JJ Scarborough and his Lab Rosie, a super-achieving blood tracking team from Georgia

With this post we are going to introduce a new feature on our blog – interviews with experienced trackers/handlers of blood trailing dogs. The handlers such as JJ Scarborough have enormous experience, and we will be able to learn about various aspects of training and tracking from them.

We are going to start with JJ Scarborough, a United Blood Tracker member and forester from Macon, Georgia, where tracking with dogs off lead is completely legal and acceptable.  JJ and his tracking Lab Rosie’s accomplishments in the field are simply amazing, so let’s have some numbers now at the beginning of this interview.

JJ Scarborough and his tracking partner Rosie. The picture was taken at Trackfest 2011 at Pocahontas, AR.

JJ, how many calls did you take last year?

Last tracking season (2011-12) I had 175+ calls, of which I took 132  and recovered 74 animals (38 live). I take almost every call when I’m in town. Almost all of the calls I get and don’t take are when I go out of town to hunt. This year while in Kansas, I left a message referring calls to other trackers. I explain to hunters what I expect the odds of recovery to be, and take any call that they will cover my expenses (even ones that seem to be backwhacks or no blood possible misses). In 2010-11 she recovered 67 of 105 calls with 32 alive.

Rosie’s numbers lifetime are 275 recoveries of 568 calls taken. Only deer, hogs and bear are included in these numbers, and 117 animals were still alive when we found them.

Tell us more about Rosie, your extraordinary tracker.

Rosie will turn 8 this month. She came from a backyard breeder near Macon where we live. I never got to see papers for either the sire or dam, but I met them both. I was told the sire was from English lab bloodline and was whelped in Alaska. The dam was American/Field bloodline. Both parents were black.

How did you go about training Rosie?

Rosie is my first tracking dog. She was always with me and started tracking natural lines before I had really done any training specific to tracking. She was in training primarily to be a retriever and generally obedient working partner. I read John’s book before her first deer season when she was only about 6 months old. I decided to postpone tracking training until later just because I thought that the tracking lead would be confusing. Retriever training requires the use of a lead as a check cord. I got a harness and ran a few liver drags right before deer season and put her on about a dozen tracks the first year (all friends and hunting partners, no outside calls). She seemed to really enjoy tracking natural lines early on and was never really too excited over artificial blood lines.

I have spent much more time training Rosie for retrieving and obedience than tracking. She enjoys tracking much more because she is able to take charge and doesn’t have to be structured like during retriever training. She is a handling retriever. She runs multiples and blinds and swim-bys. She was force-fetched at 8 months. She lost most of her hearing at age 3 after ear infections from doing water work. I’ve seen her retrieve geese and ducks in the morning, doves in the afternoon, and a deer in the evening; all in the same day. She has also tracked wounded turkeys, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, raccoons and armadillos.

Do you let her off lead when you track?

For the firsts 4 ½ years she worked exclusively on lead. On lead she recovered the deer about 40% of the time and about 1/3 of the deer that were recovered were live recoveries. After that she has worked both on and off lead. The last two years have been almost exclusively off lead when highways and property lines will allow. Off lead she has recovered about 60% of the deer with about half of them live recoveries.

I have worked her on lead at the beginning of old tracks, but I prefer to let her work off lead any time conditions are difficult. I know she can work them out better without me and the lead.

When she bays, 10 or 11 yards is the distance she likes to stay away in fairly open woods with a standing deer. When the woods are thick or the deer is weak or lying down she will be closer. She will grab a swimming deer by the tail if she is able to catch it. I’ve seen her drown a weak buck. She has grabbed and killed some does, weak bucks, and hogs on land when she could tell they were really weak. She runs silent on track, squeals in high pitch when she sees fleeing game, and chop barks when animals turn to face her. She will eat from the tail end of the deer any time she is left alone with a find for very long.

Have you had any bad experiences with her tracking off lead?

This year was the first year she was injured while baying. A big boar cut her just before deer season this year. Three different deer got her with antlers this year. The first two got her with two tines each that were flesh wounds in the right ham and butt area. The last one went between her ribs on the right side and punctured her lung. The lung didn’t collapse. It really bothered me and the vets but didn’t slow her down at all. She even swam in 2 ponds and caught the deer about ¾ of mile after it hit her. I know that she has been run over many times by deer and hogs without getting hurt. They don’t usually catch her unless it’s real thick.

Her oldest continuous track with recovery is 47 hours and 472 yrds. She has had 2 deer hit by automobiles while we were tracking them. The longest track ending in recovery is 4.25 miles. She tracked one over 6 miles on lead that got away. She recovered 6 in one day on 2010. I have dispatched deer that she bayed that had only one front hoof shot and hanging from below the dew claw. We lost her for almost 14 hrs. when she pulled away from another handler on lead. She got the lead hung up while baying over half a mile away. I owe Ken Parker and A.J. Niette who tag teamed to re-track the deer and find her. She was sitting on top of the deer with water running on both sides when we found her.

What are Rosie’s strengths and what are her weaknesses?
Rosie’s strengths: she enjoys tracking; she’s hard headed and won’t give up easily; speed and stamina off lead on land and in water; she is very trainable and intelligent and has learned from her many tracking experiences.

Rosie’s weaknesses/limitations: she is too big and strong (pulls too hard) to run continuously on lead; she was very slow to develop the ability to follow old cold tracks (mostly my fault); she has a tendency to overrun her nose (poorly attached to the line); she had to train her novice handler; she had to make believers out of my hunting public so that they would call us and give us opportunities (now the opportunities are increasing every year).

 

Have you tracked with other retrievers?

I have worked with about ten retrievers and have tried each of them on simple tracking lines. Most of them lacked the concentration and/or interest needed to follow even simple lines early on. My six-year-old black Lab Codie is a high-drive retriever. Obedience and retrieving desire come naturally for him. It was obvious early on that tracking was not his forte. One other male yellow lab that I have met and all six Drahthaars seem to have all the natural skills to be good trackers.

Does Rosie live in the house or kennel?

Most of the time Rosie, Codie, and Jazzie (my young female DD) are inside dogs. Rosie is equally comfortable in the kennel, the yard, the truck box, the crate, or the motel room.

How long is your tracking season - when does it start and when does it end?

Archery season in GA starts in mid September and stays in for four weeks. There is a one week muzzleloader season following archery. Youth hunters may shoot centerfire rifles during muzzleloader week. Firearms season starts after muzzleloader season in mid to late Oct. and goes through early to mid Jan. Our season lasts 18 continuous weeks start to finish. The limit is 12 deer per season 2 bucks 10 does. We have opportunities to track hogs all year.

We started tracking this deer about 8 pm on lead.  We pushed him just over 3 miles in a big circle.  About midnight I cut her off lead. The first time she jumped him after that she caught and bayed him.  My 7 year old hunter took pics at the taxidermy shop where a neighbor told us he had multiple game cam pics of him since June.  A few days later he checked his cam on video mode and saw the final video.  Evidently Rosie went by the cam while it was timed out.  We dispatched the deer just after midnight. 

How do people learn about your tracking services?

Georgia Outdoor News Magazine has played an important role in getting me started tracking. They maintain a list of tracking dog handlers by county on their website. Every year they dedicate a page in the September issue to promote the handlers and the web list. Now the majority of our calls come from personal referrals, but early on G.O.N. was a big help.

How far would you drive to take a call?

Early this year I drove over 4 hours one way to track a bear after attempts to refer the track to the local guys failed. My average distance is about 30 miles one way to track. During peak weeks it doesn’t make sense to travel far because I will miss a call near home. I would be willing to travel as far as work or other circumstances will allow, as long as my expenses are covered.

What would you say is percentage of your calls from hunters using bow vs firearms?

A little more than 1/3 of my calls are archery calls. I get three or four muzzleloader calls a year. The rest are rifle hunters with a high percentage of youth and female hunters. More than 90 percent of them are bucks, which leads me to believe that many of the does that could be found go unrecovered. As a bowhunter some of the most memorable calls have been live recoveries during archery season. I have been fortunate enough to witness bowhunters who were able to make finishing shots on standing P&Y Class bucks on three different occasions. All of these were over 10 hours after the first shot and 2 were the next day. One of the bucks was near 170 inches and all three were daytime recoveries.

It was definitely worth the almost 3 hour drive to help Amanda Wilson find this outstanding Georgia buck in early Dec 2011.  The entire hunt including the recovery was caught on video by Logan McNulty of Greenback Tactical Hunters. The track was about 1000 yards and 20 hours old with no visible blood. The video is still being processed, but you can read the entire story at click here.

Do you have a special system for keeping records?

Every year I keep a weekly monthly appointment notebook with all the details from work and tracking. Its all hand written and summarized monthly. The last thing I ask of my hunters when we don’t recover the deer is that they report back to me if they ever hear from the deer again. This way I can go back and update things if the deer is killed later or found or shows up on game camera. 

Thank you so much JJ for sharing your experience with all of us. Would you like to add any comments?

The fact that I read John’s book gave me a huge advantage as a novice handler. The foundation was there to read and build upon. That resource helped to speed up my development as a handler and take me to higher levels. The experience that Rosie and I have gained together will give Jazzie and future tracking dogs that I handle the same foundation. There were so many things that I could have done differently to help Rosie’s development and take it to higher levels through training. The biggest advantage that Jazzie and others will have that Rosie did not is that she will be given over 170 opportunities per year to gain experience on natural tracks.

I hope I didn’t ramble too much and answered most of you questions. Tracking is one of my passions and I could go on about Rosie and tracking all day.

JJ 

Rosie, a tracking super-achiever, all relaxed.

The wind is an important factor in tracking

Michael Harrell from Georgia has shared an important lesson he learned recently. Michael, thank you for writing!

I did not expect to write to ya'll again so soon, but I am. This time, it is a learning experience for me, not my Lab, Pi. I am located in South Georgia and this is Pi's first year tracking and I was able to put her on her third and fourth track of the year yesterday.

Well, I have over 40 years of hunting experience. Most of that is deer hunting. So I have had a lot of hands on, on the job training of tracking deer. I have also worked with various gun dogs in the past so I know to trust your dog. But occasionally I still have flashes of stupidity.

This past Saturday I shot a doe. It was a good hit and should have been an easy track for my dog Pi, except for the dope on the rope. First, the set up.

I was hunting the same stand I shot a buck eight days earlier. There was fresh hog sign up and down the logging road where the blind was set up. There was also a fresh hog wallow about 50 yards from the blind, on the side of the road. In addition, there was a good bit of wind coming from the Northwest. It was a steady around 10 m.p.h., with gusts up to 20 m.p.h.

Around 8 a.m., a mature doe stepped out from the left into the road. She was not interested in the acorns on the ground, walked straight across the road to the right. The doe was about 75 yards down the road. Just a couple of minutes later, a yearling stepped out at the same spot, went into the road then turned and went back where it came from. Almost immediately, the yearling and another mature doe stepped out. Both began feeding on the acorns, gradually moving towards me. 

After a few minutes, I decided there was not a buck following them so I decided to take the mature doe. I waited until she was almost broadside at about 60 yards. I shot her with a 30-30 behind the shoulder. It was decent hit and the doe ran to the right side of the road, angling towards me. It hit the brush just before the hog wallow and ran into the planted pines. I lost sight of the doe but based on the direction she was running, I assumed the doe would continue to run to my right. Then, to my immediate right in some very thick brush, I heard it crashing through brush. I assumed it was the doe. By the way,  the doe would have been running with the wind if it continued with a gradual turn to the right.

I waited about 20 minutes, walked down to where the doe hit the woods and found some drops of blood. I went back to the camp and got my dog for what I thought would be a short, sweet track. Excellent training for her. Turns out it was excellent training for me.

Once we got back, Pi went straight to the area where I had shot the buck earlier. I called her back to the new hit site and she made some sniffs, then followed the trail into the brush. I found more spots of blood. Then the dog, instead of turning with the wind, stopped and turned into the wind. Pi stuck her nose in the wind, did some big zig zags, occasionally sniffing the ground and occasionally smelling the wind. It was “obvious” to me Pi had picked up some hog scent or the scent from the first doe. I followed her for a bit, looking for blood but did not find any.

Pi went behind an old blow down tree that was covered in vines. I was only about 15 feet from the blow down and called Pi back to the hit site. She started again and repeated her behavior, but veered a little further off from the first track but headed back to the blow down. Again, I called her back, but this time, I took her downwind of the spot I thought the doe fell. Pi went through this area and found deer poop, turkey poop, fresh armadillo rootings and such. But no blood.

By this time, I was really frustrated with her. So I took her back to the hit site and let Pi go again. Again, she turned into the wind. I followed her again, but took a different route than I did earlier. As I went across an old thinned pine lane, I saw blood. Then, more blood. At this time, it dawned on me. Pi was following the scent the whole time. Finally, I got to the old blow down and behind it was the doe. The deer had only gone maybe 20 yards total. But as soon as the doe hit the brush and I could no longer see her, the doe turned directly away from me and into the wind. What I heard can only be a guess, but it could have been the other doe I observed earlier. I don't know.

Pi's behavior in tracking had to be due to the wind. I believe she winded the doe in the gusting wind. She did not follow the ground blood trail because she did not have to. The wind was bringing the scent right to her. When I tried to follow her, I was not on the blood trail so that is why I could not find any blood. When I did look for blood from the hit site, I looked in the direction where I thought the deer had run and couldn't find any. I was making all kinds of assumptions on why the doe was not bleeding.

When I thought about this experience. I realized if the hunter had told me the story and I put the dog on the trail and the dog went in another direction, I would have followed the dog. I would not have trusted in the hunter's opinion.

Pi must think I was an idiot, pulling her off the doe twice. Trust your dog, even if it is young and inexperienced.

By the way, late that afternoon, I had the opportunity to put her on another blood trail. A small buck was shot. It was a good hit and we did not need the dog, but it was a good training trail. The wind had quit blowing by this time and Pi stuck her nose to the ground and followed the short blood trail right to the buck.

The next time the wind is blowing, I must realize she might not be following the exact trail but the scent being blown by the wind. Saturday was a good learning experience, for me!

First tracking season for Pi, a young Lab from Georgia

Michael Harrell from Georgia has shared with us his experience of training and tracking a young Lab Pi. Thank you Michael!

I have been following your blog and have read and re-read your tracking book for the past several years. I had a beagle for five years and he was a great tracker. He actually trained me, I didn't train him. He died in an accident just before last year's deer season opened here in Georgia. This past Thanksgiving I got a Lab puppy named Pi and began training her. Pi is a typical, overactive Lab. Slowing her down is the problem, but I am working on that.

Once the gun season opened on October 22, I have put her on two tracks. The first was relatively easy. An eight-point buck was shot through both front legs. It was her first track. Pi followed the trail for about 130 yards. Then the buck made a 90-degree turn to the left in an old firebreak. Pi overran the turn, but after searching to the right, she came back to the point she lost it and picked up the trail. Pi followed it for another 75 yards then jumped the buck in an overgrown patch of briars and Gall berry bushes. She pushed the buck out and the hunter was able to finish the buck off with his pistol.

The second track was a six-point I shot later that week. When I walked into the stand that morning before daylight, there were hogs all around it. After about 15 minutes, the hogs moved off towards the North. I made it to the ground blind around 7 a.m. Just 15 minutes later, the buck came out. I made a good shot at about 50 yards. It also ran off towards the North, right where the hogs had gone into the thick brush. I was shooting a 30-30, hit the main shoulder bone, one lung and the heart. But the bullet did not penetrate. Around 8 a.m. I looked for blood and did not find any. I went and got the dog and put her on it. She actually ran past the hit site and began smelling the hog sign. Since I was not sure exactly where the hit site was, I let her go. After about 15-20 minutes of watching her sniff and run around I knew she was not on a blood trail. I brought her back to what I thought the hit site was. Pi acted like there was nothing there, but went into the brush in the direction the buck ran. I followed her and within about 10 yards, she definitely picked up the scent. From her reaction, I realized she winded the buck. With her head held up, Pi began a zig zag pattern and followed the scent. I looked in the direction she was going and the buck was piled up about 25 yards ahead of her.

I did not find any blood on the ground until I got within about 10 feet of the buck.

I believe we would have found both bucks without the dog, but it was a good training experience. It was also her first experience with hog scent. I was glad I was able to put her on the right track and she zeroed in on the buck. Once she hit that scent, the hog smell was ignored.

Pi with the hunter, Frank, and his buck after we got back to the camp.

I am a member of United Blood Trackers and I did get one phone call so far this year. But the location was almost 150 miles away and the hunter said he thought the buck crossed into property he did not have permission to go into so I declined to go.

Tracking with a Lab in Missouri

John received this super nice e-mail from Vince Crawford. Thank you Vince for writing!

 

John,

I wanted to leave you this message and thank you SO much for writing your blood tracking books (your dog book and Dead On). Both my pup and I have really enjoyed them. 

 

Here in Missouri, we are dealing with drought conditions, and it has made for some tough tracking! We made out first call today where we went to help someone we did not know. I am a Conservation Agent in Missouri and Hunting Incident Investigator by trade, so using my learned investigative skills teamed up with your book's suggestions really prepared me well for asking the right questions of the hunter. 

 

My 11 month old lab, Goose made pretty short work of the track job. I could not be happier for her! She is 4 for 6 this year, and I am not convinced the two she did not find died within a reasonable time frame, or at all.

 

Here is a picture of Goose with her new friend Matt, the hunter. He had a one lung and liver shot as was expected by the sign we found on the trail and the arrow. This was a 24 hour old trail.

 

I can't believe how much fun Goose and I are having tracking John. I really wonder how this will all change my own archery deer hunting in the next couple years.

 

Again, thank you very much for sharing your experiences with others through your books.

Eleven-month-old Lab Goose with the beautiful buck she recovered for Matt

The Nose Knows

John Philips' article on blood tracking published in Petersen's Bowhunting is available now online at http://www.bowhuntingmag.com/tactics/BH_nose_1209/index.html

Blood tracking dogs in the media - two recent articles

In the last month two good articles on blood tracking dogs came out in the hunting publications.

The first one "Using Dogs to Recover Game" was written by Michael Bartz and was published in the October 16, 2009 issue of Wisconsin Outdoor News. It was interesting to read about author's first hand experiences in tracking wounded game with his Drahthaar Gus. The article emphasized legalities of blood tracking in Wisconsin where "though it is illegal to hunt deer or spring turkeys with a dog, dogs may be used to recover game as long as the dog is on a leash and no weapons are possessed." I found the article very well written and very informative. It mentioned United Blood Trackers (http://www.unitedbloodtrackers.org/) with its state-by-state listing of available trackers, and I know that Wisconsin trackers have experienced a big spike in calls from hunters. Many thanks to Michael Bartz for a much needed publicity given to blood trackers. And a big thank you to Larry Gohlke, a Wisconsin veteran blood tracker, for sending us a copy of the article.

The second article, "The Nose Knows" by John E. Phillips was published in the December issue of Petersen's Bowhunting. It was fascinating to learn how tracking dogs are used at Tara Wildlife, a huge bow-hunting only property in Mississippi and Louisiana. Phillips writes "Tara has a strict policy of using dogs to follow up on every single shots clients take. During the 2008-2009 deer season, Tara's tracking dogs helped recover 64 bucks and 36 does." Then, he goes into the details how Tara's tracking dogs (only Labs are used) are actually trained and handled on calls. Great reading! Thank you John for mentioning our book and for online extra Deer Tracking Dogs in the North.

Labs as deer trackers

by John Jeanneney, Full Cry August 2008

The origins of the Labrador retriever breed actually go back to Newfoundland in the 1800s; it was the intelligence, trainability and willingness to please of these early imports that made them gun dogs of choice in Great Britain. Back in North America they had been developed from a gene pool of dogs that were truly versatile in multiple tasks on land and in the ocean.

Today the Lab is more than just a bird dog. Of all the breeds registered in the USA the Lab ranks first, and this is in good part due to his good temperament and suitability as a family dog. This popularity has exposed the breed to the expected risks. Unfortunately, a good proportion of registered Labs have been modified, we could say “dumbed down”, for the purposes of show and pet breeders who could care less about hunting. In these suburbanized dogs the original toughness and can-do drive have been lost. On the other hand, the responsiveness and intelligence of the original Lab has led to some good things too without threatening the basic qualities of the breed. Labs have become the favored breed as guide dogs for the blind, search and rescue dogs and drug dogs.

In view of its origins and adaptability, it’s not surprising that the modern Lab can be highly useful as a tracker and finder of wounded big game. Hank Hearn of Vicksburg, MS demonstrated the new Lab possibilities while he was working as a hunting guide on the 27,000 acre Tara Plantation near by. In the 1980s Tara was becoming famous for its quality bowhunting for whitetail deer. In 1988 Hank took his Lab puppy J-J and began to develop him as tracker for Tara’s hunters. J-J was a highly intelligent dog out of Mississippi duck hunting stock. He was constantly with Hank, and after a few uncertain puppy attempts they both found their calling as wounded deer trackers.

J-J was a hunting dog that could do almost anything. Duck retrieving and coon hunting were minor parts of his repertoire, but by the time of his death in 1998 it was his fame as a wounded deer tracker that had spread across the South. Bo, currently the top tracking dog at Tara, is a great grandson of J-J. There are many other blood tracking Labs at work in the South that come out of J-J’s duck retriever bloodlines. Today Mississippi and Louisiana are probably the best places to look for American Lab litters from strong blood tracking backgrounds.

Al Wade in Bogalusa, LA has a chocolate Lab named Scout that is carrying on the Hearn/J-J tradition with modern equipment. This Lab shows the characteristic balance of responsiveness and initiative that is so important in practical tracking. He knows what Al wants, but he will override Al’s instructions if that’s what it takes to find the deer.

Scout has been wearing one of the new Garmin GPS units for dogs, and this turns out to be very handy when the wounded deer goes a long way, off lead in the dense cover of the Delta. Generally Al starts Scout on the right line by working him on the long lead. Then when the cover gets impossibly thick, or when he jumps the live wounded deer, he turns Scout loose. The GPS allows Al and Scout to always stay in touch no matter how poor the visibility becomes.

Scout, a chocolate Lab, with one of his finds.

One of Al’s posts on the United Blood Trackers web site gives us a sense of how he and Scout work together to find a deer. This particular call was over in Alabama, and in some other ways it was not typical. Expect the unexpected!

“The hunter told me that he had shot a doe and that it was dead, but he couldn't find it because the rape (a plant like a turnip green) was too high. I told him no problem; we would take Scout and let him wind it. I figured since the deer was dead I didn't need that tracking vest with the gun, the gps, the spear, etc. I did grab my head light, put Scout in his vest and put his beeper collar on. When we got to the spot where the hunter thought it was standing, I let Scout go. That rape was knee deep and I could see how the hunter couldn't see the deer. Scout was working around pretty close and suddenly he started working straight down the field. The hunter said "it wasn't that far down." Does this sound familiar? He seemed to have a good mark for where he shot it so I called Scout back. It didn't take long before Scout was headed back the same way.

This time I let him go and within a couple of minutes he stopped in the center of the field about 100yds down. When Scout finds a deer he stops so I headed that way. The closer I got the more excited he became, and he was jumping around. Suddenly two sets of eyes. I yelled back to the hunter that it was still alive. About the time this came out of my mouth the doe got up and headed towards the woods with Scout in close pursuit. The deer was almost to the wood line when Scout caught up to it and tackled it. They cut a flip and the deer got up first, took off again and hit the woods. I was closing in and got in the woods just in time to see another take down. This time the deer stayed down and Scout started baying it. I called Scout back, approached the deer and got close enough to see that it had been hit high on the neck and wasn't bleeding much. That's right about the time she took off again. Again Scout goes for her and caught her quick.”

My special interest in Labs and my long-time obsession with all tracking dog breeds led me back to Europe this fall after snow ended tracking work here in up-state New York. One of my objectives was to see the work of an outstanding Lab in the Vosges Mountains of France right on the German border. I took ten wounded boar calls there with Patrice Stoquert and Raoul, his seven-year-old yellow Lab of Scottish bloodlines. Patrice is a French forester, who tracks back and forth across the border, speaks German and is equally at home in the forests of both countries. The Germans call him Hundeflusterer, dog whisperer, because of his ability to communicate with dogs.

Patrice Stoquert’s Raoul, a yellow Lab

What I saw of Patrice and Raoul re-enforced what I had already learned from 32 years of practical tracking in New York State. Nose is important, but the quality of intelligence is even more so. A dog that uses his nose intelligently on an old, cold line of ground scent can be more effective than a dog with bloodhound quality nose lacking intuition and persistence to search or “dig” for the right scent beyond the point of loss.

Getting a good start on the right line is an important part of tracking. When the wounded animal is a wild boar, this can be especially difficult. Boars, when shot on drives, are usually running in a group so there is individual scent from many different pigs lingering in the same place. Also wild boars, even when shot with big center fire rifles, generally don’t bleed very much. Patrice had a unique way of starting his Lab in these cases with the scent of many animals and little or no blood.

He would release Raoul at the general hit site and then let him cast slowly in a 100 meter circle as he stood and watched. When Raoul found the right scent line he would sit down and bark. If Patrice did not approach him quickly enough, Raoul would go to Patrice and nuzzle the tracking collar and leash in Patrice’s hand. Clearly this dog understood that the cold tracking itself was to be done on the long leash. It was Raoul’s job to follow the line; Patrice’s function was to observe and interpret what little blood was there to be seen.

I’m not suggesting that this is typical Lab tracking work. Stoquert is a gifted handler, unconventional in some of his handling techniques, and it must be remembered that Raoul is a mature, experienced dog, thoroughly in tune with his human partner. Close cooperation, built on intelligence, and a close bond, are necessary in all effective tracking dogs, but the psychological make-up of the hunting Lab facilitates this.

In Europe it is customary and legal to release dogs if the wounded animal is still alive and departs from his bed in front of the dog. On larger boars, over 100 pounds, and on big red deer, the dogs act as bay dogs rather than catch dogs. Even in bay situations Raoul has taken a pounding from wild boars that are very aggressive.

Raoul mixes it up with a wounded wild sow.

I had a chance to watch Raoul track and catch a sow of about 100 pounds. She had been wounded in both front legs during a big drive in Germany. There was amazing little blood for about 300 meters to the wound bed. A whitetail, wounded in the same way, would have left much more sign. Raoul worked on lead until he jumped the sow; then once released, he caught her in a 100 meter chase. She had no tusks, but you could see that Raul was experienced and not taking unnecessary risks as he held her for the knife. He knew his game well.

I think that Hank Hearn in Mississippi and Patrice Stoquert in France would understand one another pretty well. Their own languages may be English and French, but they both speak the same dialect of “Lab”. Both men agree that responsiveness and brains are the most important things to look for in a tracking dog. Hank believes in a tough, patient duck dog sort of Lab, not the hyper field-trial type that has to be trained with heavy applications of e-collar. Patrice would agree although he uses the British Lab rather than the American type.

Tracking wounded big game is not a command and obey exercise like the classic American retriever trial. It’s a matter of working in partnership with your dog.

Training tip #1

QUESTION FROM GARY IN UK:

Hello John

I would be very grateful if you could read through this email and give me some advice on getting my 4 month old Labrador to stick to a trail. This is not my first dog, I have bought him to replace my 11 yr old Labrador. My old Lab really taught himself on finding wounded deer, but I would like to put a lot of effort into this pup to find them really hard deer my old Lab would fail on.

I bought the pup at 8 weeks old from deerstalking line that goes back generations. Most of this line of dogs have picked up tracking by themselves as there are still not that many people laying blood trails and putting the time and effort into it.

About the pup

Does try to be top dog with the older dogs by hanging off their ears and hanging off their necks. Doesn't seem to be scared of new things or loud noises. Easily upset if you raise your voice to him. Likes to search for small biscuits in long grass and doesn't give in easily.

Training

Since I have been training the weather as been mostly sunny spells,rain showers and wind. I never lay more than 1 trail per week. Started with liver drags on grass, which he followed but in a S shaped weave he never seemed to go in a line.Bits of liver were left at the end of the trail.

I then purchased a set of sent shoes.Roe deer feet were used as I thought this might encourage him to hold the line better,it didn't. Then I used a Red Stag feet.

He gets very excited when I get the tracking lead and collar out,and shakes the deer skin at the end of the trail and carries it around very excitedly.

Conclusion

He just will not stick to the track and is now starting to lift his head to look for the skin. I need to almost lead him all the way along the track encouraging him to keep his nose down.

I feel that he is now relying on me to show him the track. The tracks are no more than 100 yds long and have been laid on grass,stubble and in woodland. There have been no distractions such as cattle or live stock.

When he weaves along a track it looks as tough he is keen and on the track but he is the wrong side of it if there is a cross wind.Then sometimes he just heads off in the wrong direction but with his nose down.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

ANSWER FROM JOHN:

Not all four month-old pups are not tracking well at that early age, and of course there are some that never develop good tracking skills. There are always some pups without good tracking aptitude, despite the fact that they have an impressive pedigree of trackers behind them. I have produced some of these myself.

Here are some things that you can try:

Work your pup on older blood trails, six or twelve hours. He has the nose to handle this. The problem is his still-immature brain that must process the information his nose brings in. Often, bored, uninterested dogs that do sloppy tracking work will do better when they are challenged by a more difficult line. I suggest this to people, and time after time they call back to say that the short, but more difficult line really improved their dog’s performance.

Another thing that often works is “baiting” the line. I like to put a piece of cheese or a scrap of meat, such as a hotdog chunk, in an old, pre-digital era film canister. Small prescription medicine vials will also work. The container keeps the ants, flies and vermin off the bait. I put blood on these little canisters and place them along the line, especially after turns. When your pup “finds” one, you congratulate him and open it for him to that he can have the treat. This helps instill the idea of dog /handler cooperation. Once he gets the idea of what it is all about, he will realize that he has to stay on the line to gets the rewards.

You can use the same method with scent shoes, but generally I do not work with scent shoes until a pup is confidently working lines at least 400 meters long.

Your dog seems to be very responsive, which is characteristic of Labs and a very good sign that he will try to please you. Give him lots of praise when he is on the line. If he gets off, I like to ask the pup, “Is that right?” with a strong questioning tone in my voice. Usually he will turn, give me a funny look and come back to the line.

I hope this helps. Please get back to me and let me know about how he progresses.

John Jeanneney