Blood tracking dogs become legal in Ontario

Residents of Ontario, Canada have a reason to celebrate as tracking dogs became legal there. Thanks to Joe Kopcok for the news:

Hi John. I met you in Wisconsin. My Name is Joe Kopcok  and I have Slovensky Kopov dogs. Just wanted to let you know that Ontario has legalized the use of tracking dogs. I called Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters to see what was going on with this legislation. I spoke to Mark Ryckman and he had told me that the OFAH Big Game Advisory Committee and the Wildlife Policy Section of the Ministry of Natural Resources had a meeting on May 31. The OFHA was advised that there was an amendment to the Environmental Bill of Rights with regards to use tracking dogs for big game retrieval. This is wonderful news. Dogs must be licensed, and all normal rules are to be followed (hunter orange valid big game licence etc.)

More info at
http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/source/regs/english/2013/elaws_src_regs_r13171_e.htm

This is GREAT NEWS!

Big Game Blood Trackers Ontario is a new tracking club in Canada

Tracking wounded big game with dogs is becoming more and more popular. Just recently a new club has been formed north of the border, in the province of Ontario: Big Game Blood Trackers Ontario. We wish Ontario trackers best of luck!

Tracking news from Canada - Nouvelles Canadiennes de la Recherche

by John Jeanneney

The first Canadian Province to legalize leashed tracking dogs was British Columbia on their west coast. This occurred more than a quarter of a century ago. “B.C.” is an important province for big game hunting, but strangely the idea of tracking wounded deer,  elk, moose and bear never caught on there. Michael Schneider, a German who emigrated to B.C. and became a licensed guide, uses an Eastern European tracking dog Slovensky Kopov for tracking moose, but his successes have not inspired many to follow his course.

The French speaking Province of Quebec, on the eastern side of Canada, was the second province  to legalize, and here chiens de sang  (blood tracking dogs) caught on quickly in a big way. The reasons for the success of blood tracking in Quebec and the contrasting lack of interest in British Columbia are not easy to explain. The French speaking trackers in Quebec drew their tradition and inspiration from Europe, mainly France and Belgium, while in B.C. most guides saw blood tracking as a radical, foreign and unnecessary idea.

Chantal Bellemare with her wirehaired dachshund and their find. Chantal lives in Victoriaville, Quebec

In Quebec Simon Lemay, one of the major outfitters, maintains that you have to find a dead moose within six hours after its death if you are going to salvage the meat. The heavy coat, body mass, and internal body heart cause rapid spoilage. In British Columbia, which generally has warmer temperatures, there is little concern about this. Go figure! On certain things we hunters tend to think with our guts instead of our brains.

This moose was recovered by Denis Fortier with his teckel. Denis resides in Victoriaville, Quebec

A small group of hunters in Ontario, just west of Quebec, are pushing for legalization and it appears that they will succeed, No one knows what form the legalization will take since the Ministry of Natural Resources plays their cards close to the vest. I have worked with the trackers and provided them with background information, but they are now encountering doubts among hunters and wildlife officials, These are as negative as anything I encountered in New York State in 1975. If hunting practices are not tied into existing traditions, as was the case in Quebec, it takes a long time for things to change.

Nova Scotia, a small province on the Atlantic Coast, is the third province to legalize, and I will look forward to digging out the story of how this happened. In a former life I was a history professor; sometimes when I’m poorly focused on dogs and deer blood, the old urges come creeping back.

Returning to Quebec, the success that the trackers have had is really remarkable. Currently there are about 48 active trackers and many of them use European wirehaired dachshunds (Teckels). The small dogs have an advantage when tracking through thick back spruce, cutovers clogged with dead branches and in those awful alder swamps where all the alder shoots grow out at a 45 degree angle. They go under the trouble. Tracking on a long leash is mandated by law; in that wilderness country the trackers use about 18 meters of 4 mm polyethylene marine cordage. It works beautifully and doesn’t hang up in their type of thick stuff. I have tried it in our goldenrod fields, and here it is a nightmare.

Steve Durocher from Warwick, Quebec

This year the Quebec trackers found 103 whitetail deer, 86 moose and 6 bears. Their recovery rates ran about 40% which is a little better than what we do down here in the leashed tracking dogs states.  The trackers in Quebec are pretty consistent in maintaining this recovery rate from 2008  to 2011. These guys are good and tough to compete with. I haven’t come up yet with an excuse for why they do a bit better than we do, but I’m working on it.

Bows and crossbows are big in Quebec. About 73% of their calls are to track big game wounded by these two weapons.

Record keeping for tracking in Quebec is more tightly organized than in any of the American states. Alain Ridel does this on a voluntary basis for his tracking organization ACCSQ and for the Province of Quebec; it is a lot of work!

Gilles Deziel and his dachshund Whiskey

This moose was found by Bernard Demers and his dachshund

Stéphanie Marcoux from Warwick, Quebec

More pictures of big game recovered by trackers from Quebec can be viewed at http://www.accsq.com/photos.html

Ontario Blood Tracking Workshop

by John Jeanneney

The Canadian Province of Ontario lies just west of the Province of Quebec. The terrain and the big game in the two provinces are quite similar: moose, whitetail deer, black bear and caribou are the principle big game animals hunted. There the similarities end. Quebec has an active program of using tracking dogs to find wounded animals. Ontario has nothing of the kind.

In Quebec the principle language is French, and outfitters had access to tracking ideas and inspiration that came from France. Their tracking dogs, in this case wirehaired dachshunds, came from France and Belgium. A tracking dog handler’s association ACCSQ was founded in 2008 and today it has 240 members. The hunting regulations for big game have been officially “reinterpreted” by the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR)  and in 2009 ACCSQ handlers found 71 moose, 88 deer and 4 bears. An impressive beginning.

Meanwhile nothing much has been happening in Ontario where leashed tracking dogs have been deemed illegal by most provincial conservation officers. A couple of  tracking workshops for NAVHDA in the 90s, presented  by Hans Klein and myself, did not produce enduring interest. What Ontario seemed to lack was a “Point Man”, someone who could rally the Hunter Lobby (OFAH), hunting clubs and individual hunters to encourage the MNR to change regulations on the use of dogs, in this case leashed tracking dogs. Drawing on the American experience, we have learned that state Fish and Game Departments seldom make a move unless there is evidence of  strong sportsmen support.

Laurel Whistance-Smith of Pontypool, Ontario, was fully aware of these problems when she organized the recent tracking workshop  that took place there. Laurel is a retired biologist of the Ontario MNR, and she is also a long-time breeder of the European type of wirehaired dachshunds. She has not tracked herself, but she has bred a number of fine tracking dogs that are working in the United States. The workshop was to be a small, rather informal gathering of people who have bought dogs from Laurel in the last couple of years. These dogs were sired by our stud dogs, Billy, Joeri and Tommy.

With some doubts in my mind about a long term impact of the workshop I agreed to conduct it on July 17 and 18. Darren Doran, the “Point Man” for New Jersey’s experimental program accompanied me and was tremendously valuable for both his dog and  political experience. On Friday afternoon, the 16^th, we laid out five training/evaluation  lines of about 400 meters for the people we expected to come with partially trained dogs. These lines were to be worked the next morning. Weather predictions were for a very hot Saturday for where we would be working, 20 miles north of Lake Ontario. We wanted to begin the dog work as early as possible, and then use the hottest part of the day for PowerPoint presentations.

On Saturday morning only three dogs and handlers showed up and were available to work the five lines that we had laid out. This was disappointing! However,  I was impressed with the dogs that were present. Scott Leindecker worked his 10-month-old bitch Arwen first. She showed excellent tracking desire and line control. We liked the way she worked her checks with focused intent. She showed that she was ready to find wounded deer as soon as the Ontario MNR gives her the go ahead.

Scott Leindecker and Arwen find the deer skin at the end of the track.

The next dog, Yoda was handled by his owner Ernie Schroeder.  Yoda worked more slowly with somewhat closer check work than Arwen. This is a style that I have grown to appreciate more and more as I get older and older! At 2 ½  Yoda is ready for real work!

Ernie Schroeder and Yoda

Cesar owned by Tom Bunge showed that he was a good dog that had been corrupted by disrespectful grey squirrels. At home frisking squirrels in his back yard had teased him to a frenzy. Once he scented squirrels on his evaluation blood line, it was all over. He could focus on nothing else. There are good ways to de-squirrel a tracking dog, and these were discussed when we finally got to the deer skin at the end of the line.

Tom Bunge and Cesar

Later in the morning Tom worked Cesar on a second, unused line and things went better. It was siesta time for the squirrels and they were no longer laying seductive trails for Caesar. He focused better on the most important thing in the world: blood tracking.

After lunch we moved into Laurel’s spacious garage and examined  the structure and growth of tracking legislation in the United States and Canada. At this point Kerry Coleman joined our group. Kenny is a recently retired biologist from the Ontario MNR who is now on the Governing Board of OFAH. Kerry was enthusiastic about the leashed tracking dog idea and had many concrete ideas about how it could be implemented in Ontario. He believes that more promotion and the foundation of an Ontario tracking organization will be essential. I made it clear that UBT could be very helpful in a future Ontario campaign, and I pointed out what we had done in the United States. The importance of the field experience in neighboring Quebec was recognized, but the provincial  legal structure in Quebec is quite different from that of Ontario. Ontario will not be able to follow the Quebec plan the way Vermont followed the New York plan in 1996.

At this point the workshop really became a meeting, and I could see that the long-awaited point men  for Ontario were emerging. Scott Leindecker, who lives in Sault Ste. Marie, far to the west  near Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, is an Ontario Provincial Police  officer, who clearly has the drive to hunt, track and promote. He reminded me a bit of Chuck Collier, the Michigan State Police Officer who lives not too far away from him. They both have gifted tracking  dogs, and as we all know,  that helps to keep the fires burning.

Nancy and Scott Leindecker from Sault Ste Marie

Ernie Schroeder was equally impressive. He is a chiropractor who can arrange his schedule to accommodate the things that are important to him ….like hunting and tracking. He has a strong background in hunting dogs  and now he has a very good wirehaired dachshund. He lives close to the political action sites of Toronto and Peterborough, and he is motivated to help the cause.

Tom Bunge has some work to do with his squirrel dog, but he has the great advantage of hunting experience as a forester in his native Germany. Currently he is an engineer with all the electronic media skills to organize hunters in the digital age.

Laurel Whistance-Smith, hostess of the workshop, does not track herself, but she is an excellent organizer and has maintained excellent contacts in the MNR where she worked for twenty years. Clearly Ontario now has what it takes to get a tracking program going.

We wound down on late Saturday afternoon with a mini-course on the grooming of wirehaired dachshunds. Vicki Thomas showed us how to strip down a wire coat so that a sometimes shaggy dog becomes a sleek, well-protected worker, which can slip through the briars and burrs. Vicki Thomas is a well-known show judge and professional groomer. Her practical advice was useful for working dachshund owners even if they never go to a dog show.

Vicki Thomas grooms Arwen

Arwen - before grooming

Arwen - after grooming. Arwen was bred by Laurel Whistance-Smith and she is out of Hexel is a daughter of our Tommy vom Linteler-Forst

Yoda was also bred by Laurel and he is out of Lily and our Joeri vom Nonnenschlag

The Sunday workshop program began at 7AM as we all munched breakfast and I went over  the slides of a practical PowerPoint program on the tricks, trials and tribulations of finding wounded game in the woods with a tracking dog. We concluded at noon. It was an excellent  workshop with little lecture and lots of discussion.

Many thanks to Darren Doran  for all his help including some of the photos above.

The French Connection - Blood Tracking Workshop in Quebec, Canada

by John Jeanneney
Full Cry June 2009

One of the North American hot spots for tracking wounded big game with tracking dogs is certainly going to be Quebec. They shoot a lot of moose up there, and with their early season starting in September many of these moose are not found until after the meat has spoiled. If a moose is shot in the late afternoon of a warm day and left to be found in the morning, chances are that the meat will be inedible. That means that the equivalent of 400 pounds of deboned meat is wasted. Because the body mass of a moose is so great, and the heavy coat is such good insulation, the animal spoils from its own body heat.

Quebec’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Wildlife decided that their existing laws did allow for blood tracking, although their interpretation, as it was written, is not very practical. For example a firearm cannot be carried while tracking with a dog.

In good part because of the influence of guides and outfitters, interest began to grow among hunters in general. When I gave a workshop last June at St- Apollinaire near Quebec city, there were about 35 enthusiastic people in attendance. An organization was formed after the workshop, and it was called the “Association of Tracking Dog Handlers of Quebec”. (The French acronym for this jawbreaker is ACCSQ.) This year’s workshop, which I attended as a member of the Association, drew 66 people who paid $100.00 or more for the two days. The Association had also opened up discussions with the Ministry about improving their regulations in various ways. A representative of the Ministry was present at the workshop.

The new Association in Quebec had made fruitful contacts with the French, multi breed tracking organization, UNUCR, which has over 2000 members. Some of these, like Patrice Stoquert, a forester whom I accompanied in 2007, take 100s of calls a year. Certainly the big game species in Europe are quite different from those of Quebec and there is a wild boar problem much more serious than the wild hawg issues of our American South. In France wild boars tear up the agricultural fields as if they had been invaded by a drunken gang of giant rototillers; wild boars even invade the suburbs to raid garbage cans. Boar hunting drives go on in France through most of the year, and this makes for a lot of tracking. But despite the differences in game species almost all of the French experience is valid for Quebec and the rest of North America.

The Association brought over from France my friend Patrice Stoquert, who uses Labs, and Philippe Rainaud, who tracks with European wirehaired dachshunds of the type I use myself. Wirehaired dachshunds are the most widely used blood tracking dogs in France, and it looks like dogs of this breed, also known as “teckels”, have already become the most popular dogs for this work in Quebec. No one seems deterred by the fact that moose or even a black bear are considerable bigger that a 20 pound dachshund or that the handler and accompanying hunter cannot carry a firearm. I hope that the regulations are changed before someone gets hurt.

Stoquert and Rainaud are old hands at giving workshops in France and they have a smooth, well-organized presentation. I have presented a few workshops myself on the subject, but there were important new things that I learned from them.

One of the first things to be learned in wounded game tracking is to evaluate the hit site for information about where the animal has been hit. This is pretty straightforward, but Stoquert and Rainaud showed that there is more to it than meets the ordinary eye at the hit site. They hung a road-killed deer up in a standing position about ten feet in front of several different lightweight tarps of white plastic. Then they shot through the deer with various high power rifles, a 12 gauge slug gun and bowhunting arrows. The holes and splatters on the tarps showed that there was actually a cone-shaped spray of metal particles, tissue and bone fragments around the bullet hole in the tarp behind the deer. It could also be seen that the projectile sometimes changed its trajectory by as much as 30 degrees in passing through the animal. Observers could see that a wider and more careful search for sign at the hit site would yield a better sense of what the tracking task ahead might produce.

Road killed deer hung up to demonstrate how bullets and particles exit from an animal that has been shot. Yves Martineau, ACCSQ President is holding rifle.

Rainaud also pointed out that an experienced dog, one with a hundred calls or so in his memory bank, can also inform us about the condition of the animal being tracked. If you know how to read your dog, his body language and the looks that he gives you over the first few 100 yards of track, you will know whether to forge ahead to the end, or on the other hand, pick up the dog. Stoquert and Rainaud, pointed out again and again through the weekend just how important practical experience is for both the handler and the tracking dog. Breed and genetics are an important base, but great tracking dogs are made on the trail, a trail that may be 24 hours old with little or no blood.

As previously stated, Stoquert and Rainaud are Lab and dachshund men, respectively. Therefore, they are thankful that they are licensed to track in France rather than in Germany. In Germany, using these two breeds, they would not be qualified to become licensed trackers. In Germany only handlers of the specialized blood tracking breeds can acquire a state license, subsidies and the authorization to track onto any property, even without landowner permission. In most of the German states this means having a Hanover blood hound, a Bavarian mountain blood hound or a dachshbracke. There is a lot of politics behind these state preferences and prejudices.

Actually Stoquert, a French forester with a British Lab, is invited to track at the big state sponsored drive hunts in Germany across the border from where he lives. The hunt managers are most interested in what a dog can accomplish!

Both Stoquert and Rainaud praised the nose of the bloodhound-based Hanover blood hound and Bavarian mountain blood hound. But they pointed out that both dogs are slow to develop psychologically. Their period of wacky adolescence often extends to three years. At the other end, their lives are comparatively short; they are usually dead or too old to work by the time they are eight. On average they have only about five years to fulfill themselves in the tasks for which they were bred. In contrast a dachshund or a Lab will be useful for double that length of time.


Patrice Stoquert, French workshop presenter from UNUCR, giving advice to Jacques Dion on handling his wirehaired dachshund.

The workshop was divided about equally between indoor discussion and field work using a few demo dogs at various stages of development. There was a tendency for even the more experienced Quebec dogs to work too fast. If you have to run to keep up with the dog at the end of the tracking leash, you are going way too fast to see the blood sign that will help indicate the condition of the deer. They pointed out that an excessively fast dog wastes more time than he saves. Tracking dogs in Europe are trained to point out blood sign, and some do this naturally with little training. Partnership and cooperation between handler and dog are at the heart of tracking wounded big game. Obedience training is important, but “command and obey” are not enough.