, it is also important to know what happened. What was the real deer harvest on his acreage as opposed to the guesstimates of his hunters? What actually happened to the quality bucks? Will they be available for future seasons as breeders and trophies?

I was never very good at numbers. I can add and subtract all right, but I would prefer to avoid the higher math of calculating success rate percentages. The important thing is tracking and finding as many deer as you can!

John and Billy recovered this buck in 2007.

Little dogs with big noses

Kevin Armstrong's Karma and her sire Billy had a chance to use their noses in pursuit of wounded deer again.

Kevin writes: "It was 70F, sunny and dry today when my neighbor (and cousin) stopped by to tell me that at 7:00 AM he had hit a buck too far back. He only had about 50 yards of blood trail. Thinking he might have a liver hit Karma and I took up the 7.5 hour old trail in my tee shirt. The little 8 pointer made 6 hard turns on his 350 yard trail. The thick cover, hard turns, and scent from other deer in the area combined with the hot dry weather added difficulty to our tracking mission. On the third start Karma picked up a particularly sharp turn and raced the last 100 yards to her prize. Gooood girl Karma! This is Karma's 4th recovery so far this season."

In the last few days Billy and John recovered two more deer.

Above: This deer ‘s hind leg was broken, but Billy and his handler caught up with it in less than a mile. Lucky! The picture shows the hunter with his deer; Billy is tied to a tree.

The sixth recovery for John and Billy. This is a hard working team. Yesterday they were out tracking all day long. They could not catch up with the deer they tracked, and the conclusion was reached that the deer is going to be OK.

Another deer found by our wirehaired dachshund Billy

The deer was shot last evening in Huntersland, NY. It came down off the mountain into lowland thickets where it circled around in a confusing way. The hunters walked by close to the deer but they had not seen it. Billy was able to sort out the confusing tracks and he quickly found the 8-pointer.

John and Billy - a hard working team of deer trackers

This was another day of hard work for John and Billy. They went on two calls and recovered one buck in the town of Greenville, NY. The line was 16 hours old, around 300 yards long. The 8-pointer was shot too far back. Its dressed weight was around 160 lbs. Scenting conditions were tough and parts of the line were very difficult.

There were shouts of joy when the hunter came over and saw the buck.

Tracking wounded bear with Billy

Yesterday our bow season opened, and our phone has been ringing off the hook since then. It looks like this year there is a great demand for tracking dog services in our area. John tracked all day yesterday and came home from the woods at 1 am. He and Billy recovered a nice buck last night but unfortunately there are no pictures.

Today our day started early as we drove 20 miles to Rensselaerville to track wounded bear that was shot yesterday evening. It was a short and easy track.

John and Billy at the start of the blood trail.

This bear was mortally wounded and there was a lot of blood on branches and on the ground.

We found the bear on a fallen tree.

Ron with his bear


Jolanta, John and Billy with the dead bear