An Old Man Begins to Accept Reality

by John Jeanneney

Sunday was a busy day for Old Man John. In the morning Tommy and I went out on a call to track a buck that had been liver shot the day before. There was good evidence on the pass-through arrow, but almost no blood on the ground. After the first bed I saw no blood at all. Twice Tommy followed the same track out for 200 yards paralleling a high tension electric line . The buck crossed the line at some point, but we could never find the track. Very frustrating! And this sort of thing has happened to me before.  My theory is that the magnetic field generated by the high tension power line ionizes the scent particles, so that the dog can't scent them. We worked 4 hours through thick brush and clinging vines, and then gave up. I hate to quit.

At four I met Jolanta at the Beagle Club Pork Roast and got a few leftovers before heading back home to feed Tommy, and get the lights for the next call that was nearby. This time Old John was accompanied by Jolanta. On this call she expanded her role from companion to tracker-in-chief!

We started out on blood near the hit site, but there was very little of it considering that we were dealing with a wound by a two inch expandable that had passed though the guts and then one lung. Tommy got off on another line, and since I was moving pretty slowly on a steep hill Jolanta took over handling Tommy. After 200 yards we decided this couldn't be the right deer, and went back to known blood that we had marked.

This time Tommy got off on the right line that we could confirm by a few specks of blood. Within a 100 yards Jolanta  yelled, "Here he is!"  Jolanta handled beautifully, and I was very proud of her. I have to admit that I was a little ashamed of myself and my tired, cramping legs. I haven't prepared myself psychologically to be an Old Man.

It was very rewarding to see Jolanta glowing with happiness as she experienced the find. In the future we shall go on together. Very often I will be the one marking the line and carrying water for Tommy and Jolanta. 

                                     

A long holiday break is over! Books, puppies, and our plans for 2014.

It is very hard to get back to frequent blogging after a long break, and this is my first attempt! Let's start with pictures of showing John and me with our German puppy Kunox. The two pictures were taken just few days ago. We like Kunox a lot, and have high hopes for him.

We had a very nice holiday break that filled us with warmth and good feelings as in the last two weeks we went out or met with various friends just about every other day. It was great to catch up, eat good food, drink nice wine and altogether being able to relax. We wish all our readers and friends a Happy New Year - may it be healthy, peaceful and prosperous.

We love living in the country but winters here in the Helderbergs can be tough. It seems that the current winter started a long time ago even though officially it has been just two weeks.

The three pictures above were taken in the first half of December, and all this snow melted when we hit really high temperatures just before Christmas. In the end we ended up with a very green/brown Christmas Day. This, of course, was not going to last, and now a true winter has arrived. Yesterday we have a foot of snow, and temperature plunged to -7 F (around -22 C). Tonight is supposed to be even colder. This picture was taken this morning:

All dogs have been staying inside, and they have not been complaining. Thrill of  the first snow has been long gone.

This is going to be a very busy year for us. John has been working for a long time on the 3rd edition of Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer, and he should be done soon. When he completes his part, my work is going to start: editing and preparation of the book for production. Also we are planning to do a new, short book on dachshunds. This is the breed that we are most familiar with, and we'd like to pass our experience to new owners, handlers and breeders. And we also are planning to have two litters of puppies. All in all it looks like my photography is going to take a back seat in 2014, and probably we will not make it to too many dog events.

We have eleven dachshunds now, and our oldest is FC Asko von der Drachenburg, who is doing well at 14.5. Knock on the wood, but at present all dogs are fine, except for some minor ailments that our older dogs have.

Having so many dogs puts a lot of restrictions on our life, and especially our ability to travel, but I don't know how else one can have a multi-generational breeding program. Only through multi-generational evaluation and selection a breeder can have a breeding program with specific purpose and direction. The continuity of our breeding can be illustrated by Asko's descendants:
Asko--> Gilda--> Keena--> Paika--> Sky and Tuesday
and
Asko--> Elli--> Billy--> Keena--> Paika--> Sky and Tuesday
Elli goes back through Agata, Kuba to FC Fausto de la Grande Futaie (imported from France in 1990). Gilda goes back through Sabina to FC Gerte vom Dornenfeld (imported from Germany in 1988).

Speaking about puppies, we are swamped with inquiries about puppies, and at this time we are not taking any more reservations. However, Justin Richins from Utah just had  a litter of pups sired by Remi (Remy von Moosbach-Zuzelek), out of our Mielikki's sister - Macaria Raptor. Justin can be reached at jrichins@thehuntingcompany.com. Also Gail Berger from Pennsylvania is expecting any day now puppies out of Bee (a daughter of our Billy), who was bred to our Tommy (FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst). Gail can be contacted at grammyberger@gmail.com.

These two pictures show Bee at the 2013 NATC Zuchtschau, where she received
the excellent rating for her conformation.

Sportsman's Dinner provides an opportunity to educate hunters about the use of leashed tracking dogs

The picture is supposed to catch your attention :) It was taken on October 21, 2010, and it was Tommy's first "real" deer that we found for a local hunter Dan Hardin. 

Since then Dan has become a good friend, and our Keena has fallen in love with him. Now Dan has his own tracking license, and Keena has become his tracking partner. 

On MARCH 16 Dan and John Jeanneney will be giving a PowerPoint talk with video in conjunction with the Sportsman’s Dinner at the Westerlo Baptist Church. There will be two presentations: 2:00 and 4:30 PM. Dan and John will be talking about the ethical importance and also the adventure of using leashed tracking dogs to locate wounded deer and bear that would not be found by eyetracking. The address is 618 State Route 143, Westerlo, NY 12193. Call Terri for tickets at 518-797-5126.

 

 

Update on Elli. Calendars by Jolanta.

So far the news about Elli has been good. She made it through the surgery! Apparently the whole thing was more complicated than they anticipated. Elli turned blue at the beginning of surgery, but when they repositioned her she got better. The hernia was big and tricky to repair. She is staying at the vets overnight. She is doing OK, but I don't think she is out of the woods yet. I would like to thank everybody who e-mailed or called with concern about her your support means so much to both of us!

_____

For the last two weeks I have been working on a new project, and finally it is completed. When I signed up for Facebook I started to post my pictures there as picture sharing is extremely easily done on FB. Here on the blog I can only post a small sample. I got a really good feedback from my friends, and they encouraged me to publish some of the pictures in the form of calendars.

I came up with two calendars, which are going to be printed and sold through cafepress. The first is on wirehaired dachshunds.

To see images from this calendar click here. To order it from cafepress (it is $20.99 plus shipment), click here.

The second calendar shows the beauty of nature in the Helderberg Hills, NY  (this is where we live). This is a cover:

To see images from this calendar go here. To order the calendar click here.

If you order them, let me know what you think. I have never done anything like this before, and hope that people enjoy my photography and that the quality of printing is good.

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.

Tommy's ten-pointer was already damaged by coyotes

I am falling further and further behind with reports on our own dogs' tracking so this story is going to be short. John wrote it, and it describes Tommy's second recovery, which took place on October 23.

Paul Grave’s arrow passed through his ten pointer in the rear part of the rib cage, perforating the liver and the pancreas. There was heavy bleeding for 100 yards, sparse blood for another 200, and then insufficient blood to continue tracking.

Paul gave us a call in nearby Berne, and we decided to give young Tommy the line. We were wondering whether his fine performance earlier in the week was just a fluke or actually an indication that we had another dog of Joeri’s caliber.

Tommy had a little trouble at the beginning of the track where the searching hunters had spread the deer’s scent over a broad area. Once past last visible blood and the point of loss, I could see that Tommy was solid on the scent line He worked down over some steep terrain and there was the deer, which went 3/4 mile from the hit site. Tommy is easy to read!

The buck had been shot at 8 AM and we found the deer at 2:20 PM, not a long time, but the coyotes had already arrived. There was slight venison loss around the rump, but it was a good thing we arrived when we did. Tommy indicated that the coyotes had left recently. We can no longer assume that coyotes work only on the night shift.

This time Tommy was very apprehensive about approaching the deer. Most likely he smelled coyotes, which must had been dining on the deer before our arrival.

John with Tommy and the ten-pointer they recovered

Paul Graves, the hunter, and Jolanta Jeanneney, a photographer

Misconceptions about us and our dachshunds

This post is going to be more personal than any other as today was a really bad day. First a friend called with the news that an outfitter from the Midwest has two of our dogs, he does not like them and wants to get rid off them. Well, we never sold a dog (or two dogs) to any outfitter in this particular state (it is illegal to blood track there). So these dachshunds can’t be out of our breeding (=bred by us). Also in our contract we have “If the buyer at any time chooses to resell or transfer custody of this dog to a third party, the buyer must first notify seller before any resale or transfer to a third party takes place. At this time the seller shall have the first option to repurchase the dog (at the price not higher that the original purchase price) before sale or transfer to a third party.” We repurchased our dogs before. For example, Emma was repurchased for the sales price when her first owner was going through a nasty divorce and had to find a new home for her.

I have encountered this thinking before. If it is a wirehaired dachshund used for tracking, it must be from John and Jolanta. How not true! There are other breeders in this country, and close to 12-15 litters of wirehaired dachshunds out of European blood lines were bred this year. Some litters were sired by our males, but some were not. If there is a “von Moosbach-Zuzelek” dog in a pup’s pedigree a generation or two back, this pup is not “out of our breeding”. Only dogs purchased directly from us are “out of our breeding”.

Anyway, I feel really bad about the two dachshunds mentioned by our friend but I don’t know who bred them.

Next I stumbled upon a hunting forum, where a person we know from online contacts and phone conversations (never met him in person) was giving advice about buying a dachshund for blood tracking. He has a great little dachshund, and we have always been supportive of his work and promoted his accomplishments. He has never owned or worked with dachshunds out of our breeding or bloodlines. Well, it was a shock to find out that “our dogs are overrated and not worth the money we ask people to pay”. Apparently we are very good at marketing, breed dogs for living, and the dogs are not that good. This is not all that was written there, and after I had read the whole thread I felt sick. Why do people have this need of making themselves feel better by putting others down?

In reality we are very selective about buyers. When you go to our website www.born-to-track.com there are no hard sale tricks there, no flashy advertisement. We don’t even have “testimonials” as we want to attract buyers who have done their own research. Actually, we have an “obstacle course” for potential buyers, and we don’t make it easy for people to buy a puppy from us. Yes, we charge quite a bit of money for a puppy, we ask people to come here to pick up a puppy (we don’t ship), which might be very expensive, and we sell our puppies on the AKC limited registration. It is all spelled out very clearly on the website, but I doubt that it is “good marketing”.

Why don’t we sell our pups cheaper? We value our work and time we put into these puppies. We import dogs from Europe, and we don’t get any guarantees from European breeders. We evaluate the imported puppies thoroughly, and we use for breeding only the best individuals (usually 50% of what we import). The evaluation and strict selection are integral parts of our breeding program. We do not put together just any two dogs out of European breeding or sell pups at 7-8 weeks. This is not the way we choose to breed dogs. Most of the time we breed only two litters of pups a year, and we work with puppies until they are at least ten weeks old. Some pups stay here until they are 12-14 weeks old. We spent at least half a day with people who come to pick up pups (no extra fee). We provide as much support as people are willing to accept.

Of course, we have expenses. Our dogs are fed premium food – twice a day. In the morning they get raw diet from Omas Pride (our bill is $700 per two months just for that). In the afternoon they get premium dry kibble. We don’t skimp on veterinary care, and all our dogs undergo eye examination every other year. The dogs have fenced-in 12 acres where they get exercise.

It was hard to read how apparently we profit from dogs because we give so freely our time and work to clubs such as Deer Search and United Blood Trackers. John who has been retired for 9 years from his professional career as a college professor does not charge for his seminars (as most professional dog people do) and sometimes (!) he gets reimbursed for travel. He spends every day two hours on the phone giving trackers encouragement and advice…for free. We don't charge anything for tracking.

Then I did a google search and visited another hunting forum. I read somebody’s post there (of course nobody is using their real name) that John wrote his book “on Hofstra dime”. The truth is that he retired from Hofstra University 9 years ago, and his book was published in 2003!

I have no idea where people come up with stuff like this but certainly it was a day full of nasty discoveries.

A blood trail that ended with a gut pile

Yesterday we drove to Delanson, NY to track a buck for a hunter who hunted on the property, which is familiar to us. This is where Sabina recovered a wounded deer three years ago. The place is loaded with coyotes, and we have noticed three or four of them in the field on our way there.

We were greeted by Chuck (hunter) and his friend Don. It was a beautiful day - sunny, warm with the temperature in the low 60s.

Chuck and Don followed a very sparse blood trail for 1/4 mile. The hunter thought that the buck was liver hit, and we decided to use both dogs Billy and Joeri.

This time I decided to use our GPS and brought along a camera as well. The cover was incredibly thick with shrubs and wild grapevine, difficult to penetrate, and we put dogs on the last blood that hunters could find the night before. It was a difficult start and dogs made two small loops without finding more blood. Joeri was searching very well, and I decided to re-start him. This time he veered a bit to the right where we found "new" blood! I asked Don who was behind me to mark it with orange biodegradable tape. Joeri started to pull strongly, and I knew that now he was locked on the deer. John and I decided that I and Joeri should proceed in the lead. We tracked at a steady pace for almost two hours. We knew that we were tracking the right deer as occasional drops of blood confirmed the trail. This was not a liver hit deer. The blood was bright red, and we also found quite a few smears on a waist-high grass. This deer never bedded and was not getting any weaker. Finally after 1.6 miles (according to the GPS) Don and I decided to terminate the track.

Joeri did an incredible job on this 15 hour old trail. He checked himself two or three times but basically he was on the blood line for its entire length. He is very easy to handle as he does not pull too strongly. He is also easy to read when he loses the trail and frantically wants to recover it. He also proved to be very responsive. There were times that we had to crawl on our knees and elbows, and at one time I dropped the leash. Joeri was moving ahead, but when I called him, he stopped and waited for me to catch up.

It was a difficult decision to terminate the track because Joeri was still tracking the deer and we were seeing occasional droplets. He really wanted to continue, and when I stopped him he whined with frustration. I tried to reassure him that he did a great job but we tracked "enough". Little we knew what was waiting ahead.

The pictures show blood droplets on the leaves when we terminated the track.

Don and I were a long way from our cars, and we had to find our way back. Chuck and John with Billy decided not to follow us half-way through as the cover was so thick and Joeri was doing a great tracking job by himself. No more than 30 yards from where I had picked Joeri up, we stumbled upon a gut pile. Could it have been from the deer that we tracked? Possibly but not likely. The pile was not hot fresh, probably several hours old, and Joeri was not that interested in it. We felt that we were pushing "our" deer ahead.

Anyway, Joeri and I had a great time tracking, and hunters were very appreciative of what we have done. Their deer either is going to live or it ended up shot by another hunter. We will never know for sure.

Jolanta with Joeri

Joeri discovers himself as a blood tracker

Yesterday was a great day for Joeri, who discovered himself as a blood tracker. It was a great day for us too as this young dog is everything we have ever looked for in a working dachshund. Had we had a bottle of champagne in the house we would have opened it and celebrated. Well, we were too tired to do it anyway, but we both agreed - Joeri is the best dachshund that we have ever imported.

John does not like to brag about our dogs so reluctantly he wrote this short report:

"Joeri began his day in the Albany Pine Bush, a preserve of undeveloped land that runs east to west through the heart of the suburban Capital District. The deer had been hit late the previous afternoon, and the hunter was not sure of his shot placement; he had lost the blood trail quickly. It was a challenging line that had 100 yards stretches without visible blood. Joeri, with Jolanta handling, was right on for almost a half mile as occasional drops of blood confirmed. In thick cover Joeri jumped the deer, which seemed to be fine. We walked back along a suburban street to our parked cars. The hunter was relieved to know that the deer is going to be fine.

Jolanta, Joeri and Jason (hunter)

The afternoon track was a bit more exciting. Joeri had done so well in the morning that there seemed to be no need for Billy as a back-up dog this time. I went alone with Joeri to meet the hunter on his 300 acre forest property in nearby Westerlo. This was not suburbia! Now we were working a very sparse, seven hour line blood line. The hunter had done an exceptional job that morning, eye-tracking more than a quarter of a mile, but he had lost the trail where the buck had crossed a creek onto an island.

From the hit site Joeri worked the unmarked trail smoothly, even though the blood was dried up now and very difficult for us to see on the red spotted maple leaves; the real challenge began at the point of loss on the bank opposite the island. Beyond that point we could find absolutely no blood. Joeri crossed the creek to the island, worked across it to the other side and then crossed water again. He tracked down along the far bank and finally hooked back onto the island at its lower end. The cover was thick here, but when Joeri’s nose went straight up in the air, I knew we had the deer. He was a big, nine point buck, dead but still warm. Joeri was very proud, but I was even prouder."

Joeri on the top of the 9 pointer he recovered.

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.

Deer trackers go on missions of mercy

A week ago the Daily Gazette based in Schenectady, NY, ran the below article by Jim McGuire in their Sunday edition. The picture taken by the Gazette's photographer Ana Zangroniz reminded us how badly our barn needs to be painted!

Some explanation is needed as there seems to be some confusion about field trials in the article. Field trials have nothing to do with blood tracking training or blood tracking tests (the AKC has a good explanation of dachshund field trials on their website). Anyway, we'd like to thank the Daily Gazette for promoting the use of blood tracking dogs!

Photographer: Ana Zangroniz
Jolanta Jeanneney and her husband John play with two of their wire-haired dachshunds, Billy and Elli at their Berne home August 26. The Jeanneneys specialize in training dogs for tracking wounded deer and bears.


BERNE — John Jeanneney refers to the state’s band of leashed-dog trackers as “the agency of last resort.”

It’s a hunter thing. Others might not understand or may even recoil when Jeanneney explains: “We work when there is little or no blood.”

But what Jeanneney and the more than 150 state-licensed trackers do is actually humane. When hunters wound deer or bear and cannot find them, they can turn to the volunteer trackers who stand ready to drive considerable distances to begin a search.

The trackers and their trained dogs are usually successful. Since Jeanneney began pioneering the service in the mid-1970s as a permitted trial program watched over by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, he and his German wirehaired dachshunds have found 232 deer and three bear. Once on Long Island, he tracked a deer for nine miles.

He still has vivid memories of the time he and his dog came upon an aggressive buck that attacked them and injured the dog. It’s rare, he said, but sometimes “a deer will charge a dog.”

Since New York adopted legislation in 1986 and subsequent regulations in 1989 authorizing and licensing leashed-dog trackers, the program has been adopted by 16 other states. This month DEC gave its latest licensing exam to prospective recruits.

Jeanneney, the author of “Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer,” and the late Donald Hickman are regarded as the co-founders of the trackers’ association, Deer Search Inc., which started in 1978 and today offers 24-hour dispatch service.

Jeanneney, at 73, rates himself as “still going strong.” Each season, he estimates, he travels an average of 1,200 miles responding to calls for a tracker.

A tracker holding a state guide’s license may charge for this service, but Jeanneney said the majority of trackers are volunteers. He said hunters may make a donation to Deer Search, but it is not required. Deer Search reimburses trackers for their mileage.

DEC spokeswoman Lori O’Connell said the state leashed-dog tracking exam tests the tracker and not the dog. There are no field trials, she said, but part of the exam focuses on dog training.

There are rules and regulations governing the service, but no strict standards for tracking, O’Connell said.

One requirement that must be followed, she said, is notifying the local conservation officer before tracking begins.

NIGHT WORK

Jeanneney said trackers in New York, but not all the states, may carry a gun for protection and may work at night. Most trackers are not even notified until evening after hunters have given up finding their prey.

It is important to start immediately, Jeanneny said, because “chances are very good the coyotes will have it by morning … when they pick up the line of a wounded deer they know what to do with it.”

Darkness does not deter Jeanneney. “I’d rather work at night; the scenting conditions are better,” he said.

Jeanneney may prefer dachshunds, but he said he is open-minded about a tracker’s choice of dog. Others use beagles, bloodhounds, labs, basset hounds, golden retrievers, smooth dachshunds, drahthaars, dachbrackes and a number of additional breeds.

A good nose is necessary, but the training is key.

Jeanneney said he starts his dogs while only months old following the scent of a deer-liver drag. That technique gives way to more advanced training using tracking shoes that leave the scent of the deer’s interdigital gland, located at the top of the hooves.

It is that scent that all tracking dogs must follow on the job. Trainers use blood, but only sparingly, Jeanneney said.

Trainers make the field trials challenging by putting down cross tracks.

“A good tracking dog has to tune out the hot lines of healthy deer,” Jeanneney said.

Hunters and others seeking the services of Deer Search may contact DEC, a conservation officer or go to the Deer Search Web site.