Vonnie is starting to gain her handler's trust thanks to a good tracking job

This message from Mike Martien came on Christmas Day. Mike lives in Monroe, LA, and his puppy Vonnie came from our only 2014 litter of Tommy x Tuesday. In his message Mike refers to Waldo, who was bred by Laurel Whistance-Smith and was sired by our Asko. Thank you Mike!

Hope this message finds all well, and both of you enjoying Christmas.  Wanted to send you a quick note on Vonnie.  Things have been really slow for us.  Had 2 calls for tracking, and both of them came while I was out of town with my work.  However, we had the second live track for Vonnie this evening.

A good friend of mine, Mark Hoffman, was hunting with his daughter Gabby this evening, and knew I needed to give Vonnie more experience.  Gabby shot an 8 point, and when Mark found blood, and where the deer left the food plot, he did exactly what I wish all hunters would do, he marked the blood, and left to come get me and Vonnie.  Mark felt like the buck wasn't hit great, and wanted to wait a little while before taking Vonnie in, which was a good call on Mark's part.   

When I put Vonnie down on the blood she immediately started following it through the brush and down a steep hill.  I told Mark I wasn't sure she was still on it, while going down hill, but when we made it to the bottom, we found more blood.  She turned and dropped off into a small creek bed with steep, bluff sides and went 20-30 yards, when we hit a log jam in the creek and Vonnie started try to weave her way through it. I followed, but felt confident she wasn't on it.  Lucky for me though, after going through the pile of limbs that looked completely undisturbed, Vonnie stopped to sniff a leaf that had blood on it.  The bluff banks on this creek were now 10-12 feet tall, and nearly impossible for me to climb, but Vonnie made a 90 degree turn and tried going up it.  After two attempts, Vonnie came back down and went just a little further down the creek, where another drain came into it and started her way up.  While we were doing this, Clay Weeks and Mark shined their lights up the hill from where Vonnie had tried going up the bluff, saw the deer stand up, and finished it off.  Therefore, Vonnie has now earned my trust and I will follow her regardless of "what I think the deer did"...  The track wasn't very long, but thanks to Mark and Gabby Hoffman, they provided an opportunity for me to gain confidence, and Vonnie to prove her ability. 

 

I'm attaching a photo of Gabby Hoffman with her buck and Vonnie.  Please feel free to post the above paragraph and photo on your various sites.  It'll certainly help us get more tracking jobs, and make a little girl happy.  Vonnie is much more methodical in her tracking than Waldo was during his first three years.  She works the line slow and close, and hasn't blown a single turn on any of her 2 tracks she's been on.  Everyone has commented on how well she minds, and how well she reacts to being around numerous people.  I know it's still early to be making a call like this, but from what I've seen thus far, there's no doubt in my mind that she will probably be a better tracker than Waldo, and that's a strong statement, giving Waldo's accomplishments.  I honestly had hoped she'd just be as good as Waldo, but I believe she just might show me that it's actually possible to be better than him.  Many thanks to both of you for providing me with such an outstanding dog! 

Mike Martien's contact info is list on the UBT Find-A-Tracker site at  http://www.unitedbloodtrackers.org/tracker-profile/?user=222

Longhaired dachshund Tasha succeeds on a difficult and confusing track

A big thank you to Cliff Shrader from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for sharing his tracking experience with us. Cliff's tracking partner is Tasha, a longhaired dachshund he imported from Denmark.

It's Saturday morning and the phone hasn't rang yet....we'll just one time and that was from my son who forgot this was Saturday and I do not get up at 4 am on Saturday. I got up and made a wonderful cup of coffee (from by buddy Norman in Nicaragua), started some deer sausage frying (a gift from a hunter after tracking his dad's deer) and put some biscuits in the oven. As I sit here I have time to think about a few of the tracks that Tasha and I have made this year. I have been fortunate enough to get to track with three different trackers this year and I learn things all the time from them, their dogs and their stories.

Donnie called me the other morning and asked if I wanted to make a track with him. This track was for a friend of his son, Peyton. Although Peyton had killed deer before, he never harvested a buck. He shot a buck this morning, made what looked to be a good hit but the deer couldn't be recovered. Now in all fairness, if his dad Scott could not have gotten a tracker....or two in there, I am sure that he would have trampled  the woods down looking for the deer. An interview about the shot and the deer's reaction was not formal because some tracks...like a child's first deer or first buck....you are going to make this track regardless of how good the potential for a recovery sounds.

Tasha and I met Donnie and his Blue Lacy Ruby. We took the short drive over to the hunting club. We talked to Scott and Peyton and headed out on the track by four wheelers. The place where we would be tracking is a large field over a hundred acres that is about 200 yards wide and very long. One side have thick grown up cutover and woods, and the other side is a tree lined dirt road with open woods and palmettos interlaced on the other side. The ground was pretty wet. The ditches and low spots held some shallow standing water. The shot was taken from a stand on the tree lined road side of the field on a buck that had crossed over from the cutover chasing a doe. This was the last buck leaving this field. The gun was a scoped single shot rifle shooting a 7mm 08 caliber 165 grain Barnes X bullet. The buck jumped and kicked when he was hit. Scott was watching through the binoculars as his son Peyton shot said he thought the deer was hit hard.

We were brought to the hit site. There was blood in the field as well as on the briars. There was blood crossing the road and into the woods behind us. This blood was a dark shaded red but had red blood mixed in it too. I found some white hair at the hit site and on briars. Scott said he definitely saw lung blood on the other side of the road and I said that this hair could possibly be from the exit but it is definitely white belly hair. Donnie started out with Ruby and she had no problem hooking up on the trail with ample blood on the ground although she didn't seem as intense as she usually gets on a track.

After a few minutes, I started Tasha into the track. We found a small piece of what appeared to be gut crossing a log. Tasha never really hooked up on the track like she should have. We would run about 100 yards until we ran out of blood and then she would backtrack. She kept trying to bring me back into the field. We asked Scott if the deer could have possibly crossed back into the field after he had shot. Scott said it was possible but they didn't see anything like that. They were busy high fiving and talking about the shot. After repeated attempts to get the girls to hook up and track, we started branching out a little at a time. There are so dang many deer in these woods and trails worn deep from heavy usage were everywhere. Ruby jumped one doe that was bedded up and also found a dead fawn in another area. We don't know what killed the fawn.

As we branched out, Donnie found a blood line that went back into the field about 75 yards closer to the stand. This was really confusing as it appeared that the deer had run into the woods, went closer to the stand and crossed back into the field. The blood stopped, started, stopped and started. I took Tasha to the other side of the field where she had been trying to bring me. There were two deer feeding the entire time we were in this field. I was very glad that Tasha never gave them a second look. She hunted hard but did not hook up. As I approached Donnie at the place where the deer had crossed back into the field he said....this is where the deer was shot at. We found blood and some good brown rib area hair at this site. I told Donnie to go on, we would hold back a minute or two because the girls compete if we run them together. He said  - no, take Tasha on ahead because so far on this track he has pulled Ruby off of live deer, dead deer, live rabbits, guts, blood and lungs. Right now she doesn't know what I want her to do!

I put Tasha on the trail. She hooked up immediately. There was some lung as the deer crossed a ditch. The blood trail grew space and ended but Tasha never checked up. About 60 yards into the track a rabbit jumped and ran past Tasha about 20 yards away. I didn't think that she saw it and I was now afraid that she was trailing the bunny. She stopped where he jumped at, sniffed the ground and then went on with her track. I was relieved. I never had a rabbit problem before but that was huge temptation. She headed into some thick palmettos and about 50 yards later delivered me to a nice buck dead on the ground. He was shot just forward of center mass probably taking out one lung and busting up a bunch of other things inside. I called over to Peyton and said we had his deer. He ran all the way over there and asked where. He is over there a little ways. Peyton looked around until he saw him. With wonder and amazement he quietly said to himself.....Wowww!  I love being able to see this. After the initial finding of what was going to be the one that got away, Peyton now had his buck. The swagger now sets in and we had a nice photo shoot.

When we got back to the camp, we had another photo shoot and talked to the other hunters. When we told them about our confusion with the track they smiled. There was a doe shot the evening before from that stand. She was shot at least twice and hit in the guts. She crossed the road and went into the woods where she was recovered and dragged back down the trail to the road. No wonder the dogs and trackers couldn't put the pieces together. This was a great track to be a part of. I thank Donnie Morales, Ruby, Scott, Peyton and Tasha for allowing me to be part of it. 

Happy Hounds and Happy Hunter

 

A challenging yet successful track for a young longhaired dachshund puppy

This came as a Facebook message from Cliff Shrader, a UBT member from Baton Rouge, LA. This is Cliff's first tracking season with his longhaired dachshund puppy Tasha, whom he imported from Denmark.What an adventure it was. Thank you for sharing it with us Cliff!

Friday evening I received a text from one of my buddies asking if I want to make a track. One of his daughters had shot her first deer and there wasn't any trail. In fact, they had conflicting opinions on which way the deer ran after the shot. There were three deer feeding when Samantha shot and they split up after the shot. Her dad Red checked out the site and found some belly hair and a small amount of gut at the hit site. After we talked, Red and his son Matt backed out of the area where they had been searching for blood and waited for Tasha to arrive. It took about and hour and a half for us to get there.

The woods are thick piney woods with dense undergrowth. When I say dense I mean an abundance of briars and thorns that had never seen mankind before. There was a light mist in the air and the temperature was in the low 70s. Less than fifty yards from the hit site, we found blood drops. Red also found some additional gut as he trailed behind us. Tasha was tracking pretty good but she was having to work going through these woods. I was having to work even harder...a fat guy with a headlamp and backpack doesn't glide through briars and thorns easily. Along the way we would hit some blood and then it would stop. We may go 50 to 100 yards before we located blood again. The blood suggested that we had a muscle hit as it was always drops falling straight down. There never was a bed site although we found a couple of spots where the deer stood but never laid down. We never heard the deer jump during the track. Our track went for 1.37 miles and then we hit a particularly thick spot. I had to go to hands and knees at least a dozen times but here I had to go to elbows and knees. As I was clearing the briars I looked ahead and saw Tasha nose to nose with the doe, still very much alive. I yelled at Tasha and pulled back on her lead. After I got her away from the deer, the deer bounded up and away. I saw some gut hanging from a low hit as the deer ran. I was pretty exhausted and so was Tasha. We had tracked for about 2 hours and 33 minutes in rough country. We decided to back out and attempt to pick up the track in the morning. As far as I was concerned, this was a successful track even though we didn't have venison.

Tasha and I arrived Saturday morning. Samantha and Red had biscuits and sausage cooked up so we ate a nice breakfast before we ventured into the woods. We went to the last blood that I had marked on the GPS and started tracking. The track was 17 hours old at this point. Tasha picked up the trail right away even though we saw no blood. After about 60 yards we found a single drop of blood at least letting me know that she was on the same deer. Tasha took us directly to the steep bank of a swift moving bayou. I knew that the deer had jumped into the bayou here but I didn't see a thing. When I got into a spot where I could look down the 15 foot embankment, I spotted the deer dead in the water and hung up on something. This was an outstanding track for Tasha and I learned several things from it.

The recovery was particularly precarious. Red had to go back to his house and bring back the tractor where we could pull the deer from the bayou. With the dense undergrowth and downed trees, the tractor got stuck as Red was crossing some logs. This meant another trip back to his house to get the chainsaw. After he sawed himself out of this jam, he quickly found himself in another jam that required chain sawing a big pine tree out of the way. He finally arrived at the bayou and the recovery was made. The deer had only traveled a little over a hundred yards from where we jumped her. Tasha never voiced until Red was driving out with the deer on the tractor. She started raising cane! The cool bayou water had chilled the deer down just like a cooler and the meat was perfect.

 
This was one of my favorite tracks so far. Tasha is only 6 1/2 months old and she makes this tracking stuff look easy. What a great feeling to be part of someone's first deer! Congrats to Samantha, Red and Tasha. Thanks for letting me be part of it.

Cliff

Kids learn about benefits of owning and using a blood tracking dog

Lynn Pierce from Cut Off, Louisiana, owns Rosette, a daughter of Joeri and Gilda. He writes: My great nephew's first deer with his bow. Rosette made a great track to find the doe. It was gut shot and ran about 200 yards in a very, very thick cutover. It seemed like 500 yards. As you can see it was a family affair. His grandmother, twin brother and sister and three of my five grandkids. Oh yes, Rosette is in there too.

Easy natural lines are the best tool for training a young tracking dog: Cliff Shrader and his longhaired dachshund Tasha

Cliff Shrader is a new United Blood Trackers member, and he is has been working with a young standard longhaired dachshund Tasha. Tasha was born on May 27, 2012, in Denmark. He has been updating me about Tasha's training, and I asked him to write about how he got involved in blood tracking, dachshunds and how he went about importing a puppy from Europe. Thank you Cliff!

I was born and raised in South Louisiana. We were a family of duck and deer hunters, and we did our hunting in a swamp called the Atchafalaya Basin (this is the same area where Swamp People is filmed).  We used Walker hounds to run deer and we used Labrador retrievers for duck hunting. If someone had told me that I would grow up to own and love Dachshunds, I would have laughed at them.

I ended up with two dachshunds, Boudreaux and Thibodeaux. They were just pets until I brought home a deer to clean. When I showed the deer to my hounds, they went crazy. Their prey drive was very high, and they didn't want to let me have my deer back. This is when I first thought about Dachshunds as tracking dogs. In the south, people would laugh at you if you said anything about dachshunds being fieldworthy.

 My idea of actually training dachshunds laid dormant for quite a few years. Two years ago, I needed a tracking dog several times to trail wounded deer but there were none around. I pride myself on my tracking abilities but even after long and hard tracks, I lost two deer. Last year I started doing research on tracking dogs. John and you Jolanta had several things that I read and a friend of mine loaned me his book...Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer.

I contacted Patt Nance after visiting her website. Timing was very good because Patt and Tina Knoll  were just considering breeding Owl to Tina's dog Babe. I was lucky enough to be able to attend an AKC tracking trial that Laura and Tina Knoll were bringing three of the girls to. After that I was hooked. I waited several months for the mating of Babe and Owl to happen. Finally, all the stars were aligned and the mating took place. Unfortunately, it didn't result in a pregnancy. Patt Nance and I spoke several times and she told me of two litters in Europe. It was during this time that my favorite dog Thibodeaux passed away.

Patt Nance contacted several of her friends and they helped me find The Right Dog, not just a dog. I was very fortunate that Lise-Lotte Schultz at Tranevang Kennels in Denmark had a puppy left. Diane Webb of Doxifun and her husband checked out this litter of puppies when they were around four weeks old. She liked what she saw. When it was time, Marie Gadolin administered the Volhard puppy test. Tasha scored mostly 2 and 3s which indicated that she would be a good dog for an experienced trainer. Patt Nance had been studying the possibility of getting a puppy from this litter for herself. She loved the bloodline and Lise-Lotte provided information on all the hounds in that line.

When Patt bought a puppy (Taya) from the litter she was very impressed with her. From everything that I knew, Taya's sister Tasha was the right dog for me. Tasha was shipped from Copenhagen to Chicago on a direct flight. I was nervous as I waited in the rain at the airport. When they brought Tasha out and I saw her peering through the crate, I fell in love.

I have enjoyed getting to know Tasha. Training has been a bonding experience for us. John Jeanneny's book has been my bible. Your blogs and YouTube videos have helped tremendously. I started Tasha out on very short tracks......tracks that she couldn't fail. It only took a few of these and she started to realize what her job was. Tasha started really well in tracking but these were only training tracks, practice tracks...at home tracks. When we headed to Illinois for the season opening week long bow hunting trip I was very hopeful but still unsure of how Tasha would perform in the field.

On Monday it rained almost all day. Monday afternoon, my friend sent me a text that he had shot and killed a 9 point. He had already located the deer but would I like for him to leave it where Tasha could track it. I headed over there as soon as my hunt was over. The deer was shot in a field with a crossbow about 25 yards away.  The arrow struck the deer pretty far back through the guts. The deer ran 40 yards in chest high grass and laid down. After an hour, he approached the deer. The buck stood up and he shot it again. We decided to start the track where he had made the initial shot. Tasha was able to find guts on the vegetation and she found his arrow, something that he had not been able to do. Tasha fumbled around on this track having  problems getting a good read on it. I picked her up and placed her where he had made the second shot. This time she took off bouncing through the tall grass. She ran her track straight to the buck. When she ran upon the buck laying dead in the tall grass it scared her half to death. It took a couple of minutes with me kneeling beside the deer to get her over the initial shock. After this she was fine with it.

Tasha's next track, her first true track was over five hundred yards on another gut shot deer. Most of this track was without any blood. I have never been so impressed with a puppy.

I left Illinois Sunday morning heading home. One hour into the trip, I got a page from my hunting buddy Jerry. Jerry told me that two does were shot and one hit was questionable. I turned around and
headed back. We decided to put Tasha on the questionable shot first. The shot was made at 28 yards with a vortex broad head. The arrow struck the shoulder blade and very little if any penetration was achieved.

We started out on the track and Tasha showed us blood. The blood was bight red and was up on vegetation as well as the ground. The trail was steady and led to a wound bed about 75 yards away. The blood stopped but Tasha never slowed down. We proceeded to track another 100 yards with no blood but Tasha was pulling hard. We came upon something that I never encountered while tracking before...the property line. This neighbor would not allow any tracking upon his land. It was also understood that trespassers will be arrested.

We took Tasha to last blood and she tracked the identical track again. She was on this deer but we had to pull her off the track. I do not think that this deer was mortally wounded but I really wanted the chance to complete this track.

The next track we brought Tasha on was a deer shot at less than 20 yards with a 2 inch cut Grim Reaper head. This track was extremely easy to follow. You could see a wide heavy blood trail for
quite a way. Tasha ran this track as fast as I could go and there was the deer as expected 80 yards away. This may be the easiest track that she will ever get! It is amazing that this deer could travel that far after a shot like that. It was nice to end our week long hunting trip with an easy track like this.
During the week in Illinois Tasha ran six tracks making five recoveries. Tasha was fortunate to have a group of hunters that lent a helping hand in her training. They called us on nearly every shot, both good and bad, even though two of the deer could have been recovered without a dog. The lines were all pretty fresh. The averaged about two hours old with the longest being about 4 hours old.

This is the best on the job training I could every hope for.
  

Cliff with Tasha

More blood tracking stories from Louisiana: Mike Martien and his dachshund Waldo

We received a very nice report from Mike Martien, a United Blood Trackers member from Monroe, LA. Mike's tracking partner, a seven year-old Waldo was bred by Laurel Whistance-Smith from Canada, and his parents are FC Lutra von Loewenherz and our FC Asko von der Drachenburg.

 

On October 23^rd, Waldo recovered/tracked a live deer that stood up to fight when Waldo approached it. It was a doe that had been gut shot by a young boy (Seth), that had been jumped up afterwards by a lab (that was tracking it), and shot again, this time resulting in a broken leg. The Lab that was tracking it is a very good, accomplished tracker (named Sandy), but she was pregnant at the time and lost interest in tracking the deer after jumping it, and we think it was due to her being pregnant and tired. Shane (Seth’s father and Sandy’s owner), hunts with me on the same lease, so once he saw that Sandy was losing interest, he called me and asked me to bring Waldo. I started Waldo from where the deer had been jumped, and he trailed it into a very thick pine thicket that is overrun with briars. While trailing, we came upon a massive wall of briars that I had to crawl underneath in order to stay with Waldo. As soon as we emerged out the other side, Waldo made a 180 and went back along the side of the briars that we had just come through. Surprisingly, Waldo soon began barking and pulling hard on his lead. When I got positioned to where I could see him, the doe stood up and started trying to paw Waldo while he was biting her on the nose. Luckily Waldo was on lead, and I was able to hoist him out of the way so that my brother could dispatch the deer. Waldo was unscathed, but very possessive of the deer, as he didn’t want Sandy anywhere around it. LOL

On November 20^th we were called out on a track after church. This was an interesting track as Waldo was able to go on another track with Rudy, an up and coming one year old semi-smooth WHD that a good friend of mine (Jody McKoin) was able to get out of Pennsylvania. Watching these two dogs work together was pretty impressive. There had been a good many other hunters in that camp that had gone out trying to recover this deer and needless to say, the scent trail was littered a good bit from them stepping in the blood and scattering it. We determined that the deer was possibly hit high (as it dropped immediately after the shot) on a quartering away shot and we had no hair or evidence of a pass through on the bullet, and very little blood. After approximately 3 hours of watching the dogs struggle and seeing the lack of sign, we decided to pull out and call it quits.

On November 28^th, Waldo was called out to a 17-hour-old track that was the remnants of approximately 5 people and a blood hound that had attempted to find the deer with no success (they stayed out there for approximately 3-4 hours, the night of the shot, walking around, dispersing the scent, and trying to locate the deer). Needless to say, it was difficult to get Waldo going, but fortunately, my brother (Claude) jumped the deer and we were then able to verify that we were on the right trail, and the tracking was on. To make a long story short, the blood sign picked up after the deer left it’s bed (and the scent was fresh) and we were able to track it 2 miles to its next bedding site, where we dispatched the deer and recovered it. The greatest part of the recovery was Russ being able to call his 12-year-old daughter, Callie, and tell her that her trophy had been recovered!  I’ve attached two pictures of Callie’s deer: one of Waldo with the deer, and another with me, Waldo, and Russ – Callie’s father.

Mike with Waldo,and Russ, Callie's father.

On November 30^th, we were called back out to my lease by another good friend of mine (Chad), which has had Waldo recover a couple of deer for him and his son before (you might recall the picture of a young boy with Waldo and his dad earlier this season). Chad shot this deer at approximately 200 yards while it was running a doe, and we believe that his shot was low, because we found fragments of leg bone along the track and the deer was seen carrying its front leg. We had good blood for the first half of the track, and jumped it out of a bed twice while trailing. We trailed this deer 3,370 yards (or 1.9 miles) before giving up. We were able to get two more shots at the deer, but it wasn’t the most opportune chances, as one was a shot while it was running through thick cover, and the other was with a pistol at over 100 yds. Based on the sign along the track and the way the deer had stopped bleeding and was moving, we firmly believe that this deer is still alive. Hopefully someone else will see the deer and be able to take it.

So basically, the last month has been filled with deer that were still alive, yet we did manage to recover two of them. I’m surprised how slow the calls have been coming in, as we usually have a high volume of calls during this time of the year. Hope that all is well with both of you!

Mike Martien

Rosette is an accomplished blood tracker at a young age

Some of you might remember that Rosette is Joeri and Gilda's 18-month-old daughter who lives with Lynn and Anne Pierce in Cut Off, LA.

Recently we heard quite a bit about Rosette's accomplishments.

December 5

We really had fun with the kids this weekend-- two older ones are not in the picture -- playing in the woods somewhere.. :) . Rosette had a great track on the doe that is in the picture, which traveled about 100 yards, but no blood in food plot except for the spot the arrow landed. Rosette tracked the doe about 60 yards before we saw blood again at the edge of the woods.

Rosette then tracked in the open woods about another 40 yards, which was an easy track because the doe really started bleeding a lot and left a great blood trail. She really made it easy for us and recovered the doe quickly so we could go see the second half of the LSU / Georgia game.

I wish we would have missed the first half they were terrible, but came back strong the second half. Rosette is doing great and loving the hunting and camp atmosphere.

Thanks for your emails and have a blessed week.

Lynn & Ann

Geaux Tigers....

November 29

A friend of mine gut shot this doe at gut-busters, the hunting camp, on a dark, cold, windy, and rainy night.. the brush was very thick and Rosette found the doe quickly. It was not a long track but it took us about an hour to get in and out of there. Lots of thorns on all of us...Rosette handled it very well and made it a whole lot easier for all of us. It would have been rough going if we would have had to search for the doe in the blind with no blood trail. It made my friend and all of us very happy that were helping in the search. :)  We are having lots of fun with Rosette.

November 28

 

I hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving. Not sure if I sent this pic or not.

It was a nice track about 16 hours old and the deer was gut shot and no blood at all. It was open woods and we could see far into the woods so I let her off leash.. it was fun watching her work... She is doing great,

Also, Rosette did a night track in a misty rain in very heavy cover, it was another gut shot with very little blood. She went right to the doe and she got us out of there quick as the weather was getting really bad. It took us about hour to do the track it was so thick. Our boys need to work on their shooting...

This is her 4th gut shot deer, but she found all of them...

Axel, a blood tracking dachshund from Louisiana

Greg Accardo from St. Francisville, LA, reported that "this 12 pt was gut shot yesterday morning, Saturday, around 9 am. The hunter knew the deer was gut shot and he determined it was best to back out and leave the deer alone. He called me around 4 pm Saturday while I was out of town. We both agreed to meet about 12 noon today, Sunday, and pick up the track from the hit spot, which put this track at about 30 hours old. The buck traveled roughly 300 yards where Axel found him lying dead flat on his stomach. As a side note, this it probably the biggest buck I've tracked with my dogs in 6 years of tracking, and good trophy."

Congratulations to Greg and Axel!

Berkely gets introduced to hunting and tracking

Lynn Pierce from Louisiana wrote a week ago (thank you Lynn!):

Aaron is introducing Berkley to deer hunting at Gut Buster’s hunting club and resort. Berkley is not too sure about all this, but she sure is cute in that pink hunting outfit. Rosette tracked another deer and this deer is number 6 for the year. The buck is Uncle Mike Oliver’s eight point killed in the play pen food plot and the buck weighed 225#. The first shot was a 35 yard shot and he missed. Can you believe that, yes we can. Then the buck ran 45 yards from him, turned and looked back at uncle Mike (bad move on the buck’s part). He shot again and this time he hit it (a double lung shot) and the buck ran into the woods, but did not leave much of a blood trail. The track was at night and not a long track for Rosette, but an exciting one. Rosette wanted blood and hide from that buck.

Way to go Uncle Mike and Rosette.

Rosette with Uncle Mike and Berkley

Kelly Scott and his blood tracking dog Chloe from Ponchatoula, LA

Few days ago we received e-mail from a blood tracker in Louisiana. I will let him introduce himself.

Kelly Scott with Chloe, who is a half Lab and half Weimeraner

 Just wanted to write and tell yall thanks for all the GREAT info on your web site and internet. I have been a hunter all my life and just the past year have gotten into using a dog for blood trailing. I have a year and half old 1/2 Lab/ 1/2 Weimeraner. I have been working with her before the season and this is the first year tracking. She is 8 out of 12 so far; she is doing great, I am the one that needs help. I just ordered 2nd edition of your book on tracking dogs and can't wait to get it and start reading. I never thought I could love hunting for someone else's deer so much. She is a great dog and I am very proud of her as you can probably tell. I'm attaching a couple of pictures of my girl for you to see. Thanks again and hope I didn't take up two much of your time. By the way, I'm from a little town in Louisiana, Ponchatoula.
Kelly Scott

Thank you Kelly for writing. It sounds like Chloe is a really dog for tracking wounded game. Good luck and keep us posted about her progress. Let us know what you think of the book.

Rosette and her training on real blood lines

It was great to hear from Lynn and Ann Pierce from Louisiana, owners of a six-montth-old Rosette, a daughter of Joeri and Gilda.
David Domangue shot this real nice eight point with a kicker out of the “number one box” late Friday afternoon in Woodville, MS at Gut-Buster’s hunting club and resort.

David called on the VHF and asked if I could bring Rosette to track the buck because the buck ran into the woods and David wanted the buck to sit a while so it wouldn’t spook if he tracked it right away. We waited about an hour. It was dark by the time we arrived at the food plot of the “number one box”. We found some blood on the edge of the food plot and I put Rosette on it and she took off immediately and made a real nice aggressive track right to the buck. She is starting to understand the prize at the end of the track (deer blood, pulling on the skin, and some liver at the skinning rack). Everyone at the camp site pats her, holds her and rewards her. She’s loving it.

It was about a 100 yard track through thick woods with a hard left and right turn going downhill all the time to a small creek. The blood trail was good, but we had several long stretches without any blood. I am sure we would have found the buck without Rosette’s help, but it was great experience for me and Rosette.

The next day, 18 hours later I took Rosette back to the site we tracked with my son in-law Jeremy (nick name) Jeremiah Johnson, and two grandsons. I put some liver where we found the buck for her reward. We started Rosette in the food plot where we first found the blood the evening before. Rosette tracked the blood trail like the night before and with the same intensity and aggressiveness. She loves to track and I was really pleased with her track 18 hours later. Rosette really enjoyed the liver I put out for her. My two grandsons, Jac-4 and Christian-2, helped us track the blood and when they found some, they yelled “hey Big Poppa blood over here”. Even though we had passed over it I told them great job, which really gave them a feeling of helping Rosette with the track. We are all having lots of fun with Rosette. Thanks Jolanta and John for getting her started.

Thanks David for allowing us to track your buck.

Rosette (Roulette von Moosbac-Zuzelek) with David Domangue and his deer

Big Poppa (Lynn), Rosette, and the boys, Jac and Christian, resting after a long track with Rosette in the woods.We sure had fun.

This is just an extra pic to show you the young boys we had over over the thanksgiving weekend.
They had a blast and we did to. They look like some real characters and they are...

How to introduce youth to hunting and blood tracking

I love this story written by Ann and Lynn Pierce from Louisiana. I think you will enjoy it too. This is an example how youth should be introduced to hunting and blood tracking. It is a gem! A report from the first weekend of hunting was posted click here. How lucky we are that people like Lynn and Ann have one of our dogs.

We had our second weekend of youth weekends in Woodville, Mississippi and it turned out great for hunters and Rosette. The first weekend five youths killed deer and the second weekend we had three youths kill deer. Hopefully the pictures come out in the order I explain them. First of all I must admit I need to work on my picture taking and clean up some of the deer a lot better. Rain was coming so we were moving fast.

First picture is David Cheramie, with no hunting cap, grandson of the landowner, who shot a doe and it was gut shot so there was not much blood to track.  David found a small amount of blood in the five acre food plot (our biggest). I put Rosette on it and she started tracking but the blood ran out quickly and the spot light seemed to confuse her (it was her first track at night.). After she got used to the light I put her along the wood line of the food plot. David was not sure where she went in so I was hoping we would run into a blood scent where the doe ran into the woods.

Rain was coming and we had a little breeze blowing as we followed the wood line for about 50 yards, when all of a sudden Rosette turned into the woods and about 40 yards into the woods she found the doe. We were down wind of the doe and I believe she winded her because we had no real blood trail and it was a real gut buster shot.

Second picture is Paul Reding, with a hunting cap on, also grandson of the landowner, who was bowhunting for the first time. He also shot a doe in a very small food plot and lots of tough woods all around it. The shot was a good one and it went through the lung and left a very good blood trail at first. Then it would stop for several yards, and we would see a few drops of blood, and it would stop again. This went on for about three hundred yards. During the track the deer took a sharp left turn and Rosette overshot it; she corrected herself and hit the blood trail again. At that left turn there was no blood to follow so I was really happy with her when she checked herself and she found the trail again on her own. By the way Rosette had her fan club following her- seven of the youth that were hunting that weekend, the landowner, and Paul's dad. They were really impressed with how well Rosette did being only five and a half months old.

On both tracks she's nothing but business. When we dragged the deer out she was on that deer like you were stealing her deer and it's like she is running a rabbit. Can't wait to try her on rabbit hunting after the deer season.

Rosette really did great job this weekend and she is a fun dog to have around the camp and she has settled into camp life very well. Thanks again for all your help and great little dog.

Third picture is Austin Duet, relative of the landowner, that it sitting on the eight point. It was his first deer hunt and his dad was with him to witness his son's first deer, an eight point to boot. That was one happy little boy. He dropped the buck in the food plot so there was no need for Rosette.

The rest of the kids were the hunters for the weekend and little friends that jumped into the picture. We really had a great time with all of them.

Forth picture is Jake Williams, my great nephew, getting his shirt tail cut by his dad because he missed a doe. There is no mercy at Gut Buster's hunting club.

Fifth picture is Terrell Pizani, friend of landowner, getting his shirt tail cut by his grandmother with his grandfather looking on. Like I, said no mercy at the Gut Buster's hunting camp.

Have a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving.

Ann & Lynn Pierce

Two deer recovered by Axel and Greg Accardo from Louisiana

Yesterday we received e-mail from Greg Accardo describing his very busy but rewarding day of tracking.

Jola, we had a busy day. I emailed you some pics of two bucks we tracked this morning. I got a call last night at 9:30 pm about two local hunters who bow shot two bucks yesterday afternoon late. I suggested we should go out the next morning early. The first buck is a 13 pt gut shot and Axel tracked him for about 200 yds and found him still alive hiding in a briar patch, but very weak. The next buck was an 8 pt shot from the rear quartering away from the hunter with a mechanical broad head. The arrow didn't exit the deer and I don't think the broad head opened on impact. By the way, it was a Rage Broad head.

Axel, working with the Gamin Astro system, tracked this buck for about 300 yds before jumping him up and running him for another 300 yds before he layed down in a creek bottom and gave up. We had to dispatch him too. The arrow was still lodged in the body up to the fletching. Long morning and lots of ground covered and three tired men. Also, the last pics are of Axel resting his head on the back of the 8pt while he and I waited for the hunters to come back with the 4 wheeler. You can tell how exhausted he is.

Greg, great job! It looks like Axel is coming to his own. Congratulations to both of you.

Young blood tracking dachshunds at work

Last weekend John and I were at field trials in New Jersey and after we got back we had to face a high volume of phone calls and e-mails that awaited us. When we go away to field trials we usually unplug and take a break from instant communications. We pay a price for this as we have to catch up with "stuff" later. Anyway, every day brings new reports of how useful blood tracking dogs are in the field. The following reports tell stories of recovered deer by young dachshunds, all of them under two years.

First blood tracking story comes from Chris Barr from Indiana:

Sunday night Gerti and I took our 6th track of the 2010 hunting season in Indiana. I was supposed to go hunting with 2 buddies, but opted not to so that I could stay home and watch the Colts....ultimately lose.

I got the call from them at 8:00. Gerti and I arrived at the hit site at 8:30. Hunter was sure he hit the deer just behind the shoulder, but did not get a pass-through with his mechanical broad head. Before I arrived the hunters eye-tracked for 50 yards to the arrow, but could not advance it any further. I put Gerti on the hit site and after a few re-starts, she tracked right to the arrow and beyond. To that point there was maybe a tea spoon of blood dribbled on the trail. Away we went with Gerti pulling very confidently for 200 yards....but I had not seen a drop of blood since the arrow. Thinking she was not on the right deer I pulled her off and circled back to the hit site. I re-started her and she went directly to the arrow and took the same route we'd just taken. I called the hunters on the two-way radio and told them that I was just going to let her go and see where we went as she seemed very sure of herself.

This time in the same 200 yard stretch that we'd just covered, I found 2 very small drops of blood. (I'd missed them the first time through). This was the confirmation that I'd been hoping for. I called the hunters to my location and kept on going blindly following Gerti. Ten yards beyond the point where I'd pulled her off the first time, the deer opened up and started bleeding pretty well. We pushed on into some thick brush when Gerti must have nearly put her nose on the deer because it exploded from the brush and took off. At the wound bed there was gut material and the strong odor of a gut shot. Gerti went ballistic! Since the doe had let us get so close before bolting, I felt safe in pushing her hard. She went another 200 yards before making a semi-circle, going back the direction we'd just come before collapsing. With some additional drama at the end waiting for the hunters to catch up, we finally dispatched the deer, nearly 800 yards from the hit site.

Gerti (Gwen von Moosbach-Zuzelek) was born in April 2009 and she is out of FC Gilda v Moosbach-Zuzelek, sired by FC Billy von Moosbach-Zuzelek

Ultimately, the deer had been hit in the paunch, but all the blood was red, not dark or muddy. The funny thing is, we evaluated all three potential hits, shoulder, lung, gut. We’d have never jumped on the trail so quickly if the hunter had not been so sure of his shot placement. As it worked out, I’m glad we did. I have the whole track on my GPS but have not put the software on my computer yet and thus can’t share it. That’s my next move.

This was Gerti's 20th live track of her life, and without a doubt her best yet. She had no assistance (except for the prayer I said before we left). John J and everything you read, and everyone you talk to says to trust your dog, trust your dog. Until last night I just hadn't developed that "blind faith". At 18 months old, Gerti still likes to track everything and has taken me on some goose-chases. I had never had the opportunity to follow her for a considerable distance, and then finally find that tiny drop of blood that confirmed to me that Gerti was right on. From that point, I knew that all I had to do was hang on and keep up. I was truly just the dope on the rope.

I’ve never been so happy with a dog in my life. Yesterday, still on my adrenaline rush from the night before, I was taking nap on the floor when Gerti came over to me, licked me on the face and then crawled under my blanket and went to sleep. Total experience of owning a Von Moosbach Zuzelek…..PRICELESS!!

Thank you Chris for sharing the exciting story and giving Gerti good opportunities to work.

The next report comes from Greg Accardo from Louisiana. Regular readers of this blog might recall a horrific loss Greg suffered in April when his premier tracker Ariel was killed by coyotes. When Greg bred Ariel (Ariel von der Pfauenbrucke) to Tully Mars last year, she had 8 puppies, and Greg kept one male for himself. His name is Axel vom Feliciana, and he is almost a year and a half old now. Yesterday Greg wrote about this first solo find for Axel:

The hunter made a decent shot but the buck was quartering to him so the arrow exited the rear of the gut. Consequently, there was not blood at the hit site and none to be found in the direction of travel. Axel locked on to the scent where they found the arrow. At about 100 yds I started seeing lots of blood that looked like the buck was stopping and bleeding out badly. About another 30 yds we walked up on the nice 11pt buck. The young hunter thought he shot a 4 pt. Needless to say, he was very excited to have his 1st bow kill to be an 11pt.

Greg Accardo (right) and Axel found this 11-pointer for the young hunter. It was hunter's first bow kill and Axel's first solo recovery. Congratulations!

Another short report comes from Andy Pedersen from Maryland, who tracks with Ruby. Ruby will be two years old in December and she was bred by Gail Berger, and is out of Pepper Berger von Arno Yergz and our Billy. Actually this breeding was repeated recently and puppies are due in two weeks.

10/03/2010: This was Ruby's second successful track of the 2010 Season (first was 10/02 - a doe but no pics). The deer was gut-shot and we started at 0600 the next morning - Ruby took 8 minutes to cover the ~140 yd trail that had very little blood.


Andy Pedersen with Ruby who recovered this gut-shot deer.

Congratulations to all the three trackers and their young dogs! Great job!

Say a little prayer for Ariel

Update on Ariel (April 3):
Greg called this morning. He found Ariel's body. Yes, indeed she was killed by coyotes and must have died of internal injuries. He found her 500 yards from the site where he thinks the fight with coyotes had taken place. She must have gone so far on her own.

Rest in peace Ariel. We will always hold you in our hearts.

"We who choose to surround ourselves

with lives even more temporary than our

own, live within a fragile circle;

easily and often breached.

Unable to accept its awful gaps,

we would still live no other way.

We cherish memory as the only

certain immortality, never fully

understanding the necessary plan."

 Irving Townsend

---

Greg Accardo with Ariel

Those who follow this blog know by now Greg Accardo from Louisiana pretty well. His "confession" about his addiction to tracking resonated with many people, and they talked to me about it at the Deer Search dinner a couple of days ago.

Yesterday we heard from Greg when he called here with the bad news. On Monday evening Greg took his two dachshunds, a four-year-old Ariel and her son Axel, for a walk. There is a 650-acre property not far from his house, and Greg lets his dogs run there almost every day. Greg heard the dogs open, and it sounded like they were running game; and then he heard coyotes. When he started to call, Axel came back but Ariel did not. Ariel is still missing.

Say a little prayer for Ariel.

Greg (is holding Ariel) and John - picture taken at Trackfest 2007 hosted by Greg

Great tracking season for Greg Accardo and his two dachshunds

We got these GREAT pics and report from Greg Accardo who tracks wounded deer with two wirehaired dachshunds - Ariel and her son Axel. Ariel was bred by Andy Bensing and Axel vom Feliciana is out of Greg's breeding. Greg and his two dogs are having a fantastic tracking season. Congratulations Greg!

Greg wrote:

"The pic with the three bucks was taken on 1/03/10. The big buck to the left was shot on Friday, 1st of 2010. The other two bucks were shot on Saturday, 2nd. Hunters called me on the 2nd and was not able to get there until Sunday, 3rd. We tracked all 3 bucks that morning with Ariel and Axel using the Garmin Astro.




The last pic (below) with me and the dogs was taken last Sunday, the 10th of January. That was a 24 hour old track where the buck was shot in the rear of the gut with very little sign. On top of that, the ground was frozen solid due to a hard freeze the night before. But again the dogs locked down on what scent they had and went right to him about 200 yds away. This club is archery hunting only. They called me out 4 times to track 6 different deer and we found 5. So far this year we have 9 finds, 3 still alive and bayed up by the dogs, and we still have 3 weeks of deer hunting left.

An exciting recovery for Greg Accardo and his dachshunds

These two pictures show a buck recovered by Greg Accardo from Louisiana and his two wirehaired dachshunds. Greg can work his dogs off leash and uses Garmin Astro GPS to keep track of them. Congratulations Greg on this exciting recovery!

Blood tracking with a Catahoula pup in Louisiana

This nice message came from Neal from Louisiana:

John,
Thanks for writing a wonderful book. It not only helps train the dog but also the trainer. I have recommended it to everyone I know. Attached are some success pictures from last years tracking. Dixie (pure bred Catahoula) was only 1 year old then and you can see how much the hunters in the area appreciate her. We went 4 for 5 last year. Not bad for a pup.